GIST TALK

 Ilse Koch may not be as famous as the Holocaust's ringleaders, but she was every bit as evil. We’ve written twice before about women who not only survived the Holocaust, but saved the lives of fellow prisoners with their superhuman courage and will to survive. The stories of Gisella Perl and Stanislawa Leszczyńska highlight one vital aspect of human nature: Our ability to persevere and care for others in even the most harrowing and cruel of circumstances. But the Holocaust also presented many opportunities for humanity’s terrible dark side to run wild, as well. While Adolf Hitler, Josef Menegle, and Heinrich Himmler are rightly remembered as its figureheads, there were others just as villainous, but their names didn’t quite make the history books. One of these individuals was Ilse Koch, whose sadism and barbarism would lead to her to receive the nickname “The Bitch of Buchenwald.” Ilse Koch, born Margarete Ilse Köhler, was born in Dresden, Germany on September 22, 1906, to a facto

 On January 15, 1947, 22-year-old aspiring actress Elizabeth Short was found brutally murdered in Los Angeles — with her body cut in half and a ghastly smile carved into her face. The 1947 murder of Elizabeth Short, also known as the “Black Dahlia,” is one of the oldest cold cases in Los Angeles. Not only was it a horrific crime, but it’s also proven notoriously difficult to solve. In the decades since the Black Dahlia murder, police, the press, and amateur sleuths alike have all delved deep into this unsolved crime and developed several convincing theories. Though we may never know who killed the Black Dahlia, poring over the evidence of this case is just as darkly fascinating today as it was in 1947. The Murder Of Elizabeth Short On January 15, 1947, Elizabeth Short’s dead body was found in the Los Angeles neighborhood of Leimert Park. The first person who reported the grisly sight was a mother out for a morning walk with her child. According to the woman, the way Short’s body had be

  Thomas Pierrepoint (1870 - 1954) hangman. Thomas William Pierrepoint was born in Sutton Bonnington, Nottinghamshire in 1870 and by 1891 the family was living at Clayton, near Bradford in Yorkshire where Thomas and his father were employed in a stone quarry. Thomas worked as a hangman for 40 years before being removed from the official list in 1946 due to his age, as he was by then 76 years old.  He assisted at 35 executions and carried out 203 civilian hangings in England and Wales and five in Scotland during his period on Home Office List from 1906 to 1946. His brother Henry persuaded him to become a hangman and trained him in the job.  Thomas had no difficulty passing his official training at Pentonville and was added to the official list in 1906. On the 4th of October 1906 he got his first appointment as an assistant to his brother for the execution of Harold Walters at Wakefield.  Wakefield had just had the first purpose built execution chamber constructed within the prison at th

  On June 30, 1943, General Douglas MacArthur launched Operation Cartwheel, a multi-pronged assault on Rabaul and several islands in the Solomon Sea in the South Pacific. The joint effort took nine months to complete but succeeded in recapturing more Japanese-controlled territory, further eroding their supremacy in the East. The purpose of Cartwheel was to destroy the barrier formation Japan had created in the Bismark Archipelago, a collection of islands east of New Guinea in the Solomon Sea. The Japanese considered this area vital to protecting their conquests in the Dutch East Indies and the Philippines. For the Allies, Rabaul, in New Britain, was the key to winning control of this theater of operations, as it served as the Japanese naval headquarters and main base. On June 30, General MacArthur, strategic commander of the area, launched a simultaneous attack, on New Guinea and on New Georgia, as a setup and staging maneuver for the ultimate assault on Rabaul.  The landing on New Geo

