World War 2
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The Flensburg Government refers to a short-lived, provisional government of Nazi Germany that existed in the final days of World War II, from May 2 to May 23, 1945. Named after the town of Flensburg in northern Germany, near the Danish border, where it was headquartered, this government represented the last vestiges of the Third…
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The Sant’Anna di Stazzema massacre remains one of the most egregious and devastating war crimes committed against civilians on Italian soil during the Second World War. On the morning of August 12, 1944, the small mountain village of Sant’Anna di Stazzema, nestled in the Tuscan Apennines, became the scene of a systematic slaughter. Over the…
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The immediate aftermath of the Second World War in Europe is frequently conceptualized as a period of liberation and profound relief. However, for the small minority of Jewish survivors who attempted to rebuild their lives in Poland, the cessation of hostilities did not guarantee safety. On August 11, 1945, the city of Kraków became the…
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In the late 1930s, many German Jews tried to flee persecution in Nazi Germany. The Netherlands allowed a few to enter their borders. Jews in the Netherlands were committed to helping these refugees cross the border and arranged shelter. One of them was the Karel Nihom from Winterswijk. Not only did Karel help Jewish refugees,…
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It is strange how things can turn sometimes. I was going to do some research on Eva Braun. When I typed in the name, another name first came up, The name of Eva Brandon. When I looked into her details, I discovered that Eva Brandon was born in Amsterdam, on 26 July 1929. She was…
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I know it is easy to call people like Rudolf Höss and others who worked in Auschwitz monsters, and to en extent I can understand that, I have done so in the past. However when you call them monsters you take the risk of given them an excuse for their acts, because we only expect…
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I am always amazed by the fact that there are still people who desperately want to deny the Holocaust. Although there is so much evident and a lot of it very graphic, they still say it never happened and that the photographic evidence are staged pictures, produced by the allies. The one thing they do…
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There are no photographs of the two babies—just death certificates. Elisabeth Jeanne Petzal was born with her twin brother Robert Harry on 10 August 1943 in Camp Westerbork. They were children of Werner Petzal and Fanny Betsy Oppenheim. Both were murdered in Auschwitz on 18 October 1944. They were just a year old when they…
History of Sorts 