War
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The “German Instrument of Surrender” actually refers to two documents. The first was signed in Reims, France, on May 7, 1945, and the second—a more formal “definitive” version—was signed in Berlin on May 8, 1945, to satisfy the Soviet Union’s demand for a ceremony in the captured German capital. Below is the text of the…
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Before you read this blog, have a close look at the above picture. It is a picture of an SS soldier, and you have probably seen many pictures like it, but there is something special about this one.On the sleeve on the left arm, at the left bottom, you can see part of a flag,…
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(Originally posted on 1 May 2016) On 1 May 1945, hundreds of people committed mass suicide in the town of Demmin, in the Province of Pomerania (now in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern), Germany. The suicides occurred during a mass panic provoked by atrocities committed by soldiers of the Soviet Red Army, who had sacked the town the day…
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During the winter of 1944/45 approximately 20,000 citizens died in the so-called Hunger Winter, the Dutch famine. A German blockade cut off food and fuel shipments from farm towns. Some 4.5 million were affected and survived thanks to soup kitchens. As the war was wrapping up in April of 1945, in an effort to alleviate…
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Elbe Day, observed on April 25, commemorates a pivotal moment near the close of World War II in Europe when American and Soviet forces met along the Elbe River in Germany in 1945. This encounter represented far more than a tactical milestone; it symbolized the collapse of Nazi Germany and the temporary unity of two…
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Opinions polls are a useful toll to check the sentiments in the country, an indication of what people think. In the recent past some polls got it spectacularly wrong. But the key to a good opinion poll is how the question is worded. On April 28 1941 Gallup released the results of a poll,which they…
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The Stresa Front was a short-lived diplomatic alignment in 1935 between the United Kingdom, France, and Italy, formed in response to the growing threat posed by Nazi Germany under Adolf Hitler. Named after the Italian town of Stresa, where representatives met in April 1935, the agreement aimed to preserve the post-World War I European order…
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(Originally published 29 April 2022) The title of this blog does not refer to the verse in the bible in the book of Exodus chapter 16 verse 15, “And when the children of Israel saw it, they said one to another, It is manna: for they wist not what it was. And Moses said unto…
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On this day in 1949 the idea of NATO was conceived . North Atlantic Treaty Organization or in French ,OTAN, Organisation du traité de l’Atlantique nord. The foundations were laid down on 4 April 1949 with the signing of the North Atlantic Treaty, more popularly known as the Washington Treaty. On 4 April 1949, the…
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While the Nazis are rightly remembered for the horrific crimes they committed before and during World War II, the Soviet Union also carried out its own brutal acts. From 23 August 1939 to 22 June 1941, the two regimes were bound by the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact, effectively making them partners. After signing the Ribbentrop-Molotov Pact in…
History of Sorts 