My Tante (Aunt) Bep, my father’s sister, passed away in 2015 at 97, having lived a remarkable life. Newly married when Holland was occupied by the Nazis in World War II, she and my Uncle Bob decided in 1942 to hide two Jewish children from transport to the Nazi death camps...
She wrote a short history for family members. There was a constant threat of exposure. The German once came to the house to round up young men for the factories in Germany…
My father, 16, narrowly escaped by leaping out of a second floor window. That also distracted the German soldiers from discovering the children, who were brother and sister…
The Dutch underground supplied illegal meal coupons to keep the children fed. There are many other harrowing tales, involving forged medical documents and bluffing German officers when my father’s brother, my uncle and my grandfather were rounded up at various moments….
My aunt became pregnant with her first child. Yet the two children stayed hidden and survived the war. Through some lucky circumstances, their father (who had joined the Allied invasion) found out where they were hidden….
The reunion was captured by a military aide and one of the photographs was published last year in the New York Times….nytimes.com/interactive/20…
The children grew up to be adults and the sister is still alive, with three children and many grandchildren. My aunt and uncle, for saving them, are listed as Righteous Among the Nations in Yad Vashem….
My aunt and uncle were always modest about what they did. It was simply something they thought was right — a human act of kindness in the face of tyranny. That’s how evil is defeated — one small step at a time.
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I joke that I belong to the Washington Post book of month club but lately it's been the book of week. Here are the great books I've read in recent weeks by @frankelglenn@ktumulty@JobyWarrick@michaeldobbs@blaineharden Film, politics, national security, history..take your pick
This new complaint seeking an ethics investigation of McCarthy's housing arrangement with Frank Luntz draws heavily on information contained in three of our fact checks...
2. The housing arrangement violated the condo by-laws, which required the entire space be rented for not less than six months. washingtonpost.com/politics/2021/…
There are usually two sides to every story. My friend @emilymiller has written a remarkable account of her public “firing” at the FDA last year. It’s a story of spin and betrayal and offers real insight in how Washington works….
…Emily writes that she had nothing to do with FDA chief Stephen Hahn’s very public mistake at a White House news briefing, repeated by President Trump. But he needed a sacrificial lamb to distract from the PR disaster…
Yet even as she was being “fired” for PR reasons, Emily was asked to stay on as Hahn’s senior advisor. She had only been at the FDA for two weeks and had just moved back to Texas. Where could she go?…
"We found that Warren’s relying on family lore rather than official documentation to make an ethnic claim raised serious concerns about Warren’s judgment." washingtonpost.com/news/fact-chec…
Biden"suddenly recalls being arrested in South Africa — and being thanked by Mandela for being arrested. There is no evidence for either claim; neither appears remotely credible." washingtonpost.com/politics/2020/…
"As far as we can determine, Biden participated in just one walk-out at one restaurant. He also picketed a segregated movie theater." washingtonpost.com/politics/2020/…
Before that book, I had just finished @frankelglenn's groundbreaking and beautifully-written account of the making of "Midnight Cowboy," the third in his series of movie westerns. amazon.com/Shooting-Midni…
We've been comparing Biden (67 false or misleading claims) to Trump's first 100 days (511 claims.) But past is no prologue. In the last 100 days before the 2020 election, we counted 8,859 claims made by Trump. It was a wild ride.
Here's the Biden database -- which we do not plan to extend beyond 100 days. I have learned my lesson. washingtonpost.com/politics/inter…
“Learned my lesson” means that who knows what the next four years will bring. We have fact-checked Biden rigorously and will continue to do so. Trump at 500 claims/100 days was manageable; 8,000+ was not.