The Wewelsburg castle was not built by the Nazi regime; its history started several centuries before the National Socialists came to power in 1933. In its current form, the castle was built from 1603 to 1609, as a secondary residence for Fürstbischof Theodor von Fürstenberg, the prince-bishop of Paderborn, whose primary residence was the castle… Read more »
Heinrich Himmler adored his daughter Gudrun Margarete Elfriede Emma Anna “Püppi” Himmler Burwitz and had her regularly flown to his offices in Berlin from Munich where she lived with her mother . When she was at home he telephoned her most days and wrote to her every week. He continued to call her by her childhood… Read more »
Not all Dutch offered active or passive resistance against the German occupation. Some Dutch men and women chose or were forced to collaborate with the German regime or joined the German army (which usually would mean being placed in the Waffen-SS). Others, like members of the 35 men of the Henneicke Column, between March and… Read more »
Three quarters of the Dutch Jews were murdered during the Second World War. In other Western European countries such as Belgium and France, these percentages were much lower. Read here what caused the differences. The German invasion of the Netherlands, Belgium and France started on 10 May 1940. Following the defeat and the start of… Read more »
Anton Adriaan Mussert was born 11-05-1894 in Werkendam, Noord-Brabant, Netherlands. In the 1920s, he became involved in right-wing political movements that advocated a Greater Netherlands by annexing Dutch-speaking neighbouring regions. On 14 Dec 1931, he abandoned his profession as a civil engineer and founded the National Socialist Movement political party, Nationaal-Socialistische Beweging, or NSB , along… Read more »