Salo Muller is a Dutch physiotherapist, author, and Holocaust survivor known for his efforts in seeking justice and compensation for Holocaust victims. He was born on February 29, 1936, in Amsterdam, Netherlands.
Salo Muller’s early life was profoundly affected by the Holocaust. His parents, who were Jewish, were deported and murdered in Auschwitz when he was five years old. Salo himself was hidden by the Dutch Resistance and managed to survive the war, but he was left an orphan.
After the war, his aunt and uncle, who survived, took Salo back under their wings. He moved from the north of The Netherlands back to Amsterdam when he was nine years old. After struggling to adapt and catch up on the school years he missed, he managed to finish high school and started as an intern physiotherapist at AFC Ajax in 1957 while following a course to master this new field.
He served as their physiotherapist for many years and was a beloved figure in Dutch sports. He looked after Ajax’s big stars like Johan Cruijff.
Later in his life, Muller became an outspoken advocate for Holocaust survivors. He focused on seeking reparations for the victims and their families, in particular, targeting the Dutch state railway company, Nederlandse Spoorwegen (NS). The NS had transported Jews to Nazi concentration camps throughout World War II.
In 2018, after years of persistent campaigning, Muller’s efforts led to a significant breakthrough. The NS agreed to compensate Holocaust survivors and their families for their role in transporting Jews to concentration camps during the Nazi occupation of the Netherlands. This decision marked a significant moment in the recognition of the injustices faced by Jewish citizens during the war and the role played by national institutions.
He decided to act when he heard that the French government had agreed to a $60m compensation fund with the US to be distributed among thousands of survivors and their relatives.
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This blog will not contain a lot of text, mainly photographs and art of soldiers who served during World War II, and will contain short descriptions. The photograph above was discovered by Levi Bettwieser, a passionate collector of old film rolls who was lucky enough to stumble upon 31 undeveloped rolls of film full of shots taken by a single unknown World War II soldier. What I noticed straight away was the Coca-Cola van. Coca-Cola fought the war on two fronts: Cola for the Allied troops and Fanta for the Wehrmacht.
The following three sketches were drawn by Victor Alfred Lundy, an American architect who was born on February 1, 1923. He drew his experiences from training at Fort Jackson in May 1944 to his journey across the Atlantic and then his time in France. In total, he produced a visual diary with 158 pencil sketches that bring to life the wartime experience. Lundy is still alive; he celebrated his 101st birthday on February 1st.
Four sailors from the U.S. Navy with the letters to spell H.E.L.L. shaved on their heads.
The photo below was taken during the liberation of Mantes on August 19, 1944, at the end of the morning. The German soldier was a motorcyclist who was wounded at 11 am and was recovered by an American patrol that crossed the Seine with the aid of a boat. The US officer who gives the casualty a drink is Lieutenant Stockbridge Bacchus (A company of the 314th Inf., 79th US Inf. Div); behind the wounded is Sergeant Harril (front), who opened fire and Injured the motorcyclist.
The disarming of Belgian soldiers and the collection of weapons were under German observation.
Walter W. Arnett was born in Salyersville, Kentucky, in 1912. He enlisted in October 1942 and was assigned to the 603rd Engineer Camouflage Battalion. After training in camouflage deception at Fort Meade in 1943, he became part of a special secret unit, the 23rd Headquarters Special Troops, in January 1944 and embarked for Europe. Served in Belgium, France, Holland, Luxembourg and Germany. Encouraged by his officers, he did numerous cartoons to improve the morale of his fellow soldiers. He died on July 10, 1998, and is buried at Cave Hill Cemetery in Louisville, Kentucky.
Richard Wood Baldwin was born in Needham, Massachusetts, in 1921. After training at Pendleton Field, Oregon, in aerial and ground photography, he served with the 20th Air Force as a Public Relations Photographer and Artist. Stationed on Iwo Jima and later covered the surrender of the Japanese forces in Tokyo Bay in August 1945. He died in 2012 in West Chester, Pennsylvania.
German members of the Axis Armistice Commission who were exploiting French possessions in North Africa until captured by the U.S. Army were led off to an internment camp under the guard of American soldiers.
Three blindfolded Japanese soldiers were captured by Chinese troops at the battlefront in Northern Burma. (Now called Myanmar).
Foster Caddell was born in Pawtucket, Rhode Island, in 1921. Trained in a topographical unit at Mitchell Field, Long Island. Served with the Army Air Corps in New Guinea, the Philippines, and Japan from 1944 until 1946. He passed away on June 2, 2013, at his home/studio, “Northlight.”
I noticed a great number of Jewish names from the Netherlands on the Joods Monument that were murdered at Sobibor on May 21, 1943.
On May 21, 1942, 4,300 Jews were deported from the Polish town of Chelm to the Nazi extermination camp at Sobibor, where they were all later gassed to death. On the same day, the German firm IG Farben sets up a factory just outside Auschwitz in order to take advantage of Jewish slave laborers from the Auschwitz concentration camps.
