Category: War
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Polish hero Witold Pilecki went to Auschwitz in 1940 – voluntarily
It is hard to imagine how a 39-year old father of two deliberately walked into a razzia of the SS on the 19th of September, 1940. As a Polish army officer he couldn’t expect a gentle treatment, but Witold Pilecki wanted personally to find out want happened to all the Jews who were captured and transported to concentration camps. Although Pilecki expected harsh…
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Important battle in Swiss history may have been made-up
Ask an arbitrary Swiss man or woman what the most important event in Swiss history was, and the battle of Morgarten is likely to be named. In 1315, the Swiss confederation beat the Habsburgers at Morgarten and gained independence from the Holy Roman Empire. Every history museum in Switzerland sports this legendary event, as it is…
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A grim message on Armistice Day
Today exactly 95 years ago, the first Armistice Day was celebrated. This day marked the end of the Great War, or the First World War. On the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month of the year 1918, a peace treaty was signed in Compiegne, France. The guns on all fronts halted…
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Case closed on Katyn massacre
The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) has dismissed allegations made by relatives of the victims of the Katyn massacre in 1940. In April and May of that year, the Soviet secret service (NKVD) killed around 6000 members of the Polish intelligentsia in the Katyn forests. Twelve victims of the massacre claimed that Russia withheld…
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Priebke’s body will be buried on a concealed location
Fighting over Priebke’s dead body A week of weird fighting over the corpse of Erich Priebke (1913-2013) has come to a conclusion. The nazi’ criminals body will be buried on an unknown location, reports news agency Ansa. Priebke’s lawyer, Paolo Giachini states the exact location was Italy’s and Germany’s secret. These secret burials were common…
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The secrets of Rosenbergs diary
On the 13th of June the long lost diaries of Alfred Rosenberg (1893-1946) were revealed. What may be unveiled in the 400 pages of Rosenberg’s gift to posterity? The finding of the diary is a real treat for historians while the debates on the Second World War are undiminished. Still, the diaries are ‘only’ from…
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Dutch Jews heavily taxed after WW2
Dutch Jews who survived the Holocaust and returned to their homes after the Second World War were heavily taxed by the city counsels. This information was revealed as documents of the city counsel of Amsterdam were digitized, says the Dutch newspaper Het Parool. As most of the Dutch Jews were taken from their homes during…