World War 2
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On the night of November 9–10, 1938, a wave of orchestrated violence swept across Germany and Austria. Jewish homes, businesses, and synagogues were burned and looted; families were beaten and humiliated; and tens of thousands were sent to concentration camps. The shattered glass that littered the streets the next morning gave the pogrom its haunting…
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How do you cope when you find out that your father was one of the most evil men in history, and worse, your Godfather was the most evil man known to humanity? Martin Adolf Bormann (14 April 1930 in Grünwald—11 March 2013 (aged 82) in Herdecke) was a German theologian and laicized Roman Catholic priest. He…
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Margraten, the Netherlands American Cemetery and Memorial, is the only American military cemetery in the Netherlands. The US 30th Infantry Division liberated this site on 13 September 1944, and 8301 American military are buried here. The cemetery site has a rich historical background, lying near the famous Cologne-Boulogne highway built by the Romans and used…
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Roger Godfrin is the only survivor of a massacre during which Nazi troops locked 643 citizens (including 500 women and children) inside a church and set fire to it on 10 June 1944 in Oradour sur Glane, France. About 20 people decided to make themselves scarce when the 2nd SS Panzer Division Das Reich arrived.…
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One of the reasons why so many died during the holocaust is because ‘good’ people, decided to look the other way. The Red Cross knew what was happening and decided to do very little. I know some people will say”It was war time, what could they do?” And I understand that question and appreciate the…
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Gilbert Bradley was a British man who became known through his poignant love letters from World War II. Drafted into the army in 1939, he met and fell in love with Gordon Bowsher, a wealthy man who worked for his father’s shipping business. Their relationship flourished in secrecy, as homosexuality was illegal in Britain at…
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They weren’t numbers, they all had names—Children with dreams and lovers with flames,Mothers with lullabies soft on their lips,Fathers with hands roughened by gripsOn shovels, on hammers, on books worn with age,Each is bound to the world, each written on a page. They weren’t numbers; they all had lives,Some barely begun, some hardened by strife,Eyes…
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It is difficult to determine which crimes committed during the Holocaust were the most horrific, but the Action T4 program and Action 14f13 stand out as particularly chilling. While not necessarily more appalling than other atrocities of that dark period, these programs are especially alarming because elements of their ideology and methods appear to be…
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Behind the star, a name, a face,A heart that beats in a hidden space,A soul that dreams, that laughs, that cries,But now wears pain in a thin disguise. The yellow cloth, a brand of shame,Imposed on lives who bear no blame.Once free to wander, speak, and stand,Now bound by hate’s unjust command. A thread of…
