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Ship carrying 937 Jewish refugees, fleeing Nazi Germany, is turned away in Cuba On May 27, 1939, A boat carrying 937 Jewish refugees fleeing Nazi persecution is turned awayfrom Havana, Cuba. Only 28 immigrants are admitted into the country. After appeals to the United States and Canada for entry are denied, the rest are forced to sail back to Europe, where they’re distributed among several countries including Great Britain and France. On May 13, the S.S. St. Louis sailed from Hamburg, Germany to Havana, Cuba. Most of the passengers—many of them children—were German Jews escaping increasing persecution under the Third Reich. Six months earlier, 91 people were killed and Jewish homes, businesses, and synagogues were destroyed in what became known as the Kristallnacht pogrom. It was becoming increasing clear the Nazis were accelerating their efforts to exterminate Jews by arresting them and placing them in concentration camps.World War II and the formal implementation of The Final Solutio

Polish war hero Witold Pilecki was executed  On May 25, 1948, Witold Pilecki was executed by communist authorities, in the Rakowiecka detention center after a show trial.  During World War II, Pilecki volunteered for a Polish resistance operation that involved being imprisoned in the Auschwitz concentration camp in order to gather intelligence. At Auschwitz, he organized a resistance movement within the camp which eventually numbered in the hundreds, and secretly sent messages to the Western Allies detailing Nazi atrocities at the camp. He escaped in April 1943 after nearly 2½ years of imprisonment. Pilecki later fought in the Warsaw Uprising from August to October 1944. He remained loyal to the London-based Polish government in-exile after the communist takeover of Poland. In 1947, he was arrested by the secret police on charges of working for "foreign imperialism" (referring to his work for British intelligence). Pilecki was executed after a show trial in 1948. The story of

On May 25, Edmund Semrau, one of the last soldiers of the 1st Polish Armored Division of General Stanisław Maczek passed away. Capt. Edmund Semrau was born on January 21, 1926, in Chełmno. In September 1939 he and his family were evacuated to the eastern borderlands of Poland, later after 17 September, he was deported to Siberia with his family. Thanks to the Sikorski - Majski agreement taken over in July 1941, after long wandering, he came with many soldiers of General Anders to the British Isles to Scotland. As soon as he reached the age of majority in 1943, he volunteered to serve in the 1st Polish Armored Division created by General Maczek. He received specialized training at the Armored Weapons Training Center in Catterick. After receiving the assignment to the 2nd Squadron of the 1st Armored Regiment, he went through his entire battle trail from the fields of Normandy, through France, Belgium, and the Netherlands to the winning final in Germany. In August 1944 he took part in a l

The Ash Casts of Pompeii Mount Vesuvius, a volcano near the Bay of Naples in Italy, has erupted more than 50 times. Its most famous eruption took place in the year 79 A.D., when the volcano buried the ancient Roman city of Pompeii under a thick carpet of volcanic ash. The dust “poured across the land” like a flood, one witness wrote, and shrouded the city in “a darkness…like the black of closed and unlighted rooms.” Two thousand people died, and the city was abandoned for almost as many years. When a group of explorers rediscovered the site in 1748, they were surprised to find that–underneath a thick layer of dust and debris–Pompeii was mostly intact. The buildings, artifacts and skeletons left behind in the buried city have taught us a great deal about everyday life in the ancient world. The bodies of Pompeii had been covered in layers of fine ash that calcified over the centuries, forming a type of protective shell around their bodies. When the skin and tissue of these bodies eventua

George Stinney Jr. was the youngest person sentenced to death in the 20th century in the United States. He was only 14 when he was executed by electric chair. During his trial, until the day of his execution, he always carried a bible in his hands, claiming for innocence. He was accused of killing two white girls, Betty of 11 years old and Mary of 7, the bodies were found near the house where the teenager resided with his parents. At that time all the jurors were white. The trial lasted only 2 hours and the sentence was handed down 10 minutes later. The child's parents were threatened and prevented from giving him gifts in the courtroom and then expelling them from that city. Before the execution, George spent 81 days without being able to see his parents. He was trapped in a solitary cell, 80 km from his city. He was heard alone without the presence of his parents or a lawyer. He was electrocuted with 5,380 volts in the head. 70 years later, his innocence was finally proven by a j

Suitcases of people sent to concentration camps. Poland, Gdańsk, World War II Museum. Each suitcase is a family, a life. It looks like a monument to the crime of humanity.😢 1918 spanish flu... *** Unprecedented Сomfort in the Air by 1939 Not bad a location for the Unknown Planet TV-series, indeed. Such a plane was made by Boeing, as many as 12 were released, not a single one survived until 2020, though, unfortunately. The passenger compartment had one general layout. All passengers were served as VIP. On Transatlantic flights, the plane could be in the air for more than 12 hours, but comfort was unprecedented. Chairs were laid out in sleeping shelves (36 pcs.). There was a lounge and a restaurant served by stewards. The menu contained 6 dishes served on porcelain dishes with silver cutlery. Male and female restrooms were separate. A ticket cost $675 round-trip New York-England and $760 one-way San Francisco-Hong Kong. The first such Boeing 314 flew from San Francisco to Hong Kong in J

This is Corporal Wojtek (pr. Voy-check). He was an orphaned Syrian brown bear that was adopted by a Polish artillery unit in WW2. The rank is not a nickname, he was actually sworn in and received pay in the form of extra rations as well as beer and cigarettes. He loved to box and wrestle with the men and was a huge morale boost but he was much more than just a mascot or pet. He taught himself how to carry artillery shells and supplies and was said to do the work of 4 men (although he ate as much as 10.) It was even said that he would drag wounded men off the battlefield as long as they weren't speaking in German.  After the war he retired to a boring but comfortable life in the Edinburgh zoo. He always got excited when ever he heard visitors speaking Polish. His former comrades would often visit him and toss cigarettes over the fence for old times sake.  He died in 1963 at age 21. To this day his former unit still wears his likeness on their insignia.