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: 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: 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…
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…
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…