Teaching History Matters
Hand in Hand. (Goodbye, young Lily.)
My heart is broken. My dear friend Lily Cohen passed away two weeks ago at her home in Tel Aviv....
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A picture of Johanna.
"I have a picture of several girls," train liberator George Gross recalled. "They were ghostly thin, with hollow cheeks, huge...
Read the article[We'll get through this!] 75 Years: “The sky was black with flak... You’ve got to go right through it.”
When you feel like the floor keeps dropping out, remember how we rose to the fight in difficult times. As...
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75 Years: Iwo Jima — "What in the devil do they have that flag flying for? We haven’t even taken this damned place!"
[caption id="attachment_6755" align="aligncenter" width="500"] Art LaPorte, 2002.[/caption] Last year I lost one of my first World War II interviewees, Art...
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75 years: "Find a way to the top of that ridge!"
“The (Germans) held all the high ground, and one felt like he was in the bottom of a bowl with...
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Partners in Annihilation.
COUNTDOWN TO LIBERATION-75 YEARS [caption id="attachment_3312" align="aligncenter" width="500"] A mother and her daughter murdered at Auschwitz, from a suitcase of...
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The first miracle of my survival.
COUNTDOWN TO LIBERATION-75 YEARS [caption id="attachment_3966" align="aligncenter" width="500"] "WATER, WATER!"by Train Near Magdeburg survivor Ervin Abadi. Completed at Hillersleben DP...
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LIBERATION 75-the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau II
COUNTDOWN TO LIBERATION-75 YEARS “T-minus” 77 DAYS Countdown to Commemoration at Farsleben-the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau II On April 13, 2020,...
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LIBERATION 75-the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau.
COUNTDOWN TO LIBERATION-75 YEARS "T-minus" 78 DAYS-the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau January 27, 2020, marks the 75th anniversary of the liberation...
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A TALK BY MATTHEW ROZELL, FRIDAY, JAN. 17, 7PM
A TALK BY MATTHEW ROZELL, FRIDAY, JAN. 17, 7PM Matthew Rozell will discuss his newest book: The Things Our Fathers...
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Defenders, Protectors, Confronters: A Talk With the U.S. Army.
My wife and I drove to the state capital to present a talk to representatives of the United States Army...
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A scrappy kid shortens the war in Europe by six weeks.
MALMEDY, BATTLE OF THE BULGE, DEC. 21, 1944. 75 YEARS AGO... The last surviving World War II Medal of Honor...
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Okay, boomer.
On December 10, 2019, I surpassed 500,000 blog visits on TeachingHistoryMatters.com. Thank you for visiting; maybe you were the one...
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27 Gallons of Blood.
[caption id="attachment_6303" align="alignleft" width="500"] "To Mom and Dad, Babe" WW2 medic, Walter 'Babe' Gantz, left[/caption] The Old Coach is being...
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Thanksgiving and the letter that was never opened.
Thanksgiving is upon us. And this is Marvin Boller's final resting place, killed just the day before in 1944. MARVIN...
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Today is Why.
Just a year ago, eleven human beings were slaughtered in their sacred house of worship, their synagogue, in Pittsburgh, PA,...
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Frank Currey, MOH (June 29, 1925 - October 8, 2019)
My local news just broadcast the story I did not want to hear. The last surviving World War II Medal...
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A Journey of Humanity.
TEN YEARS AGO today I looked up at a TV screen at a resort restaurant where I was gathered with...
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A stop at her door.
I am in Amsterdam at the moment, a 2-day stop on a short tour of Europe. Last night I stopped...
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75 Years: ‘I get a little emotional. I’m almost 95; I hope to see them all again in heaven.’
I awoke with a start about quarter to three this morning, today, July 29, 2019. I think in my subconsciousness...
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NEW BOOK: D-DAY AND BEYOND
[caption id="attachment_6420" align="aligncenter" width="500"] D-Day and Beyond: The Things Our Fathers Saw—The Untold Stories of the World War II Generation-Volume...
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Two Franks.
The "Two Franks" in this story are American World War II soldier/liberator Frank Towers and a Dutch teen named Anne...
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The Sixth of June.
[caption id="attachment_6396" align="aligncenter" width="500"] Tuesday morning, June 6, 1944. Omaha Beach. National Archives.[/caption] So, it is the sixth of June...
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Repairing the World.
This newest trailer for our upcoming film, showing the uniting of a World War II medic and a Holocaust survivor...
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The New Witnesses.
There was another shooting at a synagogue on American soil. Sometimes I wonder if my efforts to teach about the...
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Freedom and new life, and a special reunion 74 years on.
The portal opened a crack this week and I stepped through it once more. We pulled it off, in this...
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"I prayed that they would find peace."
"Is this Matt Rozell, the history teacher? Yes? Well Matt Rozell, God bless you and your family!" Tomorrow I am...
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The Quiet Reminder...
Today I traveled in a car with my wife to a high school in New Hampshire a couple of hours...
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“You will always be in my heart”—German student looking to reunite Greek survivor with German friend.
I was contacted by a German teen who goes to school in the vicinity of the liberation site of the...
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Writing again here in the ADKs.
This week I was at our Adirondack camp somewhere in the mountains of northern New York working on the next...
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From the cattle car to the State of the Union.
I saw a friend on TV the other night. About 50 million other Americans did too; maybe you were one....
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You have blessed me, friends, and I thank you deeply.
George Gross, former tank commander in Company D of the 743rd Tank Battalion, died ten years ago today. In his...
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What have you done during your sojourn on Earth?
Today is International Holocaust Remembrance Day, January 27. It's the 74th anniversary of the day that the Auschwitz-Birkenau camp was liberated, where...
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Trails in the Sky.
I'm at the keyboard this morning thinking of a friend who came into my life only twenty years ago, and...
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5 Books About World War II - Recommended by Matthew Rozell
I did an interview recently for ManyBooks.Net. Put these on your holiday shopping list and don't forget to check out...
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A man of virtue and integrity.
[caption id="attachment_6109" align="alignleft" width="230"] George H.W. Bush seated in a Grumman TBM Avenger, circa 1944. USN photo, public domain.[/caption] George...
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