All posts by Martin Gilbert

Is Historical Fiction an Oxymoron?

Photo:  Feng Shan Ho, Consul General in Vienna, 1938, Manli Ho Collection 650 words / 3 ½ minute read Martin loved watching old war films and would get together with his friend the military historian Max Arthur, the two of them offering a running commentary with and over the characters in

Churchill’s 1921 visit to Jerusalem

Photo:  Churchill with Tel Aviv’s mayor Meir Dizengoff, 30 March 1921 800 words / 4 minute read At midnight on 23 March 1921, Churchill left Egypt for Palestine by overnight train.  Sir Herbert Samuel and T. E. Lawrence accompanied him.  At that time 83,000 Jews and 600,000 Arabs lived between the

And now for something completely different

Photo:  In Ishmael’s House makes a cameo appearance in Small Apartments, directed by Jonas Äkerlund, 2012, near James Marsden, playing Bernard 390 words / 2 minute read Literally one of those if-you-blink-you-missed-it moments, Martin made a cameo appearance.  Well, not really Martin, but rather one of his productions. Spotted in a

Survivors in their own right

Photo:  Krzysztof Hejmanowski, left, the building inspector for the construction company, with Bartlomiej Gwozdz, left, the archaeologist, and some of the artefacts unearthed in Lodz. Photo by AP photographer Rafal Niedzielski 560 words / 3 minute read In January came the news that in December, during a building renovation in the

Iran What’s going on? Where did it come from?

Photo:  Ayatollah Khomeini on the Iran 2000 Rial banknote (in November 2022, worth £.04 or $.047) 635 words / 3 minute read 1953:  Not only Communism, but Islam, was offering an alternative political system to parliamentary democracy.  On November 2 the Constituent Assembly in Pakistan declared the country a republic and

The Abraham Accords Bear Fruit

Photo: Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis with museum founder Sheikh Ahmed Al Mansoori at the Crossroads of Civilisation Museum’s Holocaust exhibit in Dubai, November 2022. 360 words / 2 minute read You might have missed it.  But tucked away between the struggle of the brave women of Iran to be allowed to choose

How History is Written

Photo:  Left to right, Rivka Liebeskind (Dolek’s wife), Dolek Liebeskind, Miriam Liebeskind (Dolek’s sister).  Rivka survived. Photo from Ghetto Fighters’ House, Israel. 530 words / 2 ½ minute read “We are fighting for three lines in the history books.”  Adolf (Dolek) Liebeskind, Cracow, 20 November 1942 On December 22, a month

The “War to End All Wars” Ends

Photo: The Western Front, November 11, photo by United States Signal Corps, from First World War 460 words / 2 minute read On the morning of 9 November 1918, the German armistice negotiators reached the Forest of Compiègne.  The German military delegate, Major-General von Winterfeldt, was the son of the man

Sir Martin’s paper trail

Photo:  Karl Huhle’s photo of Hitler descending the stairway at the Berghof near Berchtesgaden to meet the former Prime Minister Lloyd George in September 1936; the interpreter Paul-Otto Schmidt is in the centre, lifting his hat, and Joachim von Ribbentrop at the left. 800 words / 4 minute read “I am

Anne Frank – What do we really need to know?

Photo:  The cover of the first edition of Anne Frank’s diary, The Secret Annexe, published in Amsterdam in 1947.  Many editions, translations, adaptations followed. 650 words / 3 minute read Anne Frank’s story has gone through many representations.  My favourite is this one: The stage is set as a dwelling that has