Pan-African Cultural Festival

by Kathryn Hadley

The Second Pan-African Cultural Festival officially opened in Algiers on Sunday July 5th, Algerian independence day, with a concert in the capital. 48 countries are taking part in the festival gathering over 8,000 artists and writers from all over Africa.

The festival is organised by the Organisation of African Unity and the Algerian government to mark forty years since the original festival in July 1969, which, in the aftermath of the colonial era, celebrated African art and culture in the belief that Africans had the capacity to shape their own history. Focusing on the theme of African Renaissance, this year’s events include theatre productions, film screenings, exhibitions, dance, music and a series of lectures.

From July 13th to 15th, a conference entitled ‘L’entreprise coloniale et la lutte armée de libération en Afrique’ will consider the history of liberation movements in Africa, how the struggle for independence in Algeria inspired other movements and the Algerian decision to support other struggles for independence in Africa and worldwide. Two other conferences will explore the original Pan-African Festival held in 1969 and the history of colonisation in Africa. The festival will also include a presentation and screening of two documentaries by the Algerian cineaste Lamine Merbah and the South African Suleyman Ramadan on the theme ‘Algeria and liberation movements’.

For further information on the original festival read our article by Martin Evans published in our July issue Decolonising Minds: The Pan-African Cultural Festival

Rare Photos of Colonial East Africa Online

by Kathryn Hadley

An online collection of thousands of rare photographs chronicling Europe’s colonisation of East Africa went live last week, on June 25th, on the website of the Library of Northwestern University (Illinois). The Humphrey Winterton Collection of East African Photographs: 1860-1960 includes approximately 7,610 photographs. It was assembled by the British collector Winterton over about 30 years and organised in 76 separate albums, scrapbooks or loose collections. The collection was acquired by Northwestern University’s Melville J. Herskovits Library of African Studies in 2002.

The photographs were mostly taken by explorers, military officers, colonial officials, settlers, missionaries, travellers and early commercial photographers and depict the breadth of African life during the colonial era. They include formal and informal portraits of Africans and their colonisers, photos of slaves and slave traders, of the British bombardment of Zanzibar in 1896, as well as images depicting the building of the east African railway and daily life in Africa. One of the oldest photographs in the collection shows a Zanzibar slave market in approximately 1860.

According to Jonathon Glassman, a Northwestern University associate professor of history and specialist in 19th- and 20th-century East Africa and comparative race and slavery the collection’s particular value lies in its unusual subject matter:

‘The most familiar photographs from this era tend to dwell on what photographers
considered East Africa’s glamorous aspects - its spectacular wildlife,
landscapes, settler life or the occasional posed portrait of an African sultan
or Maasai warrior […] What stands out about the collection is the large number
of items that document prosaic matters - matters that are precisely the most
difficult for the student of African history to get a handle on.’

It is possible to search for photographs by subject, keyword, people, place or time or to browse the entire collection in a way that simulates flipping through a photo album. In its pilot stage the collection was notably used to research the lineage of President Barack Obama. 31 photos of people and places were found including images of Kavirondo warriors in western Kenya from whom his father is believed to have descended.

The Winterton Collection is now the third Herskovits Library collection available online. The two others are a collection of 113 antique African maps dating from the 16th to the early 20th century and a collection of 590 posters reflecting the culture and politics of contemporary African nations. It is available on the website of the website of Northwestern University Library.
http://www.library.northwestern.edu/

For further information on various aspects of African history, visit our Africa focus page.

The Mountaintop or the legacy of Martin Luther King

by Kathryn Hadley

‘And then I got to Memphis. And some began to say the threats, or talk about the
threats that were out. What would happen to me from some of our sick white
brothers? Well, I don't know what will happen now. We've got some difficult days
ahead. But it doesn't matter with me now. Because I've been to the mountaintop.
And I don't mind. Like anybody, I would like to live a long life. Longevity has
its place. But I'm not concerned about that now. I just want to do God's will.
And He's allowed me to go up to the mountain. And I've looked over. And I've
seen the promised land. I may not get there with you. But I want you to know
tonight, that we, as a people, will get to the promised land. And I'm happy,
tonight. I'm not worried about anything. I'm not fearing any man. Mine eyes have
seen the glory of the coming of the Lord.’

