Forgotten History.

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 murdered Auschwitz, on 9 August 1942. She reached the age of 13 years. But Eva Brandon’s story is part of a much…

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 evil from monsters. These men were human beings, evil human beings but human beings nonetheless. That makes it even…

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 forget is the evidence produced by the Nazi’s themselves. The Nazis kept records of nearly…

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 at Auschwitz on 18 October 1944. They were just a year old when they were murdered. It was eight years later when their deaths were registered.…

On 9 August 1945, a B-29 named Bock’s Car lifted off from Tinian and headed toward the primary target: Kokura Arsenal, a massive collection of war industries adjacent to the city of Kokura. The primary target was the city of Kokura, where the Kokura Arsenal was located, and the secondary target was Nagasaki, where two large Mitsubishi armament plants were located. The weather had been reported…

A truly remarkable story of love and survival. In the late 1930s, Anka Bergman was a lively law student living in the Czechoslovakian capital, Prague. “I wanted company and boyfriends and to enjoy myself. I didn’t know that Hitler was coming, but I filled my time with only cinemas and theatres and concerts and parties,” she says. At a nightclub, Anka met her husband, Bernd Nathan, an…

Coffee: it’s the drink we rely on for energy, the beverage that brings people together, and a ritual embedded in cultures worldwide. But coffee’s story is as rich and deep as the flavors we savor in each cup. Let’s take a journey through the history of coffee—from the ancient hills of Ethiopia to the bustling coffeehouses of the Middle East and finally to the modern cafes that dot every city…

The title of this blog could be from any fictitious novel. A children’s book or even a fairy tale, but it actually describes a bizarre reality which caused so much destruction. The story of Hitler’s naturalization process resembles something of a farce. On April 7 1925 he had given up his Austrian citizenship, it was only on February 1932 he received his German citizenship. This means for 7…

War brings out the best and the worst out of people, that is just a fact. It is easy to acknowledge the good but there is often a struggle acknowledging the bad, even to the extent of trying to completely erase it from history. When it comes to the Holocaust there is no question about it that it was caused by Germany and Austria and their Nazi regimes, however they could never have succeeded…

“The Daffodil Knows” Beneath the frost where silence sleeps,Where time runs thin and memory weeps,A bulb lies still in winter’s grave,Yet dreams of sun and all it gave. I stood alone where you once stood,The air still held your quiet good—No voice, no breath, just earth and stone,And daffodils you might have known. Grief is not loud, it barely speaks,It hides in hours and hollow weeks.But then…

It should be no surprise that I cherish beauty, and to me, none compares to the timeless grace of a woman’s bare form. This is a tribute to the women who carry the earth’s stories in their eyes and the strength of generations in their spirit. Their beauty is not bound by trends or fleeting ideals, but woven into the songs, languages, and traditions that have endured through time. Here, we honor…

The contemporary landscape of the British Isles, characterized by rolling green hills, temperate woodlands, and dense urban centers, offers little immediate hint of a wilder, more megafaunal past. Yet, for hundreds of thousands of years during the Pleistocene epoch—commonly known as the Ice Age—what is now Great Britain was home to some of the largest land mammals to ever walk the Earth. Far from…

The Holocaust wasn’t something that happened overnight, it was a gradual process. In Germany, it started in 1933, and in the Netherlands, it started shortly after the German occupation n May 1940. Below is a brief timeline of what eventually led to the murder of 75% of all Dutch Jews. 1940 July 1stJews are forbidden to work in the air defense service. From 2 July, Jews may no longer be…

Conversation with GeminiWrite a substantial essay about Kepler’s Mother Arrest In the history of the Scientific Revolution, 1615 is usually remembered as the year Johannes Kepler was refining his laws of planetary motion and preparing his landmark work, Harmonice Mundi (The Harmony of the World). Yet, during this pinnacle of his scientific career, Kepler’s life was upended not by celestial…

Despite her exotic name Mata Hari was a Dutch woman. Her real name was Margaretha (Gretha)Zelle and was born in Leeuwarden, in the province of Friesland in the North West of  the Netherlands.. Today marks her 150th birthday. At 18, Zelle answered an advertisement in a Dutch newspaper placed by Dutch Colonial Army Captain Rudolf MacLeod (1 March 1856 – 9 January 1928), who was living in what was…

The After-School Youth Care (BJZ) was one of the many departments of the Jewish Council. For Jewish children, the BJZ provided a welcome distraction from the worries of everyday life. Despite the limited and barely usable premises, the BJZ aimed to create a relaxed atmosphere. Jewish youth leaders engaged the children in activities such as handicrafts, music, folk dancing, and Jewish history.…

On the night of August 7, 1930, the small city of Marion, Indiana became the site of one of the most infamous and haunting episodes of racial violence in American history—the lynching of Thomas Shipp and Abram Smith. What makes this event particularly searing in the American consciousness isn’t just the brutality of the act. It’s the photograph. Captured by Lawrence Beitler, the image of Shipp…