travel

  • Erected in the dead of night on August 13, 1961, the Berlin Wall (known as Berliner Mauer in German) was a physical division between West Berlin and East Germany. Its purpose was to keep disaffected East Germans from fleeing to the West. When the Berlin Wall fell on November 9, 1989, its destruction was nearly…

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  • I have often wondered If World War I was nothing else then a family feud gone out of control. If you look at all the royal families in Europe and even outside of Europe, they are mostly all related  in one way or another. There is nothing more clearer indicating this then a picture which…

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  • Madurodam, nestled in The Hague, Netherlands, is a miniature city that captures the essence of Dutch heritage and ingenuity. Spanning just a few hectares, it offers visitors a bird’s-eye view of the Netherlands, featuring intricate replicas of iconic landmarks, modern cities, and traditional villages. Opened in 1952, Madurodam is not only a delightful attraction for…

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  • Imagining Anne Frank writing Instagram or Facebook posts can be a powerful way to reflect on her experiences and words in a contemporary format. These posts would still carry the weight of her thoughts during her time in hiding but adapted to a modern-day audience and platform. As I stated in the title, it is…

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  • Overlord at 81-D-Day

    On Normandy’s shores ‘neath dawn’s pale light,Brave souls stormed forth to end the night.Steel met sand in thunder’s cry,While hopes and fears rode sea and sky. The tide of war began to turn,As freedom’s fire began to burn.Through blood and grit, the path was paved—By those who fought, the world was saved. Into the Jaws…

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  • Porajmos: The Roma Holocaust

    “I witnessed the most terrible thing, something which no-one else knows about in this country because no-one else is alive to remember it. One day, the Auschwitz guards brought in between 400 and 600 Roma from Germany. Many of the men were former German soldiers who had fought in Poland during the First World War.…

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  • Auschwitz is synonymous with terror, cruelty, and the Holocaust’s unimaginable suffering. The vast concentration and extermination camp complex built by Nazi Germany in occupied Poland has become a symbol of the industrial scale of mass murder. However, within this broader landscape of death, an often overlooked chapter of exploitation lies in the form of the…

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  • Every once in a while I do a slightly different blog, just to distract from all the WW2 horrors and to maintain a level of sanity. What better to talk about beauty to distract. Topless sunbathing, the practice of sunbathing without covering the breasts, has a history that spans cultures and centuries. While it might…

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  • Something I had not been aware of, but of course, it makes sense that the Nazis also used trams to transport the Dutch Jews to the concentration camps in the Netherlands. The GVB is the company that runs the trams in Amsterdam and has had that name since 1943. A new film and book titled Verdwenen…

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