World War Two
Soviet forces captured the Polish city of Warsaw today in 1945.
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It’s a balmy seven degrees in London today so it would be pretty chilly on the roof of St Paul’s Cathedral in Westminster. Good thing that there is a lot to think about.
A convoy of British fire trucks will take to the streets to mark the 70th anniversary of the “darkest day” of the London Blitz; when German forces dropped 10, 000 incendiary bombs on the city, starting 1500 fires and adding to the already tragic loss of thousands of lives.
Hundreds of people are expected to gather around the city to remember a very significant day in the nation’s history.
Continue reading "Remembering the London Blitz: 70 years on" »
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J B says:
Why are you so angry? You would make a lot of good sense if you weren’t so negative in your approach. If you would mellow out a bit, I’m sure you would have many more folks on your side. Peace is what everyone is looking for….with a peaceful solution….not fire… Read more »
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royal neputism says:
The RAF was told not to bomb German ‘bomb’ factories because they were privately owned. Whether that is because they were sure which ones were factories Im not sure. “They bombed our chippie” ~ father inlaw Read more »
Italy joins the Allied forces and declares war on Germany today in 1943.
And it’s Wednesday at The Punch. What’s on your mind? Share it here.
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Farkurnell says:
Does this mean we shouldn’t sell them most of QLD and WA and then end up a Banana Republic like PK promised. Read more »
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Farkurnell says:
don’t worry guys I sure TA will let his attack poodle of the leash again. Read more »
In August 1939 a Jewish woman named Ilse decided to flee Nazi Germany. In the wake of Kristalnacht, the previous November’s violent anti-Jewish pogrom, the writing was on the wall for the Berlin resident.
After years of state-sanctioned persecution, including the removal of her citizenship, immediate emigration was now the only feasible option. Still, this was a difficult decision. Her highly assimilated, secular family had lived in Central Europe for centuries. They considered themselves German. Indeed, some had fought for that country during World War One.
Shortly afterwards Ilse found sanctuary in wartime London, seemingly paying a bribe to one of those pesky people smugglers (i.e. a Gestapo officer) to exit the barbarism engulfing the continent. Somewhat perversely, on account of a German accent, Britons viewed her ilk suspiciously. At war’s end, Ilse made her way to Australia with her young son – ironically as ‘ten pound poms’ – eventually settling in Melbourne, home to the largest proportion of Holocaust survivors in the world.
Continue reading "Asylum seekers - another lost opportunity" »
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piesikot says:
Carl Linnaeus described scientifically dog ??in 1758 underneath the favour Canis familiaris Linnaeus, 1758. In the same ahead Linnaeus described the wolf as Canis lupus. When it was agreed that the dog possibly came from the wolf, the label of systematized (well-controlled), the dog has been amended in accordance with… Read more »
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Annasanna says:
A computer program (called computer program) - a order of symbols describing the calculations in accordance with certain rules, called a programming lingua franca <>]. The program is for the most part executed next to a computer (as example, displays the web page), now at once - if it is… Read more »
Welcome to Wednesday @ The Punch
Today in 1945 the Soviet Army liberated the Auschwitz death camp in Southern Poland.
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stephen says:
The Palestinian’s dilemma is much less a catastrophe than the holocaust. (catastrophe though it is, ) but I think the emphasis on the suffering of the Jews is unneccesary. We know what happened, and History is a poor teacher. Read more »
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Faten says:
Apologies, I do not believe that all citizens of Isreal are racist, or all of its government members are, its policies are racist. Read more »
I remember the jokes. They were usually about one of two things: hardship or fear.
It’s been strange, this week, to reflect that most people will never know, as I did (albeit as a visitor) what it was really like in the old Soviet Bloc. But the jokes used to tell the story.
An American dog, a Polish dog and a Russian dog are talking. The American dog says “Where I live it’s good. You bark loudly enough, and they give you meat”. The Polish dog says” What’s meat?” The Russian dog says “What’s bark?”