Sobibor had five gas chambers, where about 250,000 Jews were killed between 1942 and 1943. A camp revolt occurred in October 1943; 300 Jewish slave laborers rose up and killed several members of the SS as well as Ukrainian guards. The rebels were killed as they battled their captors or tried to escape. The remaining prisoners were executed the very next day.
By May 21, 1943, tensions and awareness among prisoners about their likely fate were increasing, setting the stage for the organized revolt that would eventually lead to a temporary disruption of the camp’s operations. Despite this resistance, the atrocities committed up to that point had already resulted in the loss of an estimated 250,000 lives.
Below are a few stories of those who were murdered that day and of some of their family members.
Salo Schijveschuurder, born in Amsterdam, 19 May 1939. Two days after his 4th birthday, he was murdered at Sobibor on 21 May 1943. He spent his 4th birthday in a cattle car on a train en route to be murdered. His parents were murdered on the same day.
Isaäc van Beezem was born in Amsterdam on 22 July 1894. He was murdered in Sobibor on May 21, 1943. He was a professional dispatch boy who reached the age of 48.
Berta Jäger was born in The Hague on 9 July 1927 and murdered at Sobibor on 21 May 1943. She was only 15 years old upon her death.
As of September 1, 1941, Jewish children were only allowed to attend schools intended exclusively for Jewish students. Schools for Jewish students were established in all parts of the country. The Jewish Lyceum at Fisherstraat 135 was opened in The Hague on October 15, 1941. This Jewish Lyceum continued to exist until November 26, 1942, after which the school was moved to Bezemstraat under the name Jewish School for Secondary Education. The school continued to exist until April 15, 1943. Berta Jäger attended and was in the second class of the Handelsdagschool department during the academic year 1941-1942. After graduating, she started in the third class of the Handelsdagschool in the academic year 1942-1943. Her nickname was Beppie.
Bernard Speijer was born in Amsterdam on 18 May 1898. The Nazis murdered him at Sobibor on July 9, 1943. His profession was that of a merchant. His life was taken from him at the age of 45.
Bernard was the son of Jacob Speijer and Esther Vischscraper. He married Marianna Catan in August 1919. They had 10 children.
Children Jacob, September 1, 1920 Emanuel, December 3, 1921 Maurice, November 28, 1923 Esther, June 24, 1928 Greta, August 12, 1929 Dora, November 23, 1930 Joseph, November 24, 1931 Simon, February 11, 1933 Louis, 1934 – 1935 Elisabeth, September 19, 1935.
The fate of their children.
The six youngest children of the family of Bernard Speijer and Marianna à Catan were placed in the orphanage in the autumn of 1942. It involved 10-year-old Simon and 11-year-old Jozef and their four sisters, 5-year-old Rachel, 7-year-old Elisabeth, 12-year-old Dora and 13-year-old Greta.
The reason was that their mother, Marianna à Catan, had died shortly before, on August 1, 1942, at home in Ben Viljoenstraat. Of the three eldest brothers, Jacob had been convicted of illegal slaughter a year earlier, in June 1941, and the two other brothers, Emanuel and Maurice, had already been called up for the so-called Arbeitseinsatz in July 1942. The latter two had been in the army, and an attempt was made through the Jewish Council to have them “reinstated” as “military” from deportation. A postponement was successful for Emanuel, who was only deported from Westerbork to Auschwitz on October 23, but not for Maurice, who was deported to Auschwitz on August 24.
With the loss of his wife and all the anti-Jewish measures that made daily life very difficult, it was not easy for Bernard Speijer to take good care of his family. Presumably, his eldest daughter Esther, who was 14 years old at the time, took care of her as far as possible, and the decision was made to place the six youngest children in the orphanage. A few months later, when those children were already in the orphanage, father Bernard and his daughter Esther were sent to Vught and eventually murdered in Sobibor on July 9, 1943.
On September 16, 1942, Simon and Jozef were placed in the Jewish Boys’ Orphanage Megadle Jethomim at Amstel no. 21, and the girls Dora, Greta, Elisabeth, and Rachel went to the Girls’ Orphanage Ma’asiem Toviem Megadle Jethomoth in Rapenburgerstraat 171 on October 19, 1942.
On February 10, 1943, the Jewish boys’ orphanage was emptied by the Germans, and Simon and Jozef Speijer arrived in Westerbork with a transport from the Panamakade in the Eastern port area of Amsterdam on February 11, 1943.
The Jewish girls’ orphanage was also emptied by the Germans on February 10, 1943, and the four Speijer sisters also became victims. They were transferred to the railway complex at Oostburg at the Lloyd Hotel in Amsterdam and were transported to Westerbork, where they were registered on February 11, 1943.
