Nolite Te Bastardes Carborundorum

historicalmatters:

Members of the WASP (Women Airforce Service Pilots) are pictured at Lockbourne Army Air Field in World War II. From left to right are Frances Green, Margaret (Peg) Kirchner, Ann Waldner and Blanche Osborn. The WASP were civilian women pilots who flew in non-combat situations for the U.S. Army Air Forces during the war. The program came to an abrupt end in 1944 because of gender politics.

Anne Frank’s Friends: The Girls Who Lived

“Lies, whose husband is an editor in Jerusalem.” Hanneli Goslar (a.k.a., “Lies Goosens” in early editions of the Diary) was Anne’s closest friend in Amsterdam. Also taken by the Nazis, she met her old playmate at Bergen-Belsen in 1945, not long before Anne died. “She was in rags,” Hanneli told LIFE. “I saw her emaciated face in the darkness.”

Anne Frank’s Friends: The Girls Who Lived

The girl at third from left in the sandbox photo, then Dolly Citroen with one of her four children, Israel, 1959.

Anne Frank’s Friends: The Girls Who Lived

The former Hannah Toby with her family 1959. She is fourth from the left in the sandbox picture; it was in her back yard that the group picture was taken.

Anne Frank’s Friends: The Girls Who Lived

The former Barbara Ledermann, now Mrs. Martin Rodbell, with her family in Maryland, 1959. She escaped from the Nazis in the Netherlands, lived with the underground, and met the man she would marry, Martin Rodbell, in the U.S. in 1947. Her parents and her sister, Susanne, died at Auschwitz.

Read more: http://life.time.com/history/anne-frank-photographs-of-her-friends/#ixzz21Oe6GXRR

Anne Frank’s Friends: The Girls Who Lived

Left to right: Hanneli Goslar (a.k.a., “Lies Goosens” in early editions of the Diary), Anne Frank, Dolly Citroen, Hannah Toby, Barbara Ledermann and Susanne Ledermann (standing), Amsterdam, 1937.

coolchicksfromhistory:

These Jewish children are on their way to Palestine after having been released from the Buchenwald Concentration Camp. The girl on the left is from Poland, the boy in the center from Latvia, and the girl on right from Hungary.

June 5, 1945

life:

The image is chilling, bordering on surreal: On December 18, 1941, as World War II rages and countless innocents endure the horrors of the Third Reich’s “final solution” — killing operations at the Chełmno death camp, for instance, began less than two weeks before — Adolf Hitler presides over a Christmas party in Munich.

Stark, jarring swastika armbands offset the glint of ornaments and tinsel dangling from a giant Tannenbaum; festive candles illuminate the scene. Confronted with the image, the question naturally arises: How could Nazi leaders reconcile an ideology of hatred and conquest with the peaceful, joyous spirit of the Christian holiday — much less its celebration of the Jewish-born Christ?

Here, LIFE.com presents astonishing photos from this unsettling affair, and the equally remarkable story behind them.

greatestgeneration:

This is my mom and dad towards the end of WWII. My dad was in the all Japanese (except for the officers) 442nd Regimental Combat Team - the most highly decorated unit of their size in US history. One reason was because of the number of casualties they had. My dad was wounded 3 different times during the war (he survived all 3 ).

The 3rd time he was wounded, he wouldn’t let the doctors take the shrapnel out of his leg because he “had to get back to his buddies”.

He was part of Company K during the rescue of the Texan “Lost Battalion”. After the rescue Company K had fewer than 20 men (out of 200) who were not dead or wounded. This was one of times that my dad got wounded. Here is one site that talks about that battle:

http://www.asian-nation.org/442.shtml

All this while my grandparents were in the internment camps.