Martin Luther King gave his ‘I’ve Been to the Mountaintop’ speech, the last of his career, at a rally during the sanitation workers’ strike at Mason Temple, the World Headquarters of the Church of God in Christ, in Memphis on April 3rd 1968.

The Mountaintop by Katori Hall is on show at the Theatre503 until Saturday. The play is set in room 306 in the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, the evening after King gave his ‘Mountaintop’ address and the night before his assassination. When King calls for room service and orders a coffee, it is brought to his room by Camae, a mysterious maid from the motel. They spend the evening together, talking, smoking and drinking until Camae eventually explains that she is an angel sent by God to prepare King for his death. Is she an angel or merely a vision? Did Martin Luther King have some sort of premonition about his death as his speech at Mason Temple suggests? Has too much importance not instead been given to his words with the hindsight of his death?

The play presents King, above all, as a man. He is not perfect and has his weaknesses; he smokes, he drinks and may have a had ‘a weakness for women’ as Ralph Abernathy (1926-1990), a close associate of King in the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), stated in his autobiography. Most of all, like all men, King is a frightened man. In the play, he claims that fear is the only thing that unites all men, black and white. He is scared of thunder and lightening; he is scared of death and pain. He does not want to die.

Nevertheless, despite his fears and flaws, King appears a great man and stirs the audience’s compassion. Beyond the fear of death, he refuses to die because he still has so much work to do, so much to accomplish and so much to fight for. His fears and paranoia were also to a large extent justified and understandable.

In 1958, King was stabbed in the chest by Izola Curry whilst signing copies of his book Stride Toward Freedom in a Harlem department store. In 1963, under a directive from Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy, the FBI began wiretapping King’s home and office phones as well as those in his hotel rooms as he travelled across the country. He received numerous death threats throughout his involvement in the civil rights movement and was criticised by many groups, notably by more militant blacks such as Malcolm X (1925-1965). In particular, his opposition to the Vietnam War from 1965 onwards soured his relationship with many members of the mainstream media. His Poor People’s Campaign against issues of economic injustice in 1968 also caused divisions with other leaders of the civil rights movement. Lastly, his flight to Memphis on March 29th, 1968, was delayed by a bomb threat which he notably refers to in his ‘Mountaintop’ address.

King was just a man, as frightened as any other. Today, he is recognised as a martyr by two Christian churches and remembered by most as a great man. He was posthumously awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1977 and the Congressional Gold Medal in 2004. In 1983, to mark the date of his birth, Ronald Reagan instituted Martin Luther King, Jr. Day as a national holiday to be observed on the third Monday of January each year, around the time of King’s birthday on January 15th. For the playwright, Katori Hall, Martin Luther King’s legacy largely contributed to the election of America’s first black president at the beginning of the year.

For an insight into how, by adulating King for his work in the civil rights campaigns, we may have ignored some of the equally challenging campaigns of his later years, read our article Martin Luther King’s Half-Forgotten Dream
For further information on King’s involvement with non-violent protest in the USA, read our article We Shall Overcome
For a comparison of Martin Luther King and Malcolm X’s impact on black culture in the 90s, read our article More Malcolm's Year than Martin's

The Mountaintop
Until July 4th
Theatre503 at The Latchmere503
Battersea Park Road
London SW11 3BW
Telephone: 056 0114 9199
http://www.theatre503.com/

Secrets of Sexual Forced Labour in Nazi Concentration Camps

by Kathryn Hadley

I have vivid memories of a school trip to Sachsenhausen concentration camp in Oranienburg, 35 kilometres north of Berlin: the crematories, the so-called ‘Station Z’ built for the extermination of prisoners in 1942, the infirmary... I have no recollection, however, of the camp brothel.

Robert Sommer’s latest book The Concentration Camp Bordello: Sexual Forced Labor in National Socialistic Concentration Camps (Das KZ-Bordell) provides, however, for the first time a comprehensive study of this dark, hushed-up and largely ignored chapter of the history of Nazi Germany. Sommer is a cultural studies scholar based in Berlin. His study will be published in July by Schoningh Verlag, Paderborn. It is the result of a nine-year project based on the study of archives, concentration camp memorial sites and interviews with historical witnesses.

It is often believed that the Nazi regime forbade and fought prostitution. Sommer’s research reveals, however, the existence of brothels in Nazi concentration camps and of a network of state-controlled brothels, which operated across half of Europe, especially after the outbreak of the Second World War. There existed brothels in the concentration camps of Sachsenhausen, Dachau, Auschwitz, Buchenwald, Mittelbau-Dora and Mauthausen.