  The Lviv pogroms were the consecutive pogroms and massacres of Jews in June and July 1941 in the city of Lwów in German-occupied Eastern Poland/Western Ukraine (now Lviv, Ukraine).  The massacres were perpetrated by Ukrainian nationalists (specifically, the OUN), German death squads (Einsatzgruppen), and urban population from 30 June to 2 July, and from 25 to 29 July, during the German invasion of the Soviet Union. Thousands of Jews were killed both in the pogroms and in the Einsatzgruppen killings. Ukrainian militia as well as Ukrainian residents and to a lower degree Poles targeted Jews in the first pogrom, which was triggered by the discovery of thousands of bodies in three Lviv prisons of victims of the Soviet NKVD prisoner massacre, which were widely blamed on "Jewish Bolsheviks".  The subsequent massacres were directed by the Germans in the context of the Holocaust in Eastern Europe. The pogroms have been widely debated in the historiography, including the extent to w

Claude Newman was a twenty-year-old African-American who, in 1943, awaited execution in a prison in Mississippi. His crime was that of ambushing and shooting a man named Sid Cook, his beloved grandmother’s abusive second husband. One day, noticing a medal hanging around the neck of a fellow prisoner, Claude asked the young man what it was. The latter responded by casting the medal to the ground with a curse saying, “Take it.” The medal was a Miraculous Medal of Our Lady of Graces, and though knowing nothing about it or who it represented, Claude picked up the oval trinket and hung it around his neck. The Miraculous Medal of Our Lady of Graces During the night, Claude was awakened by a touch on his wrist to behold a glowing vision whom he later described as “the most beautiful woman that God ever created.” The lady calmed the frightened man and said, “If you would like me to be your mother, and you my child, send for a Priest of the Catholic Church.” And she disappeared. “A ghost, a gho

  German troops paying their last respects to a fallen comrade on a stretcher-bearer on the Western Front, 1915. Photograph belonging to @drakegoodmanofficial. The following is the diary entry of a Danish-German medical orderly from March 13, 1915 - today 109 years ago, detailing of the awful scene inside a German field hospital following a battle. Translated by myself.⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ "At the field hospital, March 1915. For a day the guns had sounded; one felt that "something was going on". At the field hospital the staff was anxious, they ran back and forth, counted the available beds and put in new ones. And shortly after midday the first wounded arrived - dusty, soiled faces, the majority with one bandaged arm, some with bandaged heads. For many, the red, warm blood ran through the bandaging and slowly dripped down onto the floor tiles. But no one complained of pains, and with a good appetite they devoured the meal put before them. And then they told about the experiences

   On this day in 1943, Rear Adm. Shigematsu Sakaibara, commander of the Japanese garrison on the island, ordered the execution of 96 Americans POWs, claiming they were trying to make radio contact with U.S. forces. In late December 1941, the Japanese reinforced existing forces on Wake Island, part of a coral atoll west of Hawaii, in massive numbers after being unable to wrest the island from a small number of Americans troops earlier in the month.  The Japanese strength was now overwhelming, and most of those Americans left alive after the battle were taken by the Japanese off the island to POW camps elsewhere.  Ninety-six remained behind to be used as forced labor. The Allied response was periodic bombing of the island–but no more land invasions, as part of a larger Allied strategy to leave certain Japanese-occupied islands in the South Pacific to basically starve in isolation. The execution of those remaining American POWs, who were blindfolded and shot in cold blood, remains one of

While attending high school in Bakersfield, California, William White participated in the summer program of the Citizens Military Training Camp being recognized as an honor trainee each year. After graduation in 1929 William was designated as a member Ninth Corps Area CMTG Rifle team for competition in the National Rifle Matches at Camp Perry, Ohio. White had also been recommended for a commission as a Second Lieutenant in the Officers Reserve Corps but being under age for a commission he would have to serve two years in the Enlisted Reserve Corps before becoming eligible. White began San Jose State Teachers College in January, 1930 however he dropped out at the end of his first quarter. A week later he enlisted in the US Marine Corps. By June of 1930 William White reported for duty as a member of the Marine Detachment of the USS West Virginia. After 11 years of service William left the Marine Corps and went to work for Shell Oil Company. In the late summer of 1941 White left his job a