With more than 2,500 other victims, the six Speijer children were transported to Sobibor on May 18, 1943, and murdered in the gas chambers after their arrival on May 21, 1943. There were no survivors.
Esther and Jacob both were murdered in Sobibor on July 2, 1943. Maurice was murdered in Auschwitz on September 30,1942. Emanuel’s date of death was registered as May 4, 1945, in Bavaria, but it isn’t known where or when he really died.
In the forest deep, where shadows mourn, Where the sun’s embrace is all but torn, Sobibor stands, a ghostly trace, Of souls once here, now lost in space.
Whispers linger on the breeze, Among the silent, weeping trees, Names and faces live once bright, Swallowed by the endless night.
Children’s laughter, lovers’ sighs, Echo through the tear-stained skies, A world of dreams—of hopes, and fears, All washed away in blood and tears.
In hidden corners, courage grew, A spark of hope, a heart so true, They dreamed of freedom, fought the fight, Against the overwhelming night.
Let not their memory fade away, In every dawn, in light of day, Remember those who suffered here, Their silent cries, the world must hear.
For in our hearts, their spirits live, A testament to all they give, In fields of green, in skies so blue, We hold their dreams; we see them through.
Rest now, in peace, dear souls entwined, Your legacy, in hearts enshrined, Sobibor’s shadows may remain, But love and light shall break the chain.
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One of the sources I use for my blog, concerning the Holocaust, is JoodsMonument.nl (Jewish Monument). I often see the name Tröblitz mentioned as the place of death. When I looked into it I noticed that the majority of people who died there, did so after April 23, 1945, shortly before the end of the war in Europe, There were also a big number who died after the end of the war. This made me wonder why that was.
Between 6-10 April 1945, days before the liberation of the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp in Germany, three trains were sent from the camp with some 7,000 Jews on board, bound for the Terezin ghetto. The first train was liberated by the Allies. The second train reached Terezin on 21 April, and the third, later known as “The Lost Train”, never reached its destination. After a journey of approximately two weeks, the train was stopped on a destroyed bridge on the Elster River. On 23 April, it was liberated by the Red Army on the outskirts of the German village of Tröbitz. The train carried over 2,500 Jewish prisoners, including men, women, and children, mostly from Hungary, Poland, and the Netherlands.
The train meandered through Germany for nearly two weeks. It was a harrowing journey; many prisoners died due to the horrendous conditions, lack of food and water, and disease. On April 23, 1945, the train finally halted near the village of Tröbitz in Brandenburg.
The Soviet Red Army discovered the train , having overrun the area and liberated the surviving prisoners. They found a horrific scene with many dead and dying prisoners. The survivors were severely malnourished and suffering from typhus, which had spread rapidly among the weakened prisoners.
The suffering continued for the survivors of the transport even after the liberation. The seriously ill stayed for the time being in the train, which was moved again on April 24, 1945, to the block post of the Hansa mine at track kilometer 108.9. From here the shortest route led to the Nordfeld in Tröbitz where an inadequate field hospital had been set up. Another 26 people who had since died were buried here near the railway embankment. The mining community of Tröbitz, which had about 700 inhabitants at the time, was suddenly confronted with about 2,000 starving, critically ill people who had to be helped quickly. Many residents helped and members of the Red Army took measures to alleviate the people’s distress and prevent the typhus epidemic that had broken out on the train from spreading. The Russian occupation forces opened their temporary headquarters in a building on the main street of Tröbitz for this purpose. But the Russians also evicted the German residents of Tröblitz from their homes to make room.
The survivors of the transport who were still strong enough formed a committee. This arranged the distribution of the food brought by the Red Army, accommodation in the Nordfeld (a former barracks camp for forced laborers), and burials in various cemeteries. The field hospital was run by Soviet doctors. Jewish doctors, until then prisoners themselves, helped in the care and treatment of the sick. Some of them became ill themselves and died, as the plaques with names at the Jewish cemetery in Tröbitz show. Girls and women from the village were employed as nurses. One of the women who survived said the following about the makeshift hospital.
“The ‘hospital’ was incredibly dirty and neglected. The weakened people lay on the floor in a large room and no one knew where to get mattresses or beds.”
It took eight weeks for the typhoid epidemic to be brought under control. During that period, 320 more men, women and children died. They died not only from typhus but also from the suddenly available food. Their bodies were no longer able to withstand this after months of famine. The deceased also included 26 residents of Tröbitz who had been infected by typhoid fever, including the mayor.
Following are the stories of some of the victims.
Ruth Lichtenstädter Born in Berlin, 23 September 1922-Died in Tröbitz, 11 May 1945. Reached the age of 22 years.
Ruth Lichtenstädter was one of those who died of typhus. She was buried in the Jewish cemetery, next to the general cemetery in the village of Tröbitz. The graves, with their heads turned away from the wall of the general cemetery, were numbered in three rows. Ruth Lichtenstädter is buried in the first row, grave no. 35.
