Category Archives: World War II

“Who are you?” Forensic anthropology and human rights.

Posted on January 15, 2012 by Barbara Dillon Hillas

From Arts & Letter Daily  comes a fascinating article,  Mengele’s Skull, that details “…the value of forensic anthropology to human rights…”  An excerpt: It was during the Mengele investigation that the procedures and techniques of forensic identification of human remains … Continue reading →

Posted in Anthropology, Argentina, Germany, Holocaust, Human Rights, Science, World War II | Tagged , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Pearl Harbor 70 years later.

Posted on December 7, 2011 by Barbara Dillon Hillas

Austin Bay’s article is engrossing:  Imagination, deception and audacity, in combination, are the deadly acme of warfare. Japan’s Pearl Harbor ambush of America’s Pacific Fleet, which occurred 70 years ago this week, displayed these traits. So did al-Qaida’s 9-11 savaging … Continue reading →

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The world´s oldest Holocaust museum is in London…

Posted on December 1, 2011 by Barbara Dillon Hillas

and has a chilling collection of children´s books and games: One large board game is called “Juden Raus!” which means “Out With The Jews!”. It requires the players to roll dice and move smiling, brightly-coloured figures about a village, picking … Continue reading →

Posted in Anti-Semitism, Culture, Germany, History, Holocaust, United Kingdom, World War II, Youth | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

An allegory regarding a gay Holocaust survivor: a kiss to Mickey Mouse.

Posted on November 17, 2011 by Barbara Dillon Hillas

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Art restoration and mathematics: “Circular Harmonic Decomposition”.

Posted on October 20, 2011 by Barbara Dillon Hillas

From Der Spiegel: In 1944, a bombing raid almost completely destroyed an enormous Padua church fresco that dated back to the Renaissance and had once been admired by Goethe. Some 88,000 tiny pieces of plaster were rescued from the rubble, and … Continue reading →

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A horrific pictorial history of The Holocaust.

Posted on October 17, 2011 by Barbara Dillon Hillas

When a human life was labelled “life unworthy of life” (Lebensunwertes Leben): The Atlantic has the 18th installment of a 20 part pictorial history of World War II that must be seen to begin to comprehend the horror.

Posted in Anti-Semitism, Auschwitz, Empathy, History, Holocaust, Human Rights, World War II | Tagged , , , | 1 Comment

The tragic tale of the child migrants from the UK.

Posted on October 17, 2011 by Barbara Dillon Hillas

Today, these children are grown-ups.  I had not heard of the wrenching history behind the child migrants, but an excerpt from a Background Note from the Australian Parliament explains: Under the Empire Settlement Act of 1922 and 1937, the British … Continue reading →

Posted in Australia, Culture, Empathy, History, Human Rights, Rule of Law, United Kingdom, War, World War II, Youth | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

A tribute to the Lipizzaner horses.

Posted on October 12, 2011 by Barbara Dillon Hillas

The story of the Lipizzaner horse is a strange and poignant one.  I do admire the horses’ incredible training and performance, that can just be seen, by some, as mere pomp and circumstance.  They embody the spirit of what is … Continue reading →

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La Vita è Bella…

Posted on October 1, 2011 by Barbara Dillon Hillas

Last night I watched again La vita è Bella, a most beautiful, comical, satirical film.  I never get tired of it.  It is, truly, a gem. Here is an indelible scene:

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Learning and teaching about the Holocaust.

Posted on September 28, 2011 by Barbara Dillon Hillas

The US Holocaust Memorial Museum offers a learning site for students: Organized by theme, this site uses text, historical photographs, maps, images of artifacts, and audio clips to provide an overview of the Holocaust. It is the first step in … Continue reading →

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The power of one: a Catholic priest’s life mission.

Posted on August 28, 2011 by Barbara Dillon Hillas

Father Patrick Desbois, a French Catholic priest, has a mission: Yahad – In Unum is the leading research organization investigating the mass executions of 1.5 million Jews and Roma/Gypsy people in Eastern Europe between 1941 and 1944.  This is sometimes … Continue reading →

Posted in Anti-Semitism, Crime, History, Holocaust, Human Rights, Roma, Romania, World War II | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

Today, 67 years ago, the Warsaw Uprising began.

Posted on August 1, 2011 by Barbara Dillon Hillas

This is what I wrote in May 2008: One of the most painful memories of Polish history is World War II. I cannot count the times I have had Poles say to me that they are baffled that the world … Continue reading →

Posted in History, Poland, World War II | Tagged , , , , , , | 1 Comment

A memoir about living under two totalitarian regimes.

Posted on June 28, 2011 by Barbara Dillon Hillas

Here’s a test: You now have thirty seconds to recommend a single book that might start a serious student on the hard road to understanding the political tragedies of the 20th century. What book would you choose? Of course, half … Continue reading →

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Warsaw: City of Ruins.

Posted on May 24, 2011 by Barbara Dillon Hillas

The marvel of technology that shows what human cruelty has wrought: destruction and devastation. ‘City of Ruins’, a five minute-long documentary which simulates an aircraft flight over the ruined Polish capital of Warsaw in 1945, has received the prestigious Silver … Continue reading →

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Stalin’s Gulag is now a Museum on the Internet.

Posted on May 8, 2011 by Barbara Dillon Hillas

Here’s the virtual museum:  European Memories of the Gulag. From RFI: Between 1939 and 1953, the Soviet Union deported almost one million people from the European territories it occupied. Some were sent to labour camps but most were deported to … Continue reading →

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