Photo: Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, 19 February 2007, Jerusalem, photo by Matty Stern 775 words/3 ½ minute read “You never know what’s happening behind the scenes.” This was Martin’s view of how political leaders manage – or…
Photo: Winston Churchill gives his ‘Iron Curtain’ speech in Fulton, MO . 5th March, 1946. winstonchurchill.org Martin’s intro to the speech: In the immediate aftermath of the war, Churchill contemplated with alarm a Europe divided between East and West, by what he called an “Iron Curtain”. The dominance of the Soviet…
Photo: The mob in the Capitol, 6 January 2021 President Joe Biden, Inaugural Address, 20 January 2021 850 word count / 4 minute read In August 2013 I was invited by the Churchill Centre to attend the dedication of an Oscar Nemon bust of Winston Churchill at the Capitol building…
From Helen McCord, Senior Teaching Fellow, the UCL Centre for Holocaust Education: At the UCL Centre for Holocaust Education we are working with the author Tom Palmer to produce free lesson materials and resources to support teachers using his novel ‘After the War’ with their students. ‘After the War’ is…
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: 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: 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…
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…
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: 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: 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: 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…
Photo: Ettie Weissbrun and Esther Gilbert, courtesy of Suzy Goldberg A woman of strength, who can find? Her worth is far beyond pearls. She sees that her business goes well; her lamp does not go out at night. She reaches out her palm to the poor, and extends her hand…
Photo: Fanya Heller with Esther, 9 October 2005, New York 680 words/ 3 ½ minute read There’s a description in a Holocaust memoir that illustrates the chaos that can develop when it is encouraged and sanctioned. Fanya Gottesfeld Heller writes in Love in a Time of Sorrow that as an…