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 »

In marked contrast to Volkssturmjunge Alfred Czech’s  heroic story, the second vignette is about Hans-Georg Henke , a 16 year old soldier in an anti-aircraft detachment of the Luftwaffe. His father died in 1938 but when his mother died in 1944 leaving the family destitute, Hans-Georg had to find work in order to support the family…. 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 »

During Hitler’s last days in Berlin, Axmann was among those present in the Führerbunker. During that time it was announced in the German Press that Axmann had been awarded the German Order , the highest decoration that the Nazi Party could bestow on an individual for his services to the Reich. He and one other recipient, Konstantin Hierl , were the… Read more »

Hermann Fegelein was born in Ansbach, Germany, in 1906. In his youth he worked as a stable boy for Christian Weber , one of the original members of the German Nazi party. Weber died in 1945 after being arrested by the US Army in Berlin. He was one of a number of prisoners being carried in… Read more »

Battle for Stalingrad The Battle of Stalingrad (23 August 1942 – 2 February 1943) was a major battle of World War II in which Nazi Germany and its allies fought the Soviet Union for control of the city of Stalingrad in Southern Russia, on the eastern boundary of Europe. Marked by constant close quarters combat and direct assaults on civilians by air raids, it is often regarded as the single… Read more »

One young officer coming upon a unit that had overtaken a column of German refugees fleeing westward later recalled: ‘Women, mothers and their children lie to the right and left along the route, and in front of each of them stands a raucous armada of men with their trousers down. The women who are bleeding… Read more »

You’ve probably seen one of the most famous photographs taken in Normandy, 1944, already that show the young Waffen-SS soldier Otto Funk with a ‘Thousand Yard Stare’. Funk was only 18 years old at that time, had been fighting continuously for days; almost no sleep and Allied planes were interfering every German move which caused many soldiers… Read more »

Benito Mussolini fled Milan city on 25 April and attempted to escape north to Switzerland. On 27 April 1945, Benito Mussolin i  and his mistress Clara Petacci,  together with other fascist leaders, were travelling in a German convoy near the village of Dongo on the north western shore of Lake Como. A group of local communist partisans led by Pier Luigi… Read more »

Dries Riphagen was born as the 8th child of an Amsterdam family. Riphagen’s father worked for the Navy, while his mother died when he was six years old. His father married a second time but did not take care of the children because he was an alcoholic. At the age of 14 Dries Riphagen was sent… Read more »