World War 2
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Adolf Eichmann was executed on midnight 31 May 1962, in Tel Aviv. He was one of the main architects of the Holocaust. Dr Martin Földi was one of the witnesses during the trial. There are a few lines in his testimony that describe the horrors of the Holocaust, from the perspective of a parent, better…
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As World War II drew to a close in the spring of 1945, the Axis powers were in full retreat, and the Allied forces had made significant advances across Europe. Yet, even in the final days of the conflict, the Atlantic and surrounding waters remained dangerous for Allied shipping. One of the last naval actions…
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The average book contains around 110,000 words. It’s estimated that approximately 11 million people were killed during the Holocaust. If each victim’s name were listed—just their names, without any stories or details—it would take about 100 books to include them all. But most victims had three names: a first, middle, and last. That triples the…
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Theodoor van Gogh Although Theodoor van Gogh was not an artist himself, he was the great-nephew of one of the most renowned painters in history—Vincent van Gogh. Theodoor, known as Theo, was born in Amsterdam and was the uncle of filmmaker, columnist, and public intellectual Theo van Gogh, who was murdered in 2004. In 1941,…
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On April 29, 1942, the Nazis announced a new humiliation for Jewish Dutch citizens. Starting on May 3, they were required to wear an identifying mark: a six-pointed yellow Star of David with the word “Jew” in the center. This star made it possible to recognize Jews in public. The German occupiers intended this to…
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s Allied forces closed in on Germany in early 1945, the SS began evacuating inmates from camps like Dachau in a series of forced marches, hoping to hide evidence of atrocities and prevent liberation by the Allies. Prisoners, already debilitated by starvation and disease, were forced to march dozens of miles in the brutal cold…
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(Update from the November 2016 blog) One aspect of history I find particularly difficult to grasp is the collaboration of some Jews with the Nazis. On the one hand, I understand that self-preservation is a powerful human instinct—survival at any cost can drive people to make unimaginable choices. Yet, conversely, it’s hard to reconcile how…
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The marriage of Adolf Hitler and Eva Braun is one of the most infamous and enigmatic unions in modern history, not for the grandeur of the ceremony or the love story behind it, but because of its context: it took place during the final hours of the Third Reich, deep within the Führerbunker in Berlin,…
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They grew not in gardens,nor fields brushed by spring,but in the hush between heartbeats,where grief has taken wing. Each one, a tender blossom —a smile just barely sown,a laugh that caught the morning,a dream not fully grown. They plucked them from the sunlight,before they knew the rain,before they tasted birthdays,or danced away the pain. Petals…
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I had a great interview with Kevin Harrison, a budding author, about his book- Churchill’s ACES – Sealion Returns-. We discussed how difficult it is for new authors to get a book published nowadays, but also of course about his book and the inspiration behind it. Operation Sealion was the plan by Nazi Germany to…
History of Sorts 