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…
Also in the June mailbag came this email from Janice Harris in New Zealand, who found her great-uncle listed in one of Sir Martin’s Indexes on the website: “I’m researching my genealogy, and my great uncle, Samuel Howes, was chauffeur to Sir Winston Churchill during the Wilderness Years. I found…
Photo: Sir Martin’s books, 1 to 88, in various editions I was quite overwhelmed by the responses from my last piece (in the June newsletter), not only from those who have followed me through the many ups and downs (or downs and downs) of the last few years, but also from…
The new data protection laws coming into effect offer an opportunity for many of us to take a look at the newsletters we receive, and those we send. Because the readers of the Sir Martin Gilbert Newsletters have personally subscribed, and with our double opt-in, you need not resubscribe. But…
Refugees, asylum seekers, migrants and the concerns regarding them seem to have become a permanent fixture of our daily news. Yet it is important to remember that a generation ago, with the collapse of the Soviet Union and the opening of borders to the West, people who had been struggling…
In the summer of 1945, the British government agreed to allow the Jewish organisation, the Central British Fund, to bring a thousand young orphaned survivors of the Holocaust to live in Britain. Only 732 children and teens could be found among those liberated in Theresienstadt and from camps in Germany.…
The Story of Israel From Theodor Herzl to the Dream for Peace The new edition of Sir Martin’s book, published in time to celebrate Israel’s Independence Day on May 14, has been held at an introductory price for our readers throughout the month of May. On checkout enter code: story Buy Here Subscribe to…
Sir Martin writes of the assassination of Dr Martin Luther King, 4 April 1968 “… while standing on the balcony of his hotel, King was shot dead by a White assassin. Four years earlier he had been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts to achieve racial harmony and Black…
In honour of Israel’s birthday, Carlton Books has produced this exciting new and updated edition and is offering our newsletter readers a special discount of 30% direct from the Carlton website from 3rd to 30th April 2018. On checkout add the code: story BUY HERE Late last summer, Carlton Books got…
Anthony Gilbert, composer, read Sir Martin’s Kristallnacht, Prelude to Destruction and writes: In the summer of 2017 I was re-reading Sir Martin Gilbert’s very disturbing book on Kristallnacht and its immediate consequences. I’d reached the account of how the 927 German refugees on the chartered ocean liner St Louis were,…
In Sir Martin’s thirteen books that chronicle the fate of Europe’s Jews during the Second World War, Poland has its rightful place at the centre of Europe, the invasion of which by German forces ignited the war. The Polish government is currently examining its place in that history and what…
Photo: Antonina Zabinsky with an unnamed badger, Yad Vashem photo Recently I saw the film The Zookeeper’s Wife. (OK, so I don’t get out much.) Though not an “unknown” or “forgotten” story (see Sir Martin’s The Righteous), still it is an important one and it presents a unique approach to…
It is now 50 years since Soviet Jews who wanted to emigrate were imprisoned, and 30 years since they were finally released from their imprisonment and allowed to leave. Prisoners of Zion map, 1968-1985 Routledge Atlas of Jewish History Click Here and scroll down to Sir Martin and Russian Jewry Subscribe…
With Jerusalem in the news, it seemed an opportunity to consult Sir Martin’s Routledge Historical Atlas of Jerusalem. These four map reflect the city’s history at key junctures: Pre-1947, 1948 – 1967, Since 1948, and in 2008. Routledge Historical Atlas of Jerusalem Subscribe to Sir Martin’s Newsletter & Book Club Follow…
Holocaust Memorial Day 2018: The power of words In September 1944, Salmen Grodowski buried a letter and diary near Crematorium II in Birkenau. The letter began: “Dear Finder, search everywhere, in every inch of soil. Tens of documents are buried under it, mine and those of other persons, which will…
“Rarely has so much talent been so well concealed” Sir John Major on Sir Martin Gilbert 14 November 2017 When Esther Gilbert invited me to deliver this inaugural Lecture in Martin’s name, I was honoured to be asked, and delighted to accept. Many – perhaps most – of you present will have…
It was a cold and snowy December night. I was on my way from London UK to London Canada, stranded at the airport in Toronto. My flight to London had been cancelled due to the weather, and the last flight of the night was full. I dragged myself to the…