Andries Bloch was born in Amsterdam, on 28 July 1895. Died in Tröbitz, on 24 April 1945, reaching the age of 49.
André Felix Blok studied medicine in Amsterdam and sat for his medical finals on 5 July 1922. He practiced as a General Physician and lived with his family at Sarphatistraat 88-huis in Amsterdam. He also had his practice here. Before the family was deported, the doctor managed to hide numerous photos, letters, drawings, documents, his patient administration, a painting, and several objects behind a fireplace in his home. Apparently, in a great hurry, Andries Bloch hid his personal belongings behind the mantelpiece in 1943 before his departure for Westerbork. They would lie there unnoticed for more than sixty years.
In Memory of the Lost Transport
Through forest shadows and fields they rode, On tracks of steel, their heavy load, In twilight’s grip, where hope seemed far, They journeyed ‘neath a dying star.
Cries of anguish, whispers of pain, Lives entwined in sorrow’s chain, Children’s laughter, silenced cries, Echoed beneath indifferent skies.
The train, a ghost, through night it crept, With dreams of freedom harshly swept, Upon the winds of war’s cruel breath, It carried souls to the edge of death.
Yet in the darkness, sparks of light, The will to live, the strength to fight, Though bodies weakened, spirits high, They reached for stars in the blackened sky.
When dawn broke through with crimson hue, The end of torment came in view, By Tröbitz village, they found rest, The weary, the lost, the hopeful blessed.
In fields where wildflowers now bloom, Their memories dispel the gloom, A silent testament to grace, In every petal, every trace.
We honor you, with hearts sincere, Your courage, pain, we hold dear, In our remembrance, you live on, Your legacy, a steadfast dawn.
For those who suffered, those who passed, In solemn memory, we stand steadfast, Your journey’s end, a sacred part, Forever etched within our heart.
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The above photo is of the photographer Franz Stapf (Stapf Bilderdienst). Carrying a Leica camera in front of his stomach, in the Nieuwe Kerkstraat, Amsterdam where disturbances took place between WA people and Jews.
It is clear to see he is wearing a Nazi uniform, so how could he have been mistaken for a Jewish victim?
Franz Anton Stapf was not Jewish. He was German. He did not die in a gas chamber but fought on the Eastern Front from the end of 1941. He was a Nazi who took photos for newspapers and anti-Semitic pamphlets in Amsterdam. Stapf survived the war and died in 1977 in Frankfurt.
The photo above was taken by Franz Stapf of weapons used by a Jewish Fighting Squad. It was printed in the Deutsche Zeitung in den Niederlanden on February 18, 1941, with the following caption: The Jews in Amsterdam had equipped themselves with hatchets, hammers and similar objects. They also had firearms. Our picture shows a small selection of the confiscated murder tools.
The photos were published in the NSB newspaper Het Nationale Dagblad, under the title “Jews unmasked,” to wage a smear campaign against Amsterdam’s Jews.
Historians René Kok and Erik Somers of the NIOD Institute for War, Holocaust and Genocide Studies, discovered that Stapf’s name, that of his wife, two children and a sister, were incorrectly listed as Jewish war victims while doing research for the book, Stad in oorlog (City at war), which was published in 2017. The book is about Amsterdam in the period 1940 to 1945.
They believe that the error resulted from an incorrect interpretation of notes on a record card from the Amsterdam Council of Labor dating from 1950. The Council investigated financial matters affecting Jewish people murdered during the war. Stapf’s card reads, “Afgevoerd” in Dutch. According to Somers, that can be interpreted as “transported” to a concentration camp, or that he was discharged from the administration.
Stapf’s fate was long unclear after the war. In late 1941 he responded to a call for volunteers to fight on the Eastern Front. The rest of his life wasn’t tracked, which meant he was never prosecuted. His name fell under the “missing, don’t know where” category, along with the word “afgevoerd,” which could have certainly led to the wrong assumption that Stapf ended up in a concentration camp, according to Somers.
In 1981 NIOD received about five thousand negatives of photos taken by Stapf.
Stapf left for Germany after Mad Tuesday in 1944. In the municipal administration, it was noted, “Left for Germany.”
His name was listed on a memorial with the names of Jews murdered during the Holocaust. The Hollandsche Schouwburg, which houses the memorial, was told in February 20117 and immediately covered the name with a sticker.
“We are extremely shocked that such a bad man is among them. Terrible. That Nazi must be removed immediately,” said curator Annemiek Gringold.
Gringold contacted the company that created the wall of names in 1993. “It is a cumbersome procedure to remove the name. It has happened once before,” she said
The name, Stapf, also appeared in memory books and is on the list of the Holocaust Memorial Center Yad Vashem in Israel.
I know—to err is human—but this error could have easily been avoided if some research had taken place. Then again to finish the quote “To forgive is divine.”
