World War 2

  • Een Gele Ster.

    Ik draag een gele ster. Waarom? Kenden zij mij dan van te voren niet? De kinderen bij mij in de buurt hebben geen gele ster. Ben ik anders? En als dat zo is, hoe ben ik dan anders? Ik adem de zelfde lucht, ik lees dezelfde boeken en speel met hetzelfde speelgoed. Ik zie hetzelfde…

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  • A single rail track.

    I took the picture above this morning at about 11:00 am . It is a rail track just around the corner of my home. When I looked at that rail track this morning several thoughts came to mind. Firstly I thought how the railways made such a big change in the lives of ordinary citizens.…

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  • Five short lines determined the lives or rather the end of lives of up to 300,000 innocent people. “Reichsleiter  Bouhler and Dr. med.  Brandt are hereby instructed and authorized to broaden the powers of designated physicians to the extent that persons who are suffering from diseases which may be deemed incurable according to standards of…

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  • Music is one of my biggest passions, it has helped mte through many tragedies in my life and it still plays a very important part in my life. Something that worries me is when music is used for political reasons or when musicians make political statements. They are of course entitled to have political views…

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  • Left without a Father

    The US armed service often get bad press and maybe sometimes that’s warranted. but what is often forgotten nowadays and especially in Europe, we owe these brave men and women a great deal. As a Dutch man I am so aware of the liberty that was bestowed upon me by the sacrifice of so many…

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  • Who hasn’t seen Police Academy or any of the sequels? I reckon mots people have. But one of the actors in the movie had such an interesting life that his story would warrant a movie and would probably become a box office success. George Gaynes who played the clueless Commandant Lassard was born George Jongejans…

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  • Your smiley face makes me cry. It makes me cry because I know you were born on June 13,1942 in The Hague , the Netherlands and you were killed June 11,1943 in Sobibor. You were not even given the opportunity to blow one candle on your first birthday cake. I cry but I no longer…

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  • Today is World Animal Day and what better day to pick to remember some of the forgotten Heroes of WWII. The animals that often played a very important role. Pfc. Rez P. Hester of the Marine Corps Seventh War Dog Platoon on Iwo Jima takes a nap while Butch stands guard. February 1945.(courtesy National Archives)…

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  • I wish I could write about how Rachel de Groot survived the war and grew up to fulfill her potential, But I can’t, in fact I can’t even say that much about her. Not because there is not much known about her, because there is. The reason why I can’t say too much about Rachel…

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  • Today marks the 74th anniversary of the sentencing at the main Nuremberg trials.The sentencing took  two days, with the individual sentences read out on the afternoon of 1 October. The Nuremberg trials were never really meant to serve justice. In one way I can understand it but on the other hand looking at the sentences…

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