Photo: Martin, working on the Churchill biography, 26 March 1991. Photo by Edward Hamilton West for The Guardian 1120 words / 5 ½ minutes read In the spring of 1967, Randolph Churchill, who was then far from well, was making plans for the future of the Official Biography. One evening after…
Photo: At 31 volumes, eight narrative and 23 of documents, The Official Biography, “Winston S Churchill”, is the longest on the planet. Photo: Hillsdale College 720 words / 3 ½ minute read Martin called it his “life’s work”. He worked on it throughout a 50 year span, devoting many years…
Photo: The cover of the 1988 book Murderous Science by the late German Professor of Genetics Benno Muller-Hill, a pioneer in the examination of the scientific experiments undertaken by Nazi German scientists and doctors. 950 words / 5 minute read In my January 2020 newsletter, I posed the question whether the…
Photo: Peter Mansbridge photo & CBC logo “Mansbridge One on One” A CBC Interview by Peter Mansbridge 1800 words/6 minute read Peter Mansbridge is a British-born Canadian journalist, for twenty years the chief correspondent and anchor of The National, CBC Television’s premier nightly newscast. This November 2006 interview is published…
Photo: Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu 700 words/3 ½ minute read In November, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu flew to Saudi Arabia and met with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. Although there have been low…
Photo: Information to join the memorial for the late Rabbi Jonathan Sacks I was sitting by the window which overlooks the Rocky Mountains above Canmore, Alberta when I received a call from a friend that Jonathan Sacks had died. Former Chief Rabbi of the United Hebrew Congregations of Great Britain…
Photo: Churchill, in his constituency, electioneering with his wife, 26 May 1945. For the reasons why Churchill lost the election, and his response, see The Will of the People In December 1944, when democracy was under grave threat in liberated Greece in the form of a civil war, Churchill flew personally to…
Photo: Witold Pilecki in a colourised pre-1939 photo. (T.Bor komorowski “Armia podziemna” Warsaw,1990, Wikimedia Commons, public domain) 600 words/3 minute read Jack Fairweather’s book The Volunteer, the story of Witold Pilecki, has what may be to many readers a confusing twist. Pilecki, a fighter with the Polish Resistance during the Second…
Photo: Churchill meets Roosevelt at Quebec before the start of the first Quebec conference, 16 August 1943. Imperial War Museum photograph 525 words/2 1/2 minute read In 1944, as victory came closer, Churchill saw a bolder and brighter future for the Anglo-American relationship than victory alone. In a speech in London…
Photo: Jewish partisans from Vilna return to the city from the Rudnicka forest immediately after liberation, 14 July 1944, while fighting is still going on just outside the city. From left to right (standing): Elchanon Magid, Jacob Prener, Bluma Markowicz (she was killed in a bombardment a few days after…
325 words / 1 ½ minute read A pilot project involving more than 15 schools in the UK has presented pupils an opportunity to compete for the first Sir Martin Gilbert History Prize based on Winston Churchill’s life and times. Allen Packwood, the Director of the Churchill Archives Centre in…
Photo: A page of Martin’s manuscript of The Holocaust “To perish, but with honour” in draft 580 words / 3 minute read In those ancient pre-computer days, Martin wrote his books with “pen and ink”. He used legal pads, turned lengthwise so he could write across the page, ignoring what…
Photo: 25 August 2020, peaceful Belorussian protest of August 9 election results 985 words/5 minute read 1991: At the time of the collapse of the Tsarist empire at the end of the First World War there had been a brief but unsuccessful attempt by White Russia (Byelorussia) to assert its independence.…
On 27 February 2011, Sir Martin spoke at London’s Jewish Book Week on some of his travels and discoveries. Jewish Book Week has kindly made this video available online Watch Here Subscribe to Sir Martin’s Newsletter & Book Club
Photo: “Moses Showing the Tables of the Law to the People”, oil painting by Rembrandt, 1659 840 words/4 minute read God bless America, land that I love, Stand beside her, and guide her, Through the night with a light from above. Irving Berlin This month, Jews around the world are…
Photo: Trenches memorialised on the battlefield at Beaumont-Hamel where the Royal Newfoundland Regiment fought; the only regiment in the First World War to be given the designation Royal, in recognition of its wartime contribution. From a 2008 talk Martin gave on his Atlases 590 words / 3 minute read In…
Photo: Sir Harry Solomon and Sir Martin This piece, presented by Martin’s dear friend Sir Harry Solomon, is taken from a talk he delivered at the Sir Martin Gilbert Learning Centre on 26 June 2020. Sir Harry is a founder of the Centre and Chair of the Trustees. 2500 words/13…
Photo: Hiroshima; the scene near the centre of the atomic explosion of 6 August 1945 700 words/3 ½ minute read 6 August 1945: The scale and nature of the destruction of human life at Hiroshima was eventually to alter the whole nature of how mankind looked at wars, power, diplomacy…
Photo: Two stamps on a postcard Martin sent from Ukraine. Martin wrote: “Hope you like my juxtaposition of Stefan Bandera – whose men killed tens of thousands of Jews in this region (Volhynia) – and dear old Shalom Aleichem.” Bandera is now viewed as a Ukrainian national hero; Shalom Aleichem, also…
OpenDor Media is producing a series of films being released on their YouTube channel, Unpacked, based on Sir Martin’s book Letters to Auntie Fori. The series will cover Jewish history in a similar way to how he presented it in his book. The launch was on June 29 and new…