the Netherlands
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The Dutch have always been in constant war with the sea. Most people know about the 1953 flood but there have been floods throughout the centuries with higher casualties. I specified the year in the title because today is the 597th of the St Elizabeth’s flood, but technically this is the 2nd flood with that…
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As the saying goes “all is fair in love and war” In the autumn of 1944, an almost twenty-nine-year old English soldier named Jim fell head-over-heels for nineteen-year-old Emelia Sluys. Emelia was staying with relatives on Groesbeekseweg in the city of Nijmegen,the Netherlands, because her home had been destroyed during the Battle of Arnhem. To…
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I have been doing blogs on the holocaust now for about 18 months. I did consider giving it a break for a while, not because I didn’t find the stories important but because at times my emotions were getting the better of me, and they were having an impact. However I then realised I…
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In September 1740, as unrest rose among the Chinese population in Batavia(nowadays Jakarta in Indonesia), spurred by government repression and declining sugar prices, Governor-General Adriaan Valckenier declared that any uprising would be met with deadly force. On 7 October, hundreds of ethnic Chinese, many of them sugar mill workers, killed 50 Dutch soldiers, leading Dutch troops to confiscate all weapons from the Chinese…
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++++++Text is in Dutch++++++++++ ‘Westerbork-Auschwitz, Auschwitz-Westerbork’ staat op dit metalen treinbord. De terugreis die wordt vermeld wordt door niemand gemaakt. Op 15 en 16 juli 1942 vertrekken de eerste twee treinen met ruim 2000 joden van doorgangskamp Westerbork naar het vernietigingskamp Auschwitz in Polen. De geschiedenis van kamp Westerbork is onlosmakelijk verbonden met het lot…
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Although the majority of Dutch citizens hated the German occupiers, many saw an opportunity in the situation they found themselves in. This is the story of approximately 7000 cowards who found it more favorable to pledge allegiance to an evil regime than to the country in which they were born and raised, the Nederlandsche SS…
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This is a small deviation from my usual blogs, just a bit fun trivia. The Netherlands , a small country with a population of 17.1 Million. Famous for its flowers,vegetables,artists and industry. But I betcha you did not know these were Dutch. Bobby Farrell Dancer and singer with the 70s/80s disco band Bomey M. Van…
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To most of you the names of these 2 towns will mean virtually nothing but it is where my roots are. I was born and raised in Geleen. Sittard-Geleen is a municipality in the southeastern Netherlands. It was formed in 2001 from the former municipalities Sittard, Geleen and Born. The Netherlands was a neutral country, during WWI this neutrality had not been breached,…
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Lange Jan(Long John) was the name of the 135 meter(442ft) tall chimney of the former coal mine “Oranje Nassau 1” in Heerlen in the province of Limburg in the south east of the Netherlands. It had been erected in 1937/1938 and had been dominating Heerlen’s skyline. To put it in perspective the Big Ben tower…
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Waalsdorpervlakte, in the dunes by the Dutch seaside village of Scheveningen, was one of the most notorious spots during the Second World War in the Netherlands. On this desolate sand plain more than 250 people were killed by the Germans. Most were members of the Dutch Resistance who risked their lives in the struggle against…
History of Sorts 
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