Photo: From The Somme, The Heroism and Horror of War 650 words / 3 minute read In January 2020, I asked whether we would have 20:20 – perfect vision. Then, within the span of two months the world changed. We watched as the streets of Wuhan became empty, thinking – well,…
Photo: HRH The Prince of Wales greets Israeli President Isaac Herzog, 22 November 2021,. Photo © GPO/ Kobi Gideon 320 words / 1 ½ minutes What gift does the President of Israel present to the Prince of Wales on his first visit to the UK as President? What to give…
Photo: Clarissa Eden : From The Times obituary, 16 November 2021 450 words – 2 minute read It was a Friday, the 30th of January, on the 50th anniversary of Winston Churchill’s funeral and I was invited to Parliament for a rededication of the Oscar Nemon statue of Churchill in the Members’ Lobby…
Photo : The Nazi racial policy that defined the physical characteristics of those worthy to be considered Aryans or members of the German “Master Race”, and those considered “Untermenschen” believed to be racially and socially inferior beings. 975 words / 4 ½ minute read Who has not heard a child complain: …
Martin was always very proud of his foreign editions – Italian, Portuguese, Spanish, Czech, Polish, Russian and Chinese to name a few. He was surprised and honoured to find in Shanghai his three volume history of the Twentieth Century in a handsome five-volume edition, surprised because it was done without…
Photo: James Brokenshire and Sir David Amess 685 words / 3 minute read In my computer files is a quote from one of The Boys, the child survivors who came to Britain after the Second World War about whom Martin has written. Moshe Nurtman asks a basic question about the…
Photo: Hitler Youth at a Nazi Party convention rally in Nuremberg, c. 1934; Photo, Encyclopedia of the Holocaust 1760 words/8 ½ minute read Through the years, in thinking and teaching about the Holocaust, I have viewed it as a way to see what human beings are capable of in regard…
Photo: The Canadian Rockies, February 2021, E Gilbert photo 515 words/ 2 ½ minute read Geography was so important to Martin. It was not only the history of a particular moment in time that counted, but that moment was inextricably linked to the place where it happened. This formed the basis…
Photo: Steve McCurry’s 1984 photograph of young Sharbat Gula in an Afghan refugee camp in Pakistan, published in 1985. 630 words / 3 minute read The face of then twelve-year old Sharbat Gula that adorned the cover of the June 1985 edition of National Geographic was the face of the refugee.…
Photo: Is he facing the truth, or filtering it? The dark shadow of this biography. Image from intheblack.com 430 words / 2 minute read Andrew Roberts wrote a review in The Spectator of a new Churchill biography. It seems that the author of the book uses his journalism background to present…
Photo: Sketch of the planned Ian Wolter memorial to the Kindertransport at Harwich. 600 words / 3 minute read In the ten months leading up to the outbreak of the Second World War, 10,000 children left their parents and families, their homes and countries of birth in Germany, Austria and…
Photo: Churchill in Tel Aviv with the city’s mayor, Meir Dizengoff, March 1921; Central Zionist Archives, from Churchill and the Jews 525 words / 2 ½ minute read This year marks the centenary of Winston’s Churchill’s visit, as Colonial Secretary, to the Middle East, which included an eight-day visit to…
Photo: Sir Martin’s map of the First World War Sites in Britain Visit the museums, birthplaces, cemeteries and memorials – locations with a First World War connection. Sir Martin’s Atlas is an historical guide to any tour through Britain. Read: British History Atlas Subscribe to Sir Martin’s Newsletter & Book…
Photo: The visa signed by the Ecuadorean diplomat Ernesto Fuchs in Prague on 8 February 1939 for Mr Tibor Friedmann. Photo courtesy of Alberto Dorfzaun. 950 words/5 minute read Some names are known; some lie buried in forgotten archives. Many, knowing they were operating against their government’s orders destroyed evidence…
Photo: Martin “on location” 575 words / 3 minute read Martin’s first geographic adventure was when he was only three years old, crossing the ocean, without his parents, evacuated to Canada during the Second World War. It must have sparked a wanderlust in him because he loved discovering new places…
275 words – 1 minute read Photo: A Jewish official in the Ottoman Empire, before 1914, photo from Israel Museum Mirna Abdulaal, writing in Egyptian Streets about “Four Myths About Israel and Palestine” quotes Martin in debunking the myth that Muslims and Jews never got along and lived in peace…
Photo: Prince Philip planting a tree at Yad Vashem, Israel’s Holocaust Memorial, in 1994 to honour his mother Princess Alice of Greece who saved a Jewish family. 560 words/3 minute read In his talks about “Righteous” individuals who helped their fellow human beings, Martin has spoken about Prince Philip, the…
Photo: 23 June 1967. The scene outside the Al Aksa mosque, after the first Friday prayer meeting since 1948 at which Arabs from the Israeli side of the Armistice line could be present. The Jordanians had for 19 years refused to allow Israeli Arabs, as well as Israeli Jews, entry…
Photo: Churchill with his literary agent Emery Reves, 1937 1500 words / 7 ½ minute read Based on a piece published in the Spectator on 17 March 2007 “Churchill was too fond of the Jews, It’s a nonsense to allege that the war leader was anti-Semitic” the following was republished…
Photo: Places mentioned in Samuel Pisar’s memoir, from Holocaust Memoir Digest, Volume I 750 words / 4 minute read In 2000, Martin and I attended the Remembering for the Future Conference in Oxford, organised by the late Elisabeth Maxwell. Martin gave an opening address; Samuel Pisar’s talk followed. Pisar, an…