As we lose more and more Holocaust survivors to the natural end that life provides us all eventually, it is comforting to know that technology is trying, in new and interesting ways, to keep their stories and testimonies alive. Heather Maio of Conscience Display decided to try and make testimonies feel more interactive and thereby... Continue Reading →
There was only one woman who was accused, stood trial, and was convicted of war crimes at the Nuremberg Medical Trial (also known as "The Doctors Trial") in October 1946 until April 1949, and that was Dr. Herta Oberheuser. Her education was in dermatology, and she became a loyal Nazi in the late 30's, progressing... Continue Reading →
The eighteenth of October is my birthday, so I decided I'd take a moment and tell you a bit more about me and why I'm doing this. Readers of my previous two series know me for writing much different things than nonfiction historical posts and nonfiction and historical books. But I've written nonfiction articles for... Continue Reading →
Fanya is what I classify as a maid--an innocent forever changed by the course of the war. Fanya grew up in the small town of Skala in Poland (north and a bit west of Krakow), and was the daughter of a religious Jewish businessman who had a love of books and was very well respected by the members of the Jewish community, in part because he was so giving and so knowledgable.
Born in 1906, German-born Margaret Ilse Köhler married Karl Otto Koch when she was thirty years old. They met through mutual friends as many couples do, and worked together--only he was the commandant of a concentration camp, and hired her as a secretary, and guard...
It should come as no surprise to students of history that African American women were as involved in the war efforts of the 1940s as was considered "allowable," and still those efforts were overlooked (and still greatly overlooked until very recently). These are just a few photos (and most tiny because larger ones are only... Continue Reading →
Stumbling on History: An Art Project Compels a Small German Town to Face Its Past is an excellent photo-rich book about Gunther Demnig, both artist and activist, as well as Edith Westerfeld, a woman who narrowly avoided death at the hands of the Nazis returning to her German hometown, and her daughter, acclaimed author Fern Chapman.
Tomorrow evening (Monday night) in Oneonta, NY, author Margot Lee Shetterley of HIDDEN FIGURES: THE STORY OF THE AFRICAN-AMERICAN WOMEN WHO HELPED WIN THE SPACE RACE will be speaking at the Alumni Field House at 7pm.
Nearly everyone's heard about "the Rosies," women like the iconic "Rosie the Riveter," a famous image that showed the power of the female American workforce in World War II--
Maid, Mother, Monster 