This picture is from a website dedicated to Philomena Franz, I presume it’s her, but I am not sure When people see the term Holocaust survivor, the generally assume it is a Jewish survivor. Although the biggest group of people targeted and murdered by the Nazis were Jewish, there were other groups who were persecuted and the murdered. The 2nd biggest group were the gypsies, and I am using the word gypsies because that is what the Romani-Sinti were referred to in the context of World War 2 and the Holocaust. Philomena Franz is a notable figure, particularly recognized for her work as a Holocaus ..read more

I noticed a great number of Jews from the Netherlands, on Joods Monument, that were murdered in Sobibor on May 21 21,1943. On May 21, 1942, 4,300 Jews are deported from the Polish town of Chelm to the Nazi extermination camp at Sobibor, where all are 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 ..read more

The “Westerbork Film” refers to a film shot by Rudolf Breslauer at the Westerbork transit camp during World War II. This film is a significant historical document because it provides a rare visual record of life in a Nazi transit camp. The film was commissioned by Albert Gemmeker, the Westerbork Camp Commandant in 1944. He ordered Rudolf Breslauer an interned Jewish photographer and filmmaker, to document daily life in the camp. Rudolf Breslauer was a photographer and lithographer by trade, educated at the Academy for Art Photography in Germany. He had married Bella Weihsmann and had three c ..read more

The address of Bloemenmarkt 7, will mean nothing to most of you. It probably doesn’t mean that much for some people in Geleen, It was the address of a butcher shop and apartment in a square in the suburb Lindenheuvel in Geleen. the Netherlands. Today it is the home of a dog grooming business, Trimsalon Anjing. When I grew up I have passed that place 100s of times. There used to be a pub and event hall around the corner where my mother had her wedding reception. It took for me to move to Ireland to discover what the historical significance that particular address has. I will illustrate this b ..read more

A diary is like a chronicle, a chronological summary of someone’s live, or at least part of it. Nowadays people use social media to document their daily life. Unlike social media, diaries are meant to be secret. That’s why the words from Holocaust diaries which were published after World War 2, should be treated with the utmost respect, and seen as sacred. Below are just a few words of diarists, some survived and some didn’t but all their words are powerful reminders. Anne Frank Date: July 15, 1944 Location: Amsterdam, The Netherlands “It’s difficult in times like these: ideals, dreams, and c ..read more

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 ..read more

Jewish Labour Camps in the Netherlands ..read more

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. Th ..read more

Experiments on Women in Auschwitz ..read more

The Meeting Between Haj Amin al-Husseini and Adolf Hitler ..read more