world-war-ii
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On April 15, 1945, British forces, including units of the British Second Army and the 11th Armoured Division, entered Bergen-Belsen and liberated the remaining prisoners. The sight that greeted the liberators was horrifying. They found tens of thousands of emaciated and diseased prisoners, along with thousands of unburied corpses strewn throughout the camp. The liberation…
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The story of C&A during the Nazi regime is a microcosm of the broader interaction between businesses and totalitarian states. Founded in 1841 by Clemens and August Brenninkmeijer in the Netherlands, C&A grew to become a major player in the European clothing retail industry by the early 20th century. The rise of the Nazi regime…
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Dachau Concentration Camp was the first of the Nazi concentration camps established in Germany. It opened in 1933, shortly after Adolf Hitler became Chancellor, and it operated until its liberation by American troops in 1945. Situated just north of Munich, Dachau served as a model for other concentration camps that followed. Initially, Dachau held political…
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I was reluctant to use the title, From Zero to 102 as the title, I didn’t want it to look like a review for a car. However, I couldn’t think of a more suitable title either. The 0 and the 102 are the ages of two victims of the Holocaust. This is how evil the…
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Operation Source, executed on September 22, 1943, was one of the most daring and innovative operations conducted by the British Royal Navy during World War II. The objective of the operation was to neutralize the German battleship Tirpitz, one of the most significant threats to Allied naval operations in the North Atlantic and Arctic waters.…
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The photograph above is of Celestinus Steinbach. He was born in Heerlen, the Netherlands, on February 13, 1929. The SS murdered him at Auschwitz-Birkenau on September 27, 1944. He was 15 years old. He posed for the photo when he was seven years old. Celestinus, aka Willy, was a member of the Steinbach family, a…
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In Auschwitz fields where shadows lay,Beneath a sky once soft and gray,The burning pits, an open grave,Consuming all the souls they gave. The earth, a pyre of endless pain,Where ash fell down like bitter rain.The flames roared in hell’s desire,And teardrops trembled on the fire. The faces lost, the names erased,Humanity’s heart is cruelly displaced.The…
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There is a common misconception that Nazi war crimes were committed only by the SS. Still, the Wehrmacht was also responsible for numerous atrocities. The massacre at Chozum is part of a broader history of the Wehrmacht’s involvement in war crimes during the invasion of the Soviet Union, a topic long shrouded in controversy. While…
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Hermann Fegelein’s execution took place on April 28, 1945, during the final days of World War II and the collapse of the Nazi regime. Fegelein, a high-ranking SS officer and member of Adolf Hitler’s inner circle had fallen out of favor with Hitler due to his perceived desertion and betrayal. Fegelein was arrested by the…
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It is important how you report on history. No one expects things to be always 100% accurate, but facts that can easily be verified should always be correct. In the case of Hanns Albin Rauter, I have seen him described as the Dutch head of Police during World War II, this is not true, he…
History of Sorts 