Author: Jan Huisman
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Adolf Hitler stays honorary citizen of Dietramszell
A controversial vote made by the local council of Dietramszell confirms the honorary citizenships for Adolf Hitler and Paul von Hindenburg. Last week, the cancellation of the honorary citizenships was thwarted already by the opposition. Holocaust survivors are taken aback by the city council’s decision, that argues that history cannot be undone: To withdraw the…
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‘East Side Gallery’ preserved for future generations
The world-famous ‘East Side Gallery’, the east side of the Berlin wall that’s covered with paintings from artist all over the world, is constantly threatened by building-projects, vandalism and graffiti. Therefore, the Berlin city council will spend 125.000€ per year to preserve the art-piece. The East Side Gallery consists of 105 paintings from 1990, and is renowned as a worldwide memorial to freedom.
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Archaeologists conclude: Neanderthals buried their dead
An international team of archaeologists conducted a 13-year study on the remains of Neanderthals and concluded that our less competent hominid relative buried their dead – just like modern humans. The researchers state that these burials show an unexpected advanced cognitive capacity of the Neanderthals. Although these conclusions sparked controversy in the archaeological community, the…
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Why Japan had to abolish state-Shinto 68 years ago
On December 15th, 1945, Japan abolished Shinto religion on American instigation. They regarded the ancient Shinto religion as an important part of Japanese nationalism and militarism – both foundations of the aggressive expansionist policy of imperial Japan in the first half of the 20th century. Shintoism is an old religion, dating back to the early…
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Why corporal punishment on schools was invented
Until recently, it was common practice on schools to conduct corporal punishment on unruly students. Medievalist Dr. Ben Parsons researched the origins of this violent teaching method. He found out that medieval philosophers thought there were many benefits to these methods. For instance, it was believed that pain helped students to remember their wrongdoing. A…
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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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Edited version of Hitler’s Mein Kampf is still to be published
Despite the cancellation of the Bavarian state government to fund a scientifically annotated edition of Adolf Hitlers’s ‘Mein Kampf’, the Institute of Contemporary History (Institut für Zeitgeschichte) continues to work on this edition. They state that ‘Mein Kampf’ is an important source to historical research on the Third Reich, and should therefore be publicly available. The…