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The Battle of Castle Itter is a remarkable event from World War II, often referred to as one of the strangest battles of the war. It occurred on May 5, 1945, during the conflict in Europe’s final days.
Castle Itter, located in Austria, was being used as a prison for high-profile French prisoners, including former prime ministers, generals, and other prominent figures. As the war drew to a close, the situation in the region became chaotic, with the Allied advance and the collapse of Nazi Germany leading to confusion and shifting allegiances.
In early May 1945, a small group of Wehrmacht soldiers—led by Major Josef Gangl—found themselves in an unusual position. They were stationed near Castle Itter and had received word that the SS was planning to execute the prisoners held there. Gangl, sympathetic to the prisoners’ plight, decided to defy orders and protect them.
The purpose of the prison was to hold high-profile prisoners that the Reich deemed valuable. A notable prisoner was the tennis player Jean Borotra, French VIP prisoners, French Resistance member François de La Rocque, and many Eastern European prisoners from Dachau, who performed maintenance and other menial tasks. Also among them were former Prime Ministers Paul Reynaud and Edouard Daladier, General Maxim Weygand, former Commander-in-Chief of the French Army, and Madame Weygan, wife of General Weygan.
What ensued was a remarkable alliance between former enemies. Major Gangl and his men joined forces with the prisoners, who included French resistance fighters and American soldiers. Together, they defended the castle against an attack by SS Forces, who were intent on carrying out the prisoners’ executions.
A highly decorated Wehrmacht officer, Gangl had become opposed to the Nazis and was collaborating with the Austrian resistance.
Gangl had intended to free the castle prisoners but was unwilling to sacrifice the few troops he had in a suicidal attack on a heavily defended fortress manned by the SS. Instead, he was conserving them to protect residents from SS reprisals, in which troops shot at any window displaying either a white or Austrian flag and summarily executed males as deserters, traitors, and defeatists. His hopes were pinned on the Americans reaching Wörgl and promptly surrendering to them. Instead, he approached them under a white flag and asked for their help.
Around the same time, a reconnaissance unit of four Sherman tanks of the 23rd Tank Battalion of the 12th Armored Division of the US XXI Corps.
The battle began to kindle when, on May 3, the Yugoslav handyman Zvonimir Čučković and the Communist Resistance member—left the castle on the pretense of an errand for Commander Sebastian Wimmer. Čučković carried a letter with him, in English, that he intended to give to the first American he found, which asked for Allied help.
The closest town, Wörgl, was still under German command, so Čučković traveled towards Innsbruck, 40 miles away. That same evening, Čučković reached the city’s outskirts and encountered an advance party of the 409th Infantry Regiment of the American 103rd Infantry Division of the US VI corps, whom he told about the prison. While they could not mount the rescue operation themselves, they passed the message on to their headquarters for an answer.
At dawn the next day, a heavily armored rescue operation was mounted, but they were forced to stop upon encountering heavy shelling after Jenbach. Around the same time, with the failure of Čučković to return, Commander Sebastian Wimmer fled his post in fear he had been discovered. With Wimmer gone, the SS-Totenkopfverbände guards soon departed their posts. The prisoners soon took over the castle and armed themselves with what weaponry remained.
Gangl sought to maintain his unit’s position in the town to protect residents from SS reprisals. Nazi loyalists would shoot at any window displaying either a white flag or an Austrian flag, and would summarily execute males as possible deserters. Gangl’s hopes were pinned on the Americans reaching Wörgl promptly so he could surrender to them.[21] Instead, he would now have to approach them under a white flag to ask for their help.
Around the same time, a reconnaissance unit of four Sherman tanks of the 23rd Tank Battalion, 12th Armored Division of the US XXI Corps, under the command of Lieut. Lee had reached Kufstein, Austria, 13 km (8 mi) to the north.
There in the town square, it idled while waiting for the 12th to be relieved by the 36th Infantry Division. Asked to provide relief by Gangl, Lee did not hesitate, volunteering to lead the rescue mission and immediately earning permission from his HQ.
The battle was intense and chaotic, with the defenders heavily outnumbered and outgunned. However, they managed to hold out until reinforcements from the 142nd Infantry Regiment of the U.S. 36th Division arrived, effectively ending the threat from the SS.
Unfortunately, Gangl was fatally hit by a sniper while trying to get former French Prime Minister Paul Reynaud out of the line of fire. At around 4:00 p.m., a relief unit from the 142nd US Infantry Regiment reached the castle and defeated the besiegers, capturing about 100 SS men.
The Battle of Castle Itter was not the first time US soldiers and German Wehrmacht soldiers worked together. One week earlier on April 28, 1945, a coalition of American and German soldiers worked to save the famous white Lipizzaner horses from an advancing Russian army. It was called Operation Cowboy.
