the Netherlands

  • There are so many stories and accounts written about the Holocaust. Often in horrific detail and concerning large numbers. When you look at the numbers, be it 6 million Jews and another 5 million or so  of Roma, Homosexuals, Disabled and other groups, the numbers are staggering. However they are also nearly impossible to fathom…

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  • The story of the two Tulp brothers is bizarre and yet intriguing in more way than one. They were half brothers, the older brother took the path of evil although he was a police officer, Where the younger one risked his life by resisting the evil his brother was part of. Sybren Tulp was born…

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  • The title of this blog is an address. It will mean very little to most people. It is not the address of someone famous or some well known shop or even museum. It is basically a very insignificant address in the greater scheme of things. But in a microcosm it has such great relevance and…

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  • The child is no more

    The biblical verse Genesis 37-30 has several translation from “the boy is not there” to “And he returned unto his brethren, and said, The child is not; and I, whither shall I go?” But for te title of this blog I used the literal translation of the version of the text which can be found…

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  • This blog contains 2 pictures of 2 baby boys both aged 10 months. With these pictures I will be attempting to explain the Holocaust in a way that most anyone can understand it. Having that said no one will really ever understand how it was possible to massacre so many innocent lives on such an…

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  • I had not heard of Tina Strobos before although I have read so much about WWII and the Holocaust, but for some reason her name escaped me. She was born Tineke Buchter. She was a  was a Dutch physician and psychiatrist from Amsterdam and during WWII she was involved in the Dutch resistance.Together with her…

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  • The Dutch Pope

    When you think of Popes you wouldn’t think that a small country like the Netherlands ever would produce a Pope. But yet it did. Born as Adriaan Florensz Boeyens in Utrecht on March 2 1459. He would become thr  head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 9 January 1522 until his…

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  • On February 22nd, 1944 the people of the Dutch  town of Nijmegen were subjected to an attack which killed more than 750 civilians. One would assume that this awful attack was carried out by the German occupiers , but that was not the case. The attack was carried out by B-24 bombers of the 446th…

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  • This is slight deviation from my usual heavier history blogs. Every once in a while something lighthearted is needed. The Netherlands, a small country in the Northwest of Europe. Known for great painters and footballers and for Tulips and windmills and a lot of other things. It is however not so much known for its…

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  • First of all, let me tell you I am Dutch, and I am proud to be Dutch. I love the country where I was born and where I grew up. But I am not proud of some of its black pages in history. I can understand why some Dutch bureaucrats and civil servants colluded with…

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