World War 2
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Like in Germany proper and other Nazi-occupied countries, the Holocaust wasn’t a sudden process but a gradual one. On September 1, 1941, the Nazis introduced several measures against the Dutch Jews. On that day, the Nazis announced that from that moment on, Jewish students and teachers were no longer welcome at ordinary schools. They had…
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Sweet angel Rudolf, you would have had 85 candles on your birthday cake today. How I wish I could have helped you blow them out. That would have been 85 candles—one for each year of your life. You weren’t given the opportunity to see five candles on your cake all those years ago. Rudolf de…
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I have mixed feelings about the story of Marcel Pinte. I didn’t think that any child, especially a child as young as six, should ever be used in a war situation. However, I have also never lived in a wartime situation. Marcel was born on 12 April 1938 in Valenciennes, France. He was the youngest…
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You might think this is an odd subject in the narrative of World War II, perhaps it is. However, I was reminded of a former colleague who nearly died because he had an abscess in one of his teeth which he ignored. It had been neglected for several months, it eventually resulted in infections all…
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I will not pass judgment about the event which involved the Boeing B-29 Superfortress, Enola Gay. Nothing would be easier than to judge in hindsight. I try to stick to the facts as much as possible. These facts actually started in 1937. What is often ignored in the whole debate of the dropping of the…
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During World War II, many medical advances were made. Surgery techniques such as removing dead tissue resulted in fewer amputations than at any time. The treatment of bacterial infections with penicillin or streptomycin was administered for the first time in large-scale combat. In the beginning, plasma was available as a substitute for blood. By 1945,…
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Levie Peper was a son of Abraham Peper and Margaretha Rood. He was born in Amsterdam on 24 June 1874, and he earned his money as a hawker. On 30 March 1905, he married Johanna (Naatje) Vos in Amsterdam, who was born there on 22 April 1871 to her parents Joseph Vos and Marianna Aron…
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These are testimonies of two men, one a low-ranking SS Infantry soldier, the other a member of the Hlinka Guard. The most disturbing aspect of the testimonies is not the description of the crimes committed, but the casual way of describing them. Hans Friedrich was a member of the 1st Infantry Brigade. He claimed not…
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This post will contain some thoughts and testimonies of people who lived through the Holocaust, journalists and politicians of the time. Starting with a speech from Winston Churchill. Winston Churchill on Hitler declared Führer (1934)“After all my friends, only a few hours away by air there dwells a nation of nearly 70 million of the…
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(Updated May 13, 2024) I have written about Settela before. She was also known as Anna Maria Steinbach. One of the reasons I want to highlight the sad story of Settela is because there is a chance she may be related to me, be it via marriage or one of my cousins. Yet, there is…
History of Sorts 