Forgotten History.

Bernard Henri Piller was born in Maastricht on 8 February 1932 and murdered by the Nazis in Auschwitz on 23 September 1943. He reached the age of 11 years. Henri Samuel Piller was also born in Maastricht on 15 April 1935. The nazis murdered him at Auschwitz on 23 September 1943 at the tender age of eight. Henri Samuel Piller was born in Maastricht on 15 April 1935. He was the youngest son of…

A Glimmer of Peace In fields where battles once did rage,A quiet dawn, a turning page,Whispers of hope, a gentle breeze,Murmur through the ancient trees. Children’s laughter fills the air,Dreams reborn from deep despair,Hands once clenched in wrath and strife,Now reach out to embrace life. A mother’s song, a father’s cheer,Echoes of a future clear,Where love and kindness lead the way,Guiding…

The last few days I have seen articles about the German government commemorating those who were involved in the  20th July 1944 assassination plot. In a way I can understand it why they are doing this, but having that said I don’t agree with it. Yes it is true these men planned to kill Hitler but not because they didn’t believe in his policies, because all of them had signed up to Nazi ideology…

The one thing I can’t come to terms with, and even refuse to come to terms with, is the murder of babies during the Holocaust. I know one of the reasons behind it was the purification of the Aryan race. But, how pure are you as a race when you murder babies? Another reason was that they were afraid that when these babies grew up, they would possibly look for revenge for the death of their…

(Re-post from 16 July 2025) In the West, when we think about World War II, we predominantly think about the war against the Nazis. However, there were quite a large number of Europeans who were fighting the Japanese in the Pacific. We also often forget that the Japanese Imperial Army, Navy, and Air Force were just as brutal and sometimes even crueler than the Nazis. Indonesia used to be one of…

It always amazes me how easy it was for some Europeans to give up their Jewish neighbours. I know it’s easy for me to say that in retrospect, because I don’t know how I would have reacted if put in that situation. But I have a feeling I would have spoken out about it the least. The Nazis murdered 75% of all Dutch Jews, and Jews residing in the Netherlands during the Holocaust. It wasn’t that all…

Although Albert Speer designed some of Nazi Germany’s most prominent buildings and served as its Minister of Armaments and War Production during World War II, he later claimed to have had no knowledge of the Holocaust. For decades after the fall of the Third Reich, Albert Speer stood as a historical anomaly. While Adolf Hitler’s closest henchmen either died by suicide, denied their atrocities to…

The plan of the Nazis was to eradicate anyone who they deemed not worthy. This didn’t mean only killing but also ensuring that not one person, who the Nazis considered subhuman, would be born. On July 14,1933 the Nazi regime fulfilled the long-held dreams of eugenics proponents by enacting the Law for the Prevention of Genetically Diseased Offspring. Individuals who were subject to the law were…

Although I have not lived there since 1997, I still call the place where I was born home. Geleen is a town in the Province of Limburg, in the south east of the Netherlands. A former mining town and since 2001 it has been part of the bigger municipality of Sittard-Geleen. It fused with the neighbouring town of Sittard in 2001. There is an old saying in Surinam, a former Dutch colony, the saying…

I am open to correction for this, but I am pretty sure that Bastille Day is foremost the public holiday in France. The French National Day is the anniversary of the Storming of the Bastille on 14 July 1789, which was a central event of the French Revolution. For obvious reasons, it wasn’t celebrated during World War II, at least not until 1944. The photograph above shows a crowd gathering to…

If you destroy art you destroy the soul of a nation. No matter how you dress it up or market it, the destruction of art is always politically motivated and is one of the ingredients of Fascism. We have had plenty of examples in the past, the 1933 book burning in the Third Reich, the burning of books and banning of art during the McCarthy era in the USA. It is always politically motivated. Art…

By Mieczyslaw Koscielniak-Survivor I once painted skies.Vast, open, careless heavens that dripped sunlight and hope.My brush danced with joy, my palette a chorus of life.But then came the grey. It was not the grey of morning mist or soft winter clouds—It was the grey of silence,of smoke that climbed like prayerfrom chimneys built to erase names. I was still an artist then,though my canvas…

Live Aid: The Day the World Came Together Through Music “Do they know it’s Christmas?” That haunting question echoed across radios in 1984, but it was on July 13, 1985 that the world truly came together to answer with action — and music. Live Aid, the brainchild of musicians Midge Ure, Bob Geldof and promoter Harvey Goldsmith, wasn’t just a concert. It was a global phenomenon, a humanitarian…

The Ravensbrück Rabbits was the name given to 74 Polish women, who were subjected to medical experiments in the Ravensbrück concentration camp. Of the 74 women, 5 died as a result of the experiments and 6 other victims whose wounds did not heal were executed. The other survived with permanent damage. Rather then go through all 74 accounts I am focusing on the account of one sirvivor,Jadwiga…

Many people believe that Adolf Hitler committed suicide on 30 April 1945. However, the statement that “Hitler died on 20 May 1956 in a traffic accident at the age of 74 in Nidwalden, Switzerland” is also true—depending on which Hitler you’re talking about. Before I receive a flood of emails and comments telling me I’m wrong, let me explain. I am referring to a Hitler, but not Adolf Hitler. The…

The Nazi concentration camp system evolved into a machine of mass murder, and Auschwitz became its deadliest cog. Located in Poland, Auschwitz initially served as a concentration and forced labor camp for Polish political prisoners. However, in 1941, it became the epicenter of Nazi extermination efforts. Among the most horrifying aspects of Auschwitz’s legacy was its role as a testing ground for…