HISTORY & LESSON

  When you stay neutral in the midst of oppression, you are only siding with the oppressor. in the 30s and 40s, it was clear that Jews were very much oppressed by the Nazis. It was clear for Varian Fry, an American Journalist who, while visiting Germany, witnessed the horrible treatment of Jews.  Varian Fry already had a history of helping other people, setting up small fundraisers for the American Red Cross at a tender age of 9 (This was during World War 1). By the 30s, he was a Harvard Graduate and a writer for the New York Times.  While on assignment in Germany for another publication, The Living Age, he witnessed Hitler's SA assaulting Jews on the Street. He vowed that he would not stay on the sidelines. He published numerous books denouncing the Nazis and Nazism in the years leading up to the war.  With the Fall of France, Fry helped set up the Emergency Rescue Committee (ERC), a group that aimed to rescue endangered intellectuals from Occupied Europe.  ...

  During the conflicts in the Balkans during the 90s, the UN organized a peacekeeping force to help build peace and pave the way to end the conflicts. One such country that sent a contingent was the Netherlands. The Dutch provided aircraft for Operation Deny Flight, which was the implementation of a no-fly zone above the conflict area, shooting down 1 MIG-29 with their F-16s. They also gained a reputation for their accuracy in bombing targets, as well as infamy for using cluster munitions. They also provided ground troops for the mission as well. One of the units was the "Dutchbat," a lightly armed battalion stationed in Srebrenica, a UN safe area. But that didn't stop the Bosnian Serb Forces from attacking and eventually taking the area. The relatively small Dutch peacekeeping force knew that they were outnumbered and outgunned, cut off from any reinforcements, and with air support not available, the best they could do was cooperate with the heavily armed and experie...

  Time and time again, we have shown that World War 2 was not a black and white affair, it never was. There are bad Americans and Brits, and there were Good Germans and Japanese. One such individual was Chiune Sugihara, the Japanese Imperial Consul in Lithuania. With the refugee crisis following events in 1939, Diplomats around Europe scrambled to help as many individuals as they can. A Dutch diplomat was able to issue thousands of visas that would allow refugees to enter Curacao, a Dutch island in the Caribbean. However, they needed a transit visa to get there which means they need to go through another country before they can go to Curacao. In the absence of orders from Tokyo, Chiune Sugihara followed his principles and decided to save as many people as he can. If you were a Jew in Lithuania at the time, all you had to do to get a transit visa from him was to show up. He would give anyone a transit visa if they asked, it didn’t matter if they were Polish, or Lithuanian, or ...

  No side is exempt from atrocities in war. During the Second World War, the Germans, the Soviets, and the Japanese routinely carried out wartime atrocities. Because of this, a lot of people would assume that the Western Allies were just and honorable during the war. This was definitely not the case, and one example here was the Chenegone Massacre carried out by elements of the US 11th Armored Division To set the stage, it was late 1944 and the Germans had just launched a surprise attack more famously known as the Battle of the Bulge. One of the German units at the front of the attack was Kampfgruppe Peiper Of the 1st SS Panzer Division. During their charge, they massacred 84 American POWs in what is now known as the Malmedy Massacre. The Americans quickly got word of this and the news understandably angered many troops fighting on the front. So when the Americans captured the town of Chenogne, there was no mercy for the German POWs. The Americans tried their best to cove...

  Basic human instinct would dictate that self-preservation is the most important. Time and time again, especially on this channel, we see that there are lots of people out there who disregard this basic human instinct to do something heroic, something Braved One of these people is Mary Grace P. Baloyo, a Filipina Pilot. A veteran of the campaign to defeat insurgents in the island of Mindanao, Lt. Baloyo was proving to be an outstanding pilot. On March 26, 2001, she was on a proficiency flight on the OV-10 Bronco. As she made her final approach onto Clark Airfield, her plane suddenly experienced engine failure and rapidly descended onto a densely populated neighborhood below. Over 200 families lived in the area. Against orders from her accompanying superior to eject, she stayed on the plane. She steered it into a vacant lot in the neighborhood, saving countless lives as her plane failed to hit any houses. For her actions, she was awarded the Philippine Medal of Valor, the Phili...

  When thinking about ship disasters, the Titanic might come to mind as the most famous, partly due to its incredibly high death toll. However, even that death toll was surpassed. We are talking about the German Ship MV Wilhelm Gustloff. A Cruise ship converted to a hospital ship, then a floating barracks, by 1945 it was tasked with evacuating German personnel and civilians from the Baltics, away from the onrushing Soviet Red Army. By the time it left the port of Gotenhafen in Northern Poland, this ship had over 10,000 people onboard. Way above the ships capacity of around 6,000. The ship took a route along deeper waters to avoid potential mines situated in more shallow waters. This decision however exposed them to potential submarine attacks. Their stealth was not helped by the fact that they were about to cross paths with a German convoy, which meant they turned on their lights to prevent a collision. This unfortunately made them easy prey for a lurking Soviet Submarine. The...