Continue reading "Recalling communism through its black jokes" »
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Andy W says:
In the year 1848 Karl Marx and Freiderich Engels published ” Communist Manifesto ” . If Karl Marx and Freiderich Engels were honest men , their book would have been called ........ ” Red Bull ” . Read more »
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BJ says:
I have a joke from modern-day Ukraine, where I lived for three years. A reflection on the corrupt police. The graduate from the Police academy gets a job at the city precinct. He goes there on his first day, and the Chief gives him his uniform, his gun and his… Read more »
Just a few years ago I ended up in Warsaw on a business trip to Poland where my former boss Eric Dodd had been invited to talk to top government officials about reforms to Poland’s embryonic private health system.
As a journo and an amateur student of history, I was astonished to learn that our hotel in Warsaw was located on what was previously the Jewish Ghetto in World War II from which tends of thousands were shipped to their deaths.
And just a matter of a few hours drive away was the infamous Auschwitz concentration camp where hundreds of thousands of Jews and gypsies were imprisoned in the most horrific conditions and slaughtered in the gas chambers.
Continue reading "Kyle should use his free time to visit Auschwitz" »
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West End says:
Daffy Duck, you have stupidly attempted to sidetrack the whole issue. Firstly, there haven’t been millions of deaths in Palestine/Israel, more like thousands ; we can argue about rights and wrongs but the Palestinians still exist as a nation and their population is growing annually which somehow wouldn’t occur if… Read more »
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SherpaG says:
Someone said to me today “It’s ok for Kyle to be a shock jock as long as he doesn’t shock people”....ummm…whaaa? Read more »
An old newspaper can work like a telescope into the past, the details sharp but the whole picture a little shaky and blurred, and the newspaper on my wall is like that. It’s the front of the Melbourne Argus for Sunday, September the third, 1939, and it contains only one story, told in a series of blaring headlines.
BRITAIN AT WAR
DECLARED AT 8.20 P.M.
‘OUR CONSCIENCE CLEAR’ – MR CHAMBERLAIN
LONDON, TO-NIGHT
A DECLARATION THAT A STATE OF WAR EXISTED BETWEEN BRITAIN AND GERMANY WAS MADE BY THE PRIME MINISTER, MR CHAMBERLAIN, TO THE NATION FROM NO. 10 DOWNING STREET TO-NIGHT.
Continue reading "70 years on, how Australia too was at war" »
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PorterKaren26 says:
Your study year ends soon and you have got a lot of things to cope with? Don’t a lot of time to do it? The help writing essay company can assist you just with essays completing surely! Read more »
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Craig31Christina says:
Have no a lot of cash to buy a car? You should not worry, because it is real to take the mortgage loans to solve all the problems. Hence get a collateral loan to buy everything you require. Read more »
In the town of Caen, in Normandy, is one of the most remarkable museums I’ve ever visited.
I went there in 1994, the week of the fiftieth anniversary of D-Day, and what I remember most clearly about the Memorial de Caen – the Caen Peace Museum – is the long spiral ramp down which you must walk to enter it.
You can read about it here: or if your French is up to it, take a virtual tour here: but nothing will really reproduce the experience of walking in person down the spiral of history that led to world war and genocide.
Continue reading "Remembrance of things past: history without an airbrush" »
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Paul says:
Mark, Great to see that journalists have something more to add than reporting of the facts. My own take on this, is that its the ideas behind the events? ie, why did Hitler do as he did? The same can be asked of Pol Pot, even Bush, perhaps Chamberlain, Churchill,… Read more »
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Gareth says:
Great article, will visit that museum next time I’m in Caen! It seems that as advertising revenues decline, journalism gets increasingly compromised as it seeks to focus on its more commercial requirement - get eyeballs! As this occurrs, balance, fairness and objectivity (what history seeks to achieve) give way to… Read more »
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