World War 2
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Introduction John Morrison Birch (1918–1945) occupies an unusual place in American history. A Baptist missionary turned U.S. Army intelligence officer in China during World War II, his life bridged the spheres of religion, geopolitics, and war. Though he died at just 27 years old, Birch became a symbolic figure in early Cold War discourse when…
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Juan Pujol García Double agent Juan Pujol García (codenamed “Garbo”) alongside his wife, Araceli González Carballo (BBC) Juan Pujol García was a chicken farmer who became a Spanish spy and worked as a double agent loyal to the United Kingdom against Nazi Germany during World War II, by relocating to Britain to carry out fictitious…
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The Dutch word ‘Moffen’ is a slur or derogatory term for Germans, pretty much in the same way as Krauts in the English language. Where the word ‘moffen(or mof singular)’comes from is not clear but it had been around since the 16th century. It more or less disappeared from the Dutch vocabulary for about 100…
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No matter how you twist or turn it, when you are complicit to a crime, you are just as guilty as the perpetrator, and perhaps even more guilty because you were an enabler of that crime. Hermann Stieve was Director of the Berlin Institute of Anatomy from 1935 to 1952, which was from the early…
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Forgotten History-The Hardaga & the Kabiljo families:Holocaust and Bosnian Muslim Genocide survivors
(originally posted in April 2016) There really isn’t such a thing as a happy Holocaust story but I think this is probably could be seen as a ‘happy’ story. It doesn’t only portray extreme bravery but also that deep down, good people are the same, regardless of what religious differences they have. Especially in the…
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The Freckleton air disaster remains one of the most devastating aviation tragedies of the Second World War—not because it was the result of enemy action, but because a catastrophic accident brought the dangers of wartime aviation directly into the heart of a peaceful Lancashire village. On Wednesday, 23 August 1944, an American B-24 Liberator bomber…
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On 15 November 1943, Himmler ordered that Romani and “part-Romanies” were to be put “on the same level as Jews and placed in concentration camps.” Between 1933 and 1945, Roma and Sinti in Europe were targets of Nazi persecution. The Nazi regime, building on long-held prejudices, viewed Roma as “a-socials” (outside “normal” society) and as…
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After setting up this blog a few years ago, I am amazed that I still come across stories of heroes I had never heard of before. Ernst Sillim was born in 1923, the first of five children. Shortly before that, his father, Albert, a stockbroker, and his mother, Annie, moved from Amsterdam to a house…
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Churchill’s speech commonly known as “The Few” was delivered in the House of Commons on 20 August 1940, during the Battle of Britain. It is formally associated with his speech on “The First Year of the War.” The famous line about “the Few” referred principally to the RAF fighter pilots, although Churchill also deliberately paid…
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Suicide: A Difficult but Important Topic in the Context of the Holocaust Suicide can be a controversial topic, but in the context of the Holocaust, I believe it’s an important subject to address. I’ve said before that I don’t believe the often-cited number of six million Jews murdered in the Holocaust is entirely accurate. I…
History of Sorts 