  Fasting for Ramadan While Gaza Goes Hungry How do you celebrate the holy month when you fear the suffering may not end? In 2019, Palestinians broke their Ramadan fast near the rubble of a building destroyed by Israeli air strikes, in Gaza City.Photograph by Ibraheem Abu Mustafa / Reuters / Redux Save this story On the evening of February 28th, thousands of people gathered on Al-Rashid Street, in Gaza City, in hopes that a convoy of aid trucks would bring them desperately needed food. The trucks arrived early the next morning, at around a quarter to five. When a large crowd encircled them in an effort to obtain food, Israeli forces, who were standing by, opened fire. More than a hundred people were killed, and hundreds more were injured. Later, the Israeli Army said that its troops had felt threatened, and that some Palestinians died in a stampede. The day has become known as the “flour massacre.” After I saw the news, I called my father to check on him. I’m in New York and he lives i

Robert Ward - “The Walworth Tragedy”. On the 3rd of October 1899 the Billingtons were in action at Newgate for the hanging of Frederick Preston.  The following day, Wednesday the 4th of October, they were at Wandsworth to hang Robert Ward. Originally Ward was to be hanged alongside Frederick Preston at Newgate, but the High Sheriff had him transferred to Wandsworth as the crime had been committed in South London. Robert Ward was a 27 year old bricklayer who had been convicted at the Old Bailey, before Mr. Justice Phillimore of the murder of his five year old daughter Margaret Florence.  A further charge of murdering his other daughter, two and a half year old Ada Louisa, was not proceeded with. Ward had been married for some six years and lived at 11 Boundry Lane in Walworth.   He went to work on the morning of the 20th of July but came home at lunchtime.  His daughters were playing outside.  He took them into the house and his wife left on an errand.  The Ward’s landlady, Mrs. Mills,

  On 22 November 1940, the first execution by shooting took place on the grounds of the Auschwitz concentration camp. 40 Polish political activists, held in the prison in Katowice, were murdered. The execution was ordered on 18 November 1940 by the police commander in Breslau, Erich von dem Bach-Zelewski, in retaliation for the activities of the Polish resistance movement in Silesia. The Reichsführer-SS SS, Heinrich Himmler, personally chose those who were to be shot from four lists given to him by the German police in Katowice. The chosen were brought to Auschwitz on 22 November at 11.45 a.m.  They were shot by SS men from the guard company under the command of camp manager Karl Fritzsch. The execution started at noon and lasted 20 minutes. The youngest victim was 21 years old and the oldest was 63. SS-Hauptsturmführer Karl Fritzsch (the deputy camp commandant at the Auschwitz-Birkenau and Flossenbürg concentration camps) was known for his particular brutality. Indeed, it was thanks t

 Pictures showing accused Female Collaborators having their heads shaved in Valognes France after its Liberation in June 1944 After the liberation of French Towns by Allied Forces advancing after D-Day, the French Resistance / Maquis often rounded up accused or suspected collaborators and dealt with them. French Women accused of having romantic relationships or sleeping with German Personnel often had their heads shaved in punishment for “collaboration horizontale”. In several cases, the women in question had performed only professional services for the occupying Germans, rather than being engaged in relationships with them. During the German Occupation of France, an estimated 200,000 French babies with German fathers were born. Thank for reading leave your thoughts in the comments section below Read more on our Rare History Channel  

Daylight By Male & Female Officers In Public I said a few months ago that Bobi Wine should just let go of politics and take care of his young family. Some people disagreed with me. I love Bobi. But subjecting your young wife & family to such predictable public disgrace, is not worth it. Suffering such frequent public disgrace and torture for men and women safe and warm in the comfort zones of their homes. Women should be respected in any society. It was so of Uganda police, including a woman who should have respected her kind, to stoop so low. They should have respected even the boy and not stripped the woman so naked NOW BACK TO BOBI. When you know you are dealing with an old idiot who does not care about lives, has tortured you and is ever harassing your family, you are the one to care and let go. EVERY ONE IS ENTITLED TO THEIR OPINION. Some will praise Wine as a hero. Yet all he has got is a wife humiliated before the world and a boy who will live with the trauma all his lif