Both events are rare, nearly bizarre, examples of cooperation between unlikely allies amid war. It highlights the complexities and fluidity of the final days of World War II in Europe, as well as the resilience and courage of those involved.
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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 Gestapo on April 27, 1945, on the orders of Hitler himself. He was accused of deserting his post and attempting to flee Berlin as Soviet forces closed in on the city. Fegelein’s actions were seen as a betrayal of the regime and a failure to fulfill his duties in defending the capital.
Following his arrest, Fegelein was swiftly tried by a Nazi court-martial, found guilty of desertion and treason, and sentenced to death. On April 28, 1945, he was executed by firing squad. His execution took place just days before Hitler’s own suicide in the Führerbunker on April 30, 1945.
The exact circumstances of Fegelein’s execution, including the location and specific details, may vary depending on historical accounts. However, it is generally agreed upon that he was executed on Hitler’s orders as the Nazi regime crumbled in the face of defeat. Fegelein’s fate serves as a poignant example of the internal chaos and collapse within Hitler’s inner circle during the final days of the war.
So who was Hermann Fegelein?
Well if he had been executed a day or two later, he would have died as technically as Hitler’s brother in Law.
The image at the start of the blog is a group photo in the great hall of the Berghof. on the occasion of the wedding of Hermann Fegelein and Gretl Braun, Eva’s sister. Taken on the 3rd of June 1944.
Hermann Fegelein was a notable figure during World War II, primarily known for his association with Adolf Hitler’s inner circle and his marriage to Gretl Braun, the sister of Eva Braun, Hitler’s mistress and later wife.
Fegelein was born on October 30, 1906, in Ansbach, Germany. He joined the Nazi Party in 1930 and later the SS in 1933. He quickly rose through the ranks, becoming a trusted confidant of Heinrich Himmler. Fegelein served in various capacities within the SS, including as an adjutant to Himmler.
One of his significant roles was overseeing the preparations for the equestrian events at the 1936 Berlin Olympic Games. Despite his efforts, Fegelein failed to secure a spot on the German equestrian team for the Olympics, facing stiff competition from the Kavallerieschule Hannover.
During the war, Fegelein was involved in several key roles including commanding SS Cavalry units on the Eastern Front.
In September 1939, he commanded the SS Totenkopf Reiterstandarte (Death’s-Head Horse Regiment) in Poland. This unit was involved in supporting police activities and played a role in the Intelligenzaktion, which targeted Polish intellectuals and clergy.
As the war progressed, Fegelein found himself on the Eastern Front, where units under his command were responsible for the deaths of thousands of civilians during the Pripyat Marshes massacres. His tenure as the commander of the 8th SS Cavalry Division Florian Geyer in 1943 involved combating partisans and defending against the Red Army.
However, his most significant role came during the final days of the war when he was appointed as the liaison officer between Hitler and Heinrich Himmler.
In April 1945, as the Soviet forces closed in on Berlin and the situation became increasingly dire for the Nazi regime, Fegelein’s actions came under scrutiny. He was accused of desertion and treason for abandoning his military duties and focusing instead on securing his own safety and that of his family.
Gretl Braun gave birth to a baby girl, Eva Barbara, on May 5,1945 a week after the execution of her Husband. An execution which probably could have been stopped by Gretl’s sister Eva. However, it appears that Hitler had no loyalty to anyone, only to himself.
Eva Barbara Fegelein killed herself in April 1971 after her boyfriend died in a car accident. Gretl Braun-Fegelein moved to Munich and remarried in 1954. She died in 1987 at the age of 72.
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Nieuwlande is a village in the Netherlands, located in the province of Drenthe, known for its unique history during World War II. During the Nazi occupation of the Netherlands, Nieuwlande became a safe haven for Jews and others. The villagers, predominantly farmers, worked together to hide Jewish families and individuals, saving them from persecution and deportation to concentration camps. This act of resistance and compassion is known as the Nieuwlande Experiment, and it stands as a testament to the courage and humanity of the people who lived there. Today, Nieuwlande is remembered for its remarkable role during the war, and there are monuments and memorials in the village to honor the bravery of its inhabitants.
Unlike other forms of resistance, which often involved armed struggle or sabotage, the Nieuwlande Experiment was a non-violent, highly effective form of resistance. The villagers risked their own lives and livelihoods to offer sanctuary to those fleeing the horrors of the Holocaust. They provided hiding places, food, and support, all while living under the constant threat of discovery by the Nazis.
Because of this unique, collective relief action, on April 11, 1985, the entire population of Nieuwelande was presented with an honorary certificate from the Israeli institute Yad Vashem by the Israeli ambassador Yaacov Nechushtan. Johannes Post was the driving force behind the resistance in Nieuwlande. He was born on October 4, 1906, in Hollandscheveld near Hoogeveen. During the occupation, he abandoned his prosperous agricultural business in Oosterhesselen (Drenthe) to devote himself entirely to resistance work. He played an important role, especially in the national Fighting Squads. Post was the leader of the KP(fighting squad) in the north of the Netherlands and undertook many sabotage actions and robberies of distribution offices and prisons. On July 16, 1944, Post was shot in the dunes near Bloemendaal. The prominent resistance fighter was buried at the Honorary Cemetery in Overveen. Unveiling The monument was unveiled in 1985.
