Photo: Churchill addressing the crew of the HMS Exeter Notwithstanding the heroic efforts of the Royal Air Force in repelling the German air assault throughout the summer and autumn of 1940, the British public, after the fierce battering of the Blitz, remained deeply anxious lest Hitler, having subjugated Denmark and…
On January 20th, a burial took place at a Jewish cemetery in London that was attended by members of the government, clergy, and 1200 Jews of varying degrees of religiosity. Who was this individual whose death had brought together so many, and from such a wide spectrum of society? No…
Photo: Rabbi Nicky Liss, Chairman of the Rabbinical Council of the United Synagogue, at the gravesite. Courtesy HMDT Tens of thousands of events across the UK were supported by the Holocaust Memorial Day Trust, from speakers to exhibitions, from memorial programmes to projects, in schools, civic centres, churches and care homes. …
January 21st marks the 4th anniversary of Martin’s death on the Hebrew calendar. It is also the Israeli holiday of Tu B’Shvat, or the 15th day of the Hebrew month of Shvat, the holiday of planting trees. It is the only Israeli holiday that is not biblical, historical or political,…
December’s mailbag included an email query from Prodos Marinakis from Melbourne, Australia, who writes to ask about an article in The Independent by Jenn Selby in which she writes of Sir Martin, “Like much of Britain in the Thirties and Forties, however, he adds that Churchill ‘shared the low-level casual…
Photo: Sir Ben Helfgott, knighted for Services to Holocaust Remembrance and Education Fifteen-year-old Ben Helfgott from Piotrkow, who had also been brought from Schlieben, later recalled: “Two weeks after reaching the camp I learned that my father had been killed only a few days before, trying to run away from…
PHOTO: Israeli Ambassador Mark Regev (on the right) speaks to Lavi Melman (on the left) and Roy Van-Gelder (centre), both of whom are related to Jewish Brigade soldiers who were killed in North Italy in 1945, at the Westminster Field of Remembrance, 8 November 2018. In response to a piece…
PHOTO : Martin with the Nemon bust of Churchill, photo courtesy Lady Young. It is now nearly four years since Martin died, and six and a half since he published a word. But I am continually amazed at how his work and his reputation for being, in Dennis Prager’s words,…
PHOTO: Adolph Hitler salutes, while two SS men hold back an excited crowd. Circa 1932, Fox Photos Ltd August 1932: … as part of the research for his Marlborough biography, Churchill left England for Germany, and for a visit to the battlefields of Blenheim. With him on this expedition went…
Photo: The Jewish fallen in the British Forces with their list of regiments, represented by their Stars of David, next to the fallen who fought with the Jewish Brigade in the Second World War. On Thursday, November 8, will be the official opening of the Westminster Abbey Field of Remembrance,…
Photo: The Baden Baden Synagogue burns on Kristallnacht I remember the look on Martin’s face when he told me. It was pure astonishment on his part, and he had been the detective, unaware of what he was to uncover. Amanda Foreman (who had known Martin since her childhood) and Lisa Jardine…
Photo: The revamped Metropole Hotel, which had been requisitioned during both the First and Second World Wars as the Metropole Building, redone in 2007 as the Corinthia Hotel, Northumberland Avenue, London Note: While preparing a “Churchill-lite” tour of London for a former Hillsdale Churchill Fellow, Lillian Quinones, I found this…
Sir Martin’s map in the Center for Holocaust, Human Rights & Genocide Education, Brookdale Community College, Lincroft, New Jersey, chhange.org (Below) Sam Freiman recently visited his cousins Elfriede Schlesinger (on Sam’s right) and Adrienne Aldermeshian (on Sam’s left) at the Museum in New Jersey. Sam is holding a copy of Sir…
Winston Churchill had a way with words. So may I be forgiven for quoting Churchill to speak for me in honouring my dear husband who would be celebrating his birthday this month? Martin and I were married for ten years. On September 12, 1918, Churchill wrote to his wife Clementine…
I was born on 25 October 1936, three weeks after the Battle of Cable Street, and therefore have no recollections of it. I have prepared an account of it from contemporary documents, the newspapers of the time, and the recollections of some of those who took part in it for…
Photo: Jack Brauns, Martin, Avraham Tory, in Israel, 1980s (Jack Brauns, a survivor of Kovno, was the son of Dr Moshe Brauns, Director of the Jewish Hospital and Head of Infectious Diseases in the Ghetto) Like all the captive peoples – Poles, Czechs, Serbs, Greeks, Dutch, Danes, and many more…
Photo: One of the Russian-built pits as fuel depots, used by the Germans as a mass murder site, into which the Jews of Vilna were shot, in the Paneriai Forest. In September 2001, Martin and I were in Lithuania. Still reeling from the shock of 9/11, we were on the…
Facebook’s Peter Stern who is on Facebook’s Community Standards team recently wrote to Holocaust educators in response to Facebook’s decision to allow “inaccuracies”. He wrote that “Facebook rejects hate” though allows “things that are wrong or untrue”. But, as my late father would say: “One thing leads to another.” How…
The Sir Martin Gilbert Learning Centre is delighted to introduce its Friday morning learning series, “Topics in Modern Jewish History”, to begin on Friday 5th October. The series, like the Centre, aims to make historical learning accessible and engaging, particularly on the subjects close to Sir Martin’s heart: the Holocaust,…
Photo: Claude Lanzmann in his study Holocaust Survivor, French Resistance Fighter, Filmmaker I never met Claude Lanzmann, and I am ashamed to admit that I never watched the whole of his 9 ½ hour film Shoah. I did however have correspondence with him and through the impetus for that, and…