world-war-ii
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A picture tells a thousand words but never tells the full story. Following are the words of some of those who survived the worst crime ever committed, the Holocaust. Toby Biber“This one morning, orders – ‘get out, get out’ – and whatever. By then we only had a few bits belongings – you, we grabbed…
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The address of Bloemenmarkt 7 won’t mean much to most of you, and it probably doesn’t mean that much to some of the people in Geleen. It was the address of a butcher shop and apartment in a square in the suburbs of Lindenheuvel in Geleen, the Netherlands. Today it is the home of a…
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Although the Red Cross does important work, it often got it wrong in the past, and arguably in the present, when it’s about political positions. They appear to take one side—usually the side that controls the data. One infamous example is the visit by the International Red Cross to Theresienstadt Concentration Camp in 1944. The…
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Heinz (Heinrich) Hitler, born on March 14, 1920, was Adolf Hitler’s nephew. His father, Alois Hitler Jr., was Adolf’s half-brother, making Heinz a direct relative of the infamous dictator. Unlike other members of the Hitler family who either distanced themselves or did not support Adolf Hitler’s regime, Heinz embraced his uncle’s ideology. Heinz joined the…
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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…
History of Sorts 