Johannes Post was a Dutch resistance fighter during World War II, known for his leadership and bravery in resisting the Nazi occupation of the Netherlands. Born on October 4, 1906, in Hollandscheveld, Netherlands, Post was a devout Christian and a schoolteacher by profession.
Post became involved in the resistance movement early in the war, joining the group, “De Gereformeerde Kerken,” affiliated with the Dutch Reformed Church. He later became a prominent member of the resistance organization known as the Knokploegen, or “Fighting Groups,” in the Drenthe region.
Post and his resistance group were involved in various acts of sabotage against the German occupiers, including destroying railways, disrupting communication lines, and assisting in smuggling Jews and downed Allied pilots to safety. They also collected intelligence and distributed underground newspapers to counter Nazi propaganda.
In addition to his activities in the resistance, Post played a key role in the Nieuwlande Experiment, helping to organize the hiding and protection of Jews in the village of Nieuwlande, where he lived.
Post’s resistance activities eventually led to his arrest by the Gestapo in 1944. Despite being subjected to torture, he refused to divulge information about his comrades or the resistance network. On July 16, 1944, Johannes Post was executed by firing squad along with his brother, Marinus, and several other resistance members.
Post’s bravery and sacrifice have been remembered and honored in the Netherlands. He is regarded as a national hero for his role in the resistance against Nazi oppression.
Roffel, Willem & Ritske (Blaak) Willem Roffel, born in Odoorn, was the beadle of the strictly Calvinist Dutch Reformed church in Nieuwlande, Drenthe. Nieuwlande is renowned for the large number of Jews hidden there during the war, among them two youngsters known as Peter and Herman (but actually named Isidore Joseph Davids and Lou Gans). Peter and Herman were training to be graphic artists and they were both talented draftsmen. While in hiding, they made themselves useful by falsifying identity cards and food coupons. They also wrote De Duikelaar, a satirical illegal weekly publication. In addition to these activities, Peter and Herman designed cartoon postcards to be sold to Resistance sympathizers, with the proceeds being donated to the Resistance. In October 1943, Nieuwlande was subjected to regular house searches, thus, the boys’ hiding place became unsafe. They moved the handouts to a safe hideout, dug out under the church’s pulpit. In this hideout, they set up their drafting tables, and a printing press and continued their work by candlelight. Willem Roffel and his wife, Ritske, also born in Odoorn, were the only people who knew about the hiding place and supplied Peter and Herman with food and other necessities daily. Willem and Ritske also distributed the fugitives’ publications and forged documents from the hideout. Peter and Herman hid in the dugout for nine months. One night in December 1944, the Germans carried out a house search. They forcibly took Willem to the church and ordered him to show them the hiding place. By this time, the boys were no longer there. On June 9, 1983, Yad Vashem recognized Willem Roffel and his wife, Ritske Roffel-Blaak, as Righteous Among the Nations.
It was certainly not the case that the entire village helped people in hiding en masse. That turns out to be a myth that was/is maintained consciously or subconsciously by some people. In short, this is because until recently the village was far too lowly estimated during the war in terms of the number of houses and inhabitants, plus the many hiding activities in surrounding villages were also wrongly attributed to the statistics that have been attributed to this village. This creates very skewed proportions and it seems as if almost every farm in this village must have had people in hiding, which is certainly not the case.
It is people like this though that make me proud to be Dutch, because many other Dutch, collaborated with the Nazis or turned a blind eye.
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The Warsaw Ghetto was the largest ghetto established by the Nazis in Poland. Hundreds of thousands of Jews found themselves confined in overcrowded and unsanitary conditions.
The uprising began on April 19, 1943, when the Nazis attempted to liquidate the ghetto by deporting its remaining inhabitants to concentration camps. Instead of passively submitting to their fate, the Jewish inhabitants organized themselves into various resistance groups, primarily the Jewish Combat Organization (ZOB) and the Jewish Military Union (ZZW).
Despite being vastly outnumbered and outgunned, the insurgents fought fiercely against the well-equipped German forces for almost a month. They utilized homemade weapons, including Molotov cocktails and a small number of firearms smuggled into the ghetto. The ghetto fighters inflicted significant casualties on the Germans and managed briefly to halt the deportation operations.
However, on May 16, 1943, the Nazis succeeded in suppressing the uprising. They systematically destroyed the ghetto and deported its remaining inhabitants to concentration camps, primarily Treblinka. Most of the ghetto’s population perished in the uprise or met their fate in its aftermath.