  China - Death by a Thousand Cuts From the Tang dynasty until the final years of the Qing, a form of capital punishment set itself apart from the rest for its particularly cruel and brutal practices. The ancient Chinese torture tactic known as lingchi — which translates loosely to “slow slicing,” “lingering death,” or “death by a thousand cuts” — was used as a method of execution from the seventh century up until 1905, when it was officially outlawed.  There are some records and photographs of of this still being used “unofficially' into the 1930's – 1940's as punishment by local people in some areas of China. In one case, a woman was stripped naked in a town then town's people would cut her with small knifes as she tried to escape to safety in the the county side out of the town. (I saw the photo of her running – do not know if she made it to safety and survived). Related Article 100 years ago today in 1919, as the established order of the world was seemingly being to

  Executions Surge In Iran Despite International Appeals A human rights group has warned about a disturbing trend in Iran's judiciary system, reporting a significant surge in issuing death penalties during January. According to the US-based Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA), Iranian courts issued 35 death sentences, marking the highest number of death penalties issued within a single month in over a year. Meanwhile, a total of 86 people were executed across the country during January alone. The surge comes on the heels of a similarly grim situation in January 2023, during which at least 63 people were executed in Iran, with 23 death sentences issued. Despite mounting international calls for the abolition of the death penalty, particularly for non-serious crimes, Iran persists in carrying out executions. HRANA contends that the Iranian government utilizes the issuance and implementation of death sentences as a means to quell dissent. Notably, Mohammad Ghobadloo, a protester

After suffering from mysterious hallucinations for four days straight, Edgar Allan Poe died of unknown causes in Baltimore at age 40 on October 7, 1849. The eerie tale of how Edgar Allan Poe died is like something out of one of his own stories. The year is 1849. A man is found delirious on the streets of a city in which he does not live, wearing clothes that are not his own, incapable or unwilling to discuss the circumstances under which he arrived. Within days he is dead, having suffered from crippling hallucinations in his final hours, repeatedly calling out for a man whom no one knew. PixabayThough some say alcoholism was the underlying cause, no one knows for sure what caused Edgar Allan Poe’s death at the age of just 40. And not only is the story of Edgar Allan Poe’s death as strange and haunting as his own writings, it remains a mystery to this day. Though historians have pored over the details for a century and a half, no one knows for sure what caused Edgar Allan Poe’s deat

News reaching YSTV LIB December 11, 2023. MONROVIA – Deddeh Simmons, a victim of a brutal mob action in Redlight, is reportedly undergoing medical attention in Accra, Ghana. She was reportedly mistaken for someone who has been stealing motorbikes. A disturbing video obtained by front-page africa shows Simmons being trampled on by several men while at the same time mercilessly beating her after stripping her stack naked in the crowded market area. In the video, a man is seen trying to force her to open legs while she was already naked, but she lay there helplessly as she was beaten continuously all over her body. The Liberia National Police says it is investigating the incident to bring the perpetrators to book. The victim is reportedly the mother of the Tribeau Brown, the first winner of Big Brabee Liberia reality show. In a Facebook post, Tribeau explained that her mother had gone to Red Light Market on Saturday, December 9 to buy their weekly food when she was engaged by two zogos wh

 The Horrifying Execution Of The 240 People In Auschwitz Concentration Camp In 1942 28 October 1942 | SS men executed by shooting some 280 Poles at the German camp Auschwitz I. The execution took place at the Death Wall located at the courtyard of Block 11. Some were killed when they tried to resist in the corridor inside the block.  This was a retaliation for sabotage and partisan actions carried out in the Lublin area, and the victims of the executions were mainly prisoners deported from prisons in Lublin and Radom in 1941 and 1942. "On 28 October 1942 in the morning roll-call, clerks (Schreiber) in various blocks began to summon some numbers of prisoners and told them they should go to the “Erkennungsdienst” for a verification of photographs. In total, two hundred forty and several people were summoned - exclusively Poles - as we found out later, mainly of the Lublin region, including one fourth of Poles who had nothing in common with the Lublin transports, and were carried ini