Eindhoven, my birthtown in 1946, a city in the south of the Netherlands, originally at the confluence of the Dommel and Gender streams, where I played in my younger years. By 1920, the population was 47,946; by 1925 it was 63,870 and in 1935 that had ballooned to 103,030. The direct involvement of the Netherlands in World War II… Read more »

Louis Zamperini was born in January 1917, in Olean, New York. Raised in California, Zamperini joined the track team in high school. Excelling at long-distance events, Zamperini competed in the 1936 Berlin Olympics  and was set to compete again in the 1940 games in Tokyo, which were canceled when World War II broke out. A… Read more »

What was it that caused Adolf Hitler’s physical and mental health to collapse in the closing days of World War II? He was losing the war, of course- surely that had a great deal to do with it. But for more than 60 years, historians have wondered if there was more to it than that…. Read more »

Kate ter Horst, was born July 6, 1906 in Amsterdam, was a Dutch full-time housewife and mother who tended wounded and dying Allied soldiers during the Battle of Arnhem. Her British patients nicknamed her the Angel of Arnhem. Ter Horst was born Kate Anna Arriëns, daughter of Pieter Albert Arriëns and Catharina Maingay. She married Jan ter Horst,… Read more »

For instance, as far as the Russians go the Germans thought that they were barbaric and backward opponents who were as cruel if not more so than the nazis pretended not to be.  However, the Germans still had some degree of respect for their Russian opponents. The Russians were exceedingly tough both in their abilities… Read more »

Carinhall was the country residence of Hermann Goering. It was built on a large hunting estate northeast of Berlin in the Schornheide forest, between the lakes Großdöllner See and Wuckersee in the north of Brandenburg. Named in honour of his Swedish first wife, Carin Goering  (1888–1931), the residence was constructed in stages from 1933 on a large… Read more »

In June 1941, 24-year-old Pavlichenko  was in her fourth year of studying history at the Kyiv University when Germany began its invasion of the Soviet Union. Pavlichenko was among the first round of volunteers at the recruiting office, where she requested to join the infantry and subsequently she was assigned to the Red Army’s 25th Rifle Division . Pavlichenko had the option… Read more »

During World War II, Rüsselsheim, an industrial town that housed many key targets, including the Opel plant, was bombed several times by the Royal Air Force (RAF) . The RAF followed a policy of “area bombing” of cities at night while the United States Army Air Forces (USAAF)  relied on “precision bombing” by day. On the… Read more »

  D-Day– 6 June 1944, when Allied forces stormed into Hitler’s Fortress Europa in Normandy – is rightly celebrated for the valor of the American and British citizen soldiers who scaled the fearsome cliffs of Pointe-du-Hoc and other dug-in Wehrmacht concrete bunkers on Omaha, Utah, Sword, Gold and Juno beaches. Most of us have seen… Read more »

Ilse Koch born Margarete Ilse Köhler 22 September 1906 was the wife of Karl Otto Koch,      commandant of the Nazi concentration camps Buchenwald (1937–1941) and Majdanek (1941–1943). She was one of the first prominent Nazi’s to be tried by the U.S military. After the trial received worldwide media attention, survivor accounts of her actions resulted in other authors describing her abuse of prisoners as… Read more »