World War 2
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“When you look into the eyes of this man, you look into the eyes of a killer” is a line from Christopher Nolan’s Insomnia. The movie is not about Oskar Dirlewanger, but that line surely applies to him. Oskar Dirlewanger, born on September 26, 1895, in Würzburg, Germany, is one of the most notorious and…
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The Paralympic Games, a major international multi-sport event involving athletes with a range of disabilities, have a rich and inspiring history rooted in the aftermath of World War II. The origin of the Paralympics can be traced back to the efforts of Dr. Ludwig Guttmann, a neurologist at the Stoke Mandeville Hospital in England. Early…
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Last year, when I visited Dachau, we had an Irish guide. He was knowledgeable about Dachau, but I disagreed with him on one thing he said. To my own surprise, I didn’t give him a history lesson. I decided to let it go because my primary purpose there was to gain some understanding of Dachau.…
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In the title, I say prelude basically, the Holocaust already started in 1933. Still, the T4 program was the start of the mass killings. The T4 Euthanasia Program, also known as Aktion T4, represents one of the most chilling manifestations of Nazi ideology and is often considered a precursor to the larger horrors of the…
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During the Holocaust, several Nazi concentration camps had orchestras composed of prisoners. These orchestras were used for propaganda, forced to play during appalling situations such as executions, roll calls, and as prisoners were marched to forced labor or gas chambers. Below are some of the most notable orchestras formed in concentration camps. The Auschwitz-Birkenau Women’s…
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The photo above is the gate at Buchenwald Concentration Camp. The phrase on the gate says “Jedem Das Seine” which is the literal German translation of the Latin phrase suum cuique, meaning “to each his own” or “to each what he deserves.” Buchenwald was a concentration camp established on Ettersberg Hill near Weimar, Germany, in…
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The 1934 German head-of-state referendum, held on August 19, stands as a crucial moment in the Nazi regime’s consolidation of power. Following the death of President Paul von Hindenburg on August 2, 1934, Adolf Hitler sought to solidify his grip on Germany by merging the offices of President and Chancellor, thus assuming the title of…
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Victor Capesius was a Romanian-German pharmacist who played a significant and notorious role during World War II as an SS officer and the chief pharmacist at Auschwitz Concentration Camp. Born on February 7, 1907, in Reussmarkt, Transylvania (then part of Austria-Hungary, now Romania), Capesius studied pharmacy in Cluj-Napoca and Vienna, later working for Bayer, a…
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I often hear the argument, “Why did the Jews not simply leave Germany when Hitler got to power?” It was just not as simple as that. Many German and Austrian Jews saw themselves as German or Austrian first, and they considered themselves to be part of society. Why would they leave their homes and their…
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Two truly legendary musicians are connected by the date of August 16. Robert Johnson died on August 16, 1938. Elvis Presley died on August 19, 1977. Both men had a lasting impact on music. Robert Johnson: The Myth, the Man, and the Music Robert Johnson, often hailed as the “King of the Delta Blues,” is…
History of Sorts 