the Netherlands
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There were three groups of people in the Holocaust: The criminals who tortured and murdered; The victims murdered; and those who survived and were scarred for life—mentally and physically. The helpers were the people who helped the Jews and others to escape and survive. These are just examples of each group. The Criminal Hildegard Lachert
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Margard (Marga) Kaufmann, born in Gronau, Germany 10 November 1928. Murdered in Auschwitz on 3 September 1943, reached the age of 14 years. Marga’s parents were married in 1923 in Gronau, where her mother, Adele, had taken over her grandmother’s grocery store in 1918. Marga never knew her grandparents, Zilversmit. Her mother had four brothers,
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Despite the dire circumstances she was living through, Anne Frank did not give up hope. It should be a lesson for all of us. The following are some (of her) words of hope—she was wise beyond her years. “How wonderful it is that nobody need wait a single moment before starting to improve the world.”
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One aspect of the Holocaust which is often forgotten is the other damage caused. What I am referring to is the fatalities caused by a lack of qualified medical staff. I am not sure if there is any data on that, but it stands to reason that aside of the 6 million or more Jews
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My last name is a bit of a mystery. A distant cousin started a family tree several years ago and at some stage he got stuck, because our family name seems to have appeared out of nowhere. He could trace it back to somewhere in the late 19th century. There are plenty of Klein’s but
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Before diving into the story, let me first give a brief explanation of who Sinterklaas is for those who may want to become more familiar with him. Sinterklaas is a traditional holiday figure celebrated primarily in the Netherlands, Belgium, and parts of Germany. The festival, which has roots in both Christian and pre-Christian traditions, takes
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Less than a month after the German occupation of the Netherlands in May 1940, measures were introduced to regulate pigeon keeping. By June, the so-called “Pigeon Brigade” was established as part of the Amsterdam police force. The only surviving records of this regulation date back to 1943, detailing daily reports of free-flying pigeons being spotted.
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Some might think the title, Escape to Suriname—A Holocaust Christmas Story, is a bit contradictory. Dutch Jews were fully integrated into Dutch culture, and many would have participated in the Sinterklaas and Christmas celebrations. This story is about more than that, and one I was not familiar with. On Christmas Eve 1942, more than a hundred,
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On December 2, 1975, 7 South Moluccan terrorists hijacked a train with about 50 passengers on board in open countryside near the village of Wijster, halfway between Hoogeveen and Beilen in the northern part of the Netherlands. The hijacking lasted for 12 days and 3 hostages, including the driver were killed. The terrorists were seeking
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I was going to do a piece on the often-forgotten victims of the Holocaust, those who did want to be captured alive and decided to take their own lives. But when I looked at the list of suicides of Jews in the Netherlands during World War II, I discovered there were hundreds. Many decided to
History of Sorts 