War
-
The Arbeidsinzet (labor deployment) is the term for the forced employment of the Netherlands. It is estimated that over half a million Dutch people worked in Germany (and German-occupied territories) during the war. Some went voluntarily, but most were forced against their will. The forced labor deployment of Dutch people in Germany happened in different…
-
One thing about World War II I often wondered about was the transporting of injured troops back to the United States. The photo above shows the first American casualties from the Battle of Normandy arriving in the Eastern U.S. on 29 June 1944, after a 19-hour plane trip from the British Isles. The wounded—a U.S.…
-
When I say “the Jews who fought alongside the Nazis,” it really was a case of the enemy of my enemy—is my friend, or rather they had a common enemy. The photograph above is of Finnish Jewish soldiers on leave during Rosh Hashanah in front of the synagogue in Turku, Finland, in 1943. Finland’s involvement…
-
There is a common misconception that Nazi war crimes were committed only by the SS. Still, the Wehrmacht was also responsible for numerous atrocities. The massacre at Chozum is part of a broader history of the Wehrmacht’s involvement in war crimes during the invasion of the Soviet Union, a topic long shrouded in controversy. While…
-
Every meal could have been her last. After finishing the bland vegetarian dishes placed before her, 25-year-old Margot Wölk and her young female colleagues would burst into tears, “crying like dogs,” grateful simply to still be alive. Hitler was a vegetarian. While the exact timing of his conversion to vegetarianism is unclear, it is known…
-
I only came across this story by chance. Not only were the Axis powers cruel to the people of the countries they had invaded, sometimes they were also brutal to the people of their Axis partners. I don’t know if the Germans killed great numbers of Japanese citizen, but the Japanese definitely did not hold…
-
On March 12, 1938, Nazi Germany annexed the neighboring country of Austria (Österreich). This event became known as the Anschluss. The German term Anschluss means “connection” or “joining.” By annexing Austria, Nazi Germany violated both the Treaty of Versailles and the Treaty of Saint‑Germain‑en‑Laye, which explicitly prohibited the unification of Germany and Austria. The Anschluss…
-
The photograph above is a portrait of five-year-old Mania Halef, a Jewish child murdered during the mass murder at Babi Yar. On September 29 and 30, the Germans stationed at Kyiv slaughtered 33,000 men, women, and children at Babi Yar—a two-day mass murder spree. If you take the total 48 hours, it is 172,800 seconds;…
-
To say that the Germans were the only ones responsible for the Holocaust would be a mistake. They had plenty of willing helpers in the occupied countries and outside the occupied territory. Regardless of what some governments say nowadays, that their nations had no part to play in the biggest genocide ever committed, they are…
-
When discussing stories from World War II, the role of Italy is often overlooked, despite the fact that it participated in numerous battles and suffered many defeats. I believe that if Nazi Germany had not aligned itself with Italy, the outcome of the war might have been significantly different. The Battle of Fardykambos (March 4–6,…
History of Sorts 