Westerbork

  • Before I go into the main story, I just want to point out the most disturbing aspect of the picture above. At the very front is a lady carrying a baby. We know now what her fate would have been. It is a disturbing sight on an old photograph, so just imagine how disturbing this

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  • A marriage disrupted

    Eighty-three years ago today, Edie (Elias) van Biene and Sara (Sonja) Rood were married in The Hague. Just a few days ago, I celebrated my own 30th wedding anniversary. It was a hot day, and I still vividly remember our first dance, the kiss, and our first night of passionate love as a married couple—each

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  • European Hate

    When you look at the picture you might think that it is an innocent portrayal , of a street somewhere in the Netherlands. A typical Dutch scene. Someone cycling, two bikes parked against a sign. What could be hateful here? It is actually the sign itself that has a message of hate. It says “Jews

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  • The one thing I can’t come to terms with, and even refuse to come to terms with, is the murder of babies during the Holocaust. I know one of the reasons behind it was the purification of the Aryan race. But, how pure are you as a race when you murder babies? Another reason was

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  • A picture tells a thousand words, and in this case, they truly do. The drawings and cartoons are made by Emile Franken. I am not sure what happened to Emile. I do know he was born on 15 April 1921 somewhere in the Netherlands and he survived the war. I also know he spent time

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  • Concentration camp Vught, also known as concentration camp Herzogenbusch , was the only purpose built concentration camp in the Netherland. The other 2 major camps, Westerbork and Amersfoort, were already built before the war as a refugee center and army barracks. The construction of Camp Vught began in May 1942. The camp consisted of 36

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  • Football in the Netherlands did not come to a complete halt during World War II, despite the Nazi occupation and the hardships of wartime. Instead, it became both a form of escape and subtle resistance for many Dutch people. When the Germans invaded in May 1940, football matches continued under occupation. The Dutch football association

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  • The “Westerbork Film” refers to a film shot by Rudolf Breslauer at the Westerbork transit camp during World War II. This film is a significant historical document because it provides a rare visual record of life in a Nazi transit camp. The film was commissioned by Albert Gemmeker, the Westerbork Camp Commandant in 1944. He

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  • Behind every yellow star was a human being with hopes, fears, and a life—just like you and me. This blog will contain images of human beings. These are all photographs of Dutch Jews, or of other European Jews who had managed to escape the Nazi regime—though only briefly. I don’t know the fate of each

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  • From Zero to 102

    I was reluctant to use the title, From Zero to 102 as the title, I didn’t want it to look like a review for a car. However, I couldn’t think of a more suitable title either. The 0 and the 102 are the ages of two victims of the Holocaust. This is how evil the

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