history

In the run up to Remembrance Day on Thursday and Liberation Day on Friday, 89-year-old Dick Woudenberg decided to share his story of growing up in a pro-Hitler household. His parents were prominent members of Dutch fascist party NSB, which he himself later joined, and he grew up with a growing adoration for Adolf Hitler, Woudenberg said on RTL Late Night on Tuesday evening.

Dutch Nazi collaborator and leading member of fascist party NSB Menoud Rost van Tonningen and some of his fellows attempted a coup in the Netherlands in early in 1940, NOS reports based on research by historians Edwin Klijn and Robin te Slaa. The group of NSB members wanted to use the coup to prevent Germans invading the Netherlands.

The coup did not succeed and the Germans invaded the Netherlands on May 10th, 1940. Within five days of that date, the Dutch army had to capitulate. 

A letter written by the widow of writer Multatuli in 1930 recently surfaced in Groningen. It was found in a old book, which was recently given to a used book shop, RTV Noord reports.

In the letter widow Mimi Hamminck Schepel thanks an employee of the University of Groningen for his commitment to the work of her deceased husband Multatuli. By that time he had been dead for almost half a century.

A poem handwritten by Anne Frank on March 28th, 1942 will soon be auctioned offat auction house Bubb Kuper in Haarlem on Wednesday. The starting price is 30 thousand euros, NOS reports.

Anne Frank wrote the poem for a poetery album her friend Christiane van Maarssen was making. Her sister jacqueline van Maarssen - Anne's best friend - put the poem up for sale. The poem consists of eight lines, is addressed to (translated to English) "Dear Cri-Cri" and ends with the words "In memory of Anne Frank." 

Kirstallnacht was quietly commemorated in Amsterdam on Wednesday night. Despite disagreements between various organizations who wanted to organize the memorial, there were no incidents, NOS reports.

During the night of November 9th to 10th, 1983 Nazis in Germany burned down 1,400 synagogues and 7,500 Jewish stores. Hundreds of Jews were murdered. Kristallnacht was the first major assault against Jews in Germany since the Nazis took power in 1933. It marks the change from discrimination against Jews to systematic persecution that eventually ended in the Holocaust. 

On Thursday the National Military Museum in Soesterberg received the first American to be planted on D-Day in 1944. The flag is on loan from collector Bert Kreuk, who bought it at an auction for 500 thousand dollars.

Vincent van Gogh did not cut off only his earlobe, but his entire left ear, according to a letter by the artist's doctor that forms part of the Van Gogh Museum's exhibit On the verge of insanity.

Dozens of protesters disrupted the national commemoration of the abolition of slavery in Amsterdam's Oosterpark on Thursday evening. They protested against organizer NiNsee's decision to hold the commemoration on June 30th, instead of the usual July 1st

Dutch art collector Bert Kreuk bought the first American flag plated on D-Day via a telephonic auction for over 500 thousand dollars

The Netherlands new National Holocaust Museum in Amsterdam is opening its doors to the public for the first time on Monday with an exhibition by Jeroen Krabbe, the museum announced in a press release. According to the museum, it is the first location in the Netherlands that presents a "complete overview of the history of the persecution and genocide of the Dutch Jews."

The remnants of a 17th century Jewish ghetto was unearthed during excavations in Amsterdam earlier this month. The discovery was made by a construction crew digging a foundation for a housing complex and hotel on Valkenburgerstraat, just north of an Esnoga.