I recently discovered a YouTube channel that offers a lot of world history documentaries. This morning I have noticed a new one. In it, they investigate the truth behind the Scottish medium Helen Duncan who was known as the Blitz Witch and the last woman tried under the Witchcraft Act of 1735 in England.
Imagine living on an island that’s a mere 15 acres of land. Sounds like a lot of room, right? Considering that 15 acres is .02 square miles and at it’s peak, there were 5,259* individuals living within this 15 acre compound, it’s quite cramped. Highrise apartments reached high into the sky, pressed tightly together, providing housing to those who were forced to live and work on this island that was once considered the most densely populated area on earth.
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Walking through the winding structures and empty streets of the Beelitz-Helstatten Sanitorium within the Potsdam-Mittelmark district of Brandenburg Germany, one can barely imagine life existing at all here. With the exception of a neurological centre and as well as a section devoted to research and care of patients suffering from Parkinson’s Disease, a majority of the 60 building complex has been abandoned completely since 2000. Construction of the building began in 1898, and at one time its halls and rooms were filled with patients, doctors, nurses, orderlies, as well as a host of other professions designed to treat and cure consumptive illnesses, particularly tuberculosis. It did not remain exclusive to this type of treatment for long.
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Oradour sur Glane Before the War
When our group decided to do a series on ghost towns, I was all for it. Being American, the ghost towns I am acquainted with are mostly relics of mining boomtowns. They’re all over the country…despite popular expectations, comparatively few of these ghost towns are actually from the gold rush era. Many of these ghost towns were built around coal mines, or phosphate mines, etc…and quite a few of the towns were formed as farming villages that just didn’t pan out. When we were presented with the list of suggested towns about which to write our international ghost town blogs, I naturally “dibbed” Oradour-sur-Glane in France, as my mother was born in France. I thought the town would have as an innocuous an origin as the ghost towns in America.
The previous entry provided history pertaining directly to the Queen Mary as a whole. History can play an important factor in the stories of haunted locations, so it’s important to know history because it can give insight as to why a particular area is experiencing haunting. It also provides a great window into the past because you can understand what other things that might have been going on at that time which may have resulted in spooks and specters.
Unfortunately, some of the more tragic events that have happened aboard this stately ship have sparked questions as to whether the ship bears the scars of those who perished between her iron walls…
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The Witching Hour 