the Netherlands
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This house was an orphanage for Jewish girls from 1861 to 1943.In 1889 the orphanage was extended to include the neighbouring house.On 10 February 1943, the girls and their attendants weredeported to the extermination camp Sobibor. They were supposed to have been deported before, but due to a scarlet fever outbreak on 4 July 1942,…
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Maastricht is one of the most beautiful cities in the Netherlands. It’s in the southeast of the country in the Province of Limburg. It is very dear to me. I was born only a few miles away from it, but it is the city where my father was born. A few years after the war,…
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Bernard Henri Piller was born in Maastricht on 8 February 1932 and murdered by the Nazis in Auschwitz on 23 September 1943. He reached the age of 11 years. Henri Samuel Piller was also born in Maastricht on 15 April 1935. The nazis murdered him at Auschwitz on 23 September 1943 at the tender age…
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The one thing I can’t come to terms with, and even refuse to come to terms with, is the murder of babies during the Holocaust. I know one of the reasons behind it was the purification of the Aryan race. But, how pure are you as a race when you murder babies? Another reason was…
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It always amazes me how easy it was for some Europeans to give up their Jewish neighbours. I know it’s easy for me to say that in retrospect, because I don’t know how I would have reacted if put in that situation. But I have a feeling I would have spoken out about it the…
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Although I have not lived there since 1997, I still call the place where I was born home. Geleen is a town in the Province of Limburg, in the south east of the Netherlands. A former mining town and since 2001 it has been part of the bigger municipality of Sittard-Geleen. It fused with the…
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Education is often seen as a human right and it really should be, but so often it is a privilege taken away from many. Moshe Flinker was a teenager born in the Hague, in the Netherlands on October 9, 1926. He had a particular talent for language,he studied eight languages including Hebrew. The language he…
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Karl Berg was originally the third man in the chain of command at Camp Amersfoort and in 1943 he was appointed camp commandant. He had a reputation for being cruel and merciless. Berg was responsible for the deaths of hundreds of prisoners. A group of 101 Russian prisoners who had arrived at the camp in…
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On 9th July 1942, nine members of the resistance group De Oranjewacht, [The Orange Guard], (Orange is the national colour of the Netherlands and the name of the Royal family) were shot in the Fort near Rijnauwen, Utrecht, the Netherlands. Two trials were conducted against the resistance group, and nine members were sentenced to death.…
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I don’t want to tell your story, but I have to. It is my duty as a father and as a human being to ensure that no child will ever get treated, they way you were. My heart breaks each time when I see a photograph of innocence—knowing the war destroyed that innocence. What makes…
History of Sorts 