Category Archives: history

Lockdown 1942, Lockdown 2020

Posted on April 9, 2020 by

For me, the current lockdown is a vivid reminder of the two years I spent as a “hidden child” in Belgium during World War II. Actually, I was neither a child nor confined to my quarters like that other, very … Continue reading →

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The Disastrous Consequences of Separating Parents and Children

Posted on July 9, 2018 by

More than fifty years ago, my three-year-old son David and I went grocery shopping in our smallish neighborhood supermarket. I concentrated on the week’s bargains while he immersed himself in the comics rack. Suddenly I felt a small hand tugging … Continue reading →

Posted in family stories, history, politics | 2 Comments

An Announcement

Posted on June 2, 2017 by

As many readers of this blog know, I have written two memoirs. One of them, At the Mercy of Strangers: Growing Up on the Edge of the Holocaust, is an account of my experience as a hidden Jewish teenager during World War … Continue reading →

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On Ice Cream

Posted on May 5, 2017 by

All of us have foods that unleash floods of memories. For Marcel Proust it was Madeleine cakes. For me, one of those foods is ice cream. I simply love ice cream. In my birth town of Hanover, it was only … Continue reading →

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Refugee, But Not Forever

Posted on August 22, 2016 by

The other evening, after a satisfying dinner, I was lazily surfing the net when I came across a photo of a beach filled with Syrian refugees running across the sand, trying to climb aboard a rickety ship. Suddenly my heart … Continue reading →

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World War I: August 3, 1914: Germany Invades Belgium

Posted on August 1, 2014 by

World War II defined my life, but it was actually a continuation of  World War I, whose 100th birthday we “celebrate” this year. The hostilities took a while to get underway. They began with the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand … Continue reading →

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Kristallnacht

Posted on November 17, 2012 by

Friday, November 9th, was the 74th anniversary of Kristallnacht (The Night of Broken Glass), when the Nazi hoodlums, aided by many ordinary Germans and Austrians, unleashed their fury on their Jewish fellow citizens. One thousand synagogues were burnt. Seven thousand … Continue reading →

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