The Warsaw Ghetto Uprising should not be confused with the Warsaw Uprising, which was an operation by the Polish underground resistance to liberate Warsaw from German occupation in August 1944.
The ghetto, established in October 1940, was initially confined (approximately) 400,000 Jews in a small area of the city. Conditions in the ghetto were appalling, with severe overcrowding, inadequate food, sanitation, and medical care. Disease and starvation were rampant, leading to the deaths of tens of thousands of residents.
The ghetto was surrounded by walls and heavily guarded by German forces to prevent the inhabitants from escaping. Movement—in and out of the ghetto—was strictly controlled, and Jews were subjected to forced labor and arbitrary violence by the Nazi authorities.
In 1942, the Germans began mass deportations from the Warsaw Ghetto to extermination camps, primarily to Treblinka. These deportations, coupled with the harsh living conditions, led to a significant decrease in the ghetto’s population.
On January 9, 1943, Heinrich Himmler visited the Warsaw ghetto. He ordered the deportation of another 8,000 Jews. The January deportations caught the Jews by surprise, and ghetto residents thought that the end had come. The underground leadership, believing it to be the onset of the final deportation, ordered its forces to respond with arms. Upon discovering the Resistance, the Germans decided to halt the Aktion. This incident marked a turning point for most of the ghetto population, which from then on prepared for mass resistance and for hiding in underground bunkers in the cellars of homes.
The uprising started on April 19th, when the ghetto refused to surrender to the police commander SS-Brigadeführer Jürgen Stroop, who ordered the destruction of the ghetto, block by block, ending on May 16th. A total of 13,000 Jews were killed, about half of them burnt alive or suffocated. Stroop reported 110 German casualties, including 17 killed.
Jürgen Stroop issued a report, The Stroop Report, also known as the “Stroop Report on the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising,”
The report, compiled from Stroop’s daily situation reports, provides a chilling account of the brutality with which the Nazis suppressed the uprising. It includes descriptions of street battles, the destruction of buildings, the capture and deportation of Jews, and the use of heavy weaponry against the ghetto fighters.
The Stroop Report is significant as it provides firsthand insight into the tactics and mindset of the Nazi regime during the Holocaust. It serves as a historical document attesting to the atrocities committed against the Jewish population of Warsaw and stands as a grim testament to the horrors of the Holocaust.
The Stroop Report was presented as evidence for the Nuremberg Trials, where Stroop was on trial for his role in the atrocities committed during the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising. Today, the Stroop Report is preserved as an historical record studied by historians and scholars—to better understand the events of the Holocaust and the actions of the Nazi regime.
It is probably one of the more disturbing pictures, not because of its graphics, but because it clearly shows the Nazis enjoying themselves while tormenting the Jews from the ghetto. An interesting point here is that not all of the Nazis are wearing the SS insignia indicating that they were regular Wehrmacht soldiers.
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At the beginning of April 1945, the Allies rapidly approached the province of Groningen in the Netherlands. The province’s liberation was in three regions: the border region between Musselkanaal and the Dollard, the city of Groningen, and the “bridgehead Delfzijl.” Local resistance members succeeded in preserving “The Iron Blow.” This was the only bridge over the Stadskanaal in the area that had not yet been destroyed. A reconnaissance unit of the First Polish Armored Division, led by General S.W. Maczek gratefully took advantage of this opportunity and crossed the provincial border at Musselkanaal on April 11. The same day, the Poles advanced further and reached Stadskanaal and Mussel.
The next day, Onstwedde was liberated. At Tange-Alteveer (west of Onstwedde) a Reconnaissance Unit of the German ‘Marinefestungsbataillon 359’, when Polish armored vehicles reached the village on April 13, the Nazis opened fire. The Polish scouts withdrew, after which their artillery shelled Alteveer. Two villagers were killed in this battle, and after the shelling of Alteveer with artillery, the Poles attacked in the afternoon.
Polish tanks set fire to a barn where German naval soldiers were holed up. Polish soldier Bernard Grabowski was shot dead in that shed. When the Germans ran out of the burning barn a little later, they walked straight into a hail of Polish machine guns. The fight was quickly decided. Nine Germans were killed and the remaining soldiers of the “Marinefestingsbataillon” surrendered. Tange-Alteveer was thus liberated.
St. Strz. Bernard Grabowski T. U was born on 15-12-1918 in Krzywka p. Grudziadz in Poland. His army number was 60466 and it belonged to the 1 Pol. Dyv. Panc. (1st Polish Panzer Division). He died on 13-4-1945 in Tange. The exact cause of death is not entirely known. It is said that he was killed by a hand grenade by a German soldier.
I am passionate about my site and I know you all like reading my blogs. I have been doing this at no cost and will continue to do so. All I ask is for a voluntary donation of $2, however if you are not in a position to do so I can fully understand, maybe next time then. Thank you.
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History of Sorts 
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