VE Day

Friday was Victory in Europe Day, or VE Day for short, which marks the end of World War II in Europe. (The war continued in Japan for a few more months.) Anyway, the United Kingdom’s Office of National Statistics put together a couple of charts looking at the war’s impact on the structure of the British population. Many know the baby-boom phenomenon. But, did you know about the divorce-boom phenomenon?

Marriage and divorce rates over time
Marriage and divorce rates over time

Credit for the piece goes to the ONS Digital team.

The Reach of Nazi Concentration Camps

In a truly disturbing article, the New York Times detailed recent research by the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum to identify all the camps established by Germany in World War II, be them extermination camps, labour camps, ghettos, &c. At one point in the article, one of the principals behind the USHMM work stated he expected to find as many as 7,000 such camps across Europe. They have currently identified 42,500.

Two maps accompany the article. The first details the reach of ghettos for Eastern European Jews.

Map of ghettos across Eastern Europe
Map of ghettos across Eastern Europe

This second map plots the locations of the primary and secondary SS concentration camps.

Map of SS concentration camps
Map of SS concentration camps

Credit for the pieces go to the New York Times.