The first concentration camp brothel was founded in Mauthausen in Austria in June 1942. Heinrich Himmler had allegedly visited the camp in May 1941 and ordered the construction of a brothel. The construction of brothels in forced labour camps was part of a rewards scheme in an attempt to increase labour productivity. Himmler extolled the benefits of providing ‘the hard-working prisoners with women in brothels’ in a letter to Oswald Pohl, the SS officer in charge of the concentration camps, on March 23rd, 1942. At the time of the opening of the brothel in Mauthausen, it is estimated that approximately 5,500 prisoners worked in the camp. By the end of 1944, over 70,000 forced laborers worked in the complex. The SS recruited 10 women for Mauthausen, which signified between 300 and 500 men per prostitute.

Buchenwald prisoners’ brothel opened on July 11th 1943. A total of ten ‘Sonderbauten’ or ‘special buildings’ are believed to have been built in concentration camps between 1942 and 1945. Estimates reveal that some 200 women worked in Nazi camp brothels. Over 60% of them were of German nationality. No Jewish women were employed in the brothels for ‘racial hygiene’ reasons.

There has been considerable debate over the extent to which these women volunteered. Many women were lured by false promises that they would be released afterwards. The suggestion that some women volunteered may be one reason why former brothel inmates continue to be stigmatised and why the existence of camp brothels has been largely ignored. For some women, however, working in the brothels was the key to their survival. Lieselotte B. was a prisoner at the Mittlebau-Dora camp. She was quoted in an article on the website of Der Spiegel:

‘The main thing was that at least we had escaped the hell of Bergen-Belsen and
Ravensbruck […] The main thing was to survive at all’.

Sommer’s research indeed shows that those employed in the brothels had a greater chance of escaping death in the camps. Almost all of the women forced into prostitution survived. Very little is known, however, about what became of them and most of them never spoke about their experiences.

His research has also inspired a travelling exhibition entitled ‘Camp brothels – forced sex work in Nazi concentration camps’ which is due to tour several memorial sites next year.

The article on the website of Der Spiegel includes further testimonies as well as a photo gallery.

For further information on the attitudes of the Nazi state towards women, read our article Women and the Nazi State

Self-rule for Greenland

by Kathryn Hadley

On November 25th last year, Greenland’s 39,000 voters participated in a referendum on the expansion of self-rule. Over 75% of the voters answered ‘yes’. On June 21st, as Greenland celebrated its national day, a new era of self-rule was introduced.

Home rule was expanded to the police and courts of law and Greenlandic - or Kalaallisut – became the official language. The 57,000 Greenlanders will also be recognised as a distinct people under international law with a right to self-determination. However, Denmark will still have the final say in defence and foreign policy matters.

Festivities began with a flag-raising ceremony and were notably attended by Denmark's Queen Margrethe and its prime minister, Lars Loekke Rasmussen. These new moves towards increased independence from Denmark come 30 years after the introduction of the Home Rule law, in February 1979, in accordance with which Greenland became a special cultural community within the Kingdom of Denmark.

I published an article on the history behind the referendum in November in the January issue of the magazine. For further information, read Independent Means: Greenland's Referendum

Science Museum Centenary

by Kathryn Hadley

The Science Museum turns 100 today! Special events will be organised this weekend and centenary celebrations will continue over the coming 12 months to celebrate a century of science.

The history of the Science Museum dates back more than a century to the Great Exhibition of the Works of Industry of All Nations held in Hyde Park in 1851. The Great Exhibition ensured a large financial surplus, which Prince Albert, the patron of the Great Exhibition, decided should be used to found a number of educational establishments. The South Kensington Museum was founded as a result, in 1857, primarily as a museum of the industrial and decorative arts. It also included various science collections as well as a separate exhibition of machinery. In 1864, a collection of ship models and marine engines was formed. In 1876, a special exhibition was organised featuring scientific instruments on loan from various countries.

The museum was soon unable to accommodate its growing collection and, in 1899, Queen Victoria laid the foundation stone of a new range of buildings. The new buildings opened in 1909 and on June 26th, 1909, the museum was reorganised into two independent institutions, the Victoria and Albert Museum and the Science Museum.

Soon after, work began to expand the Science Museum with the building of the East Block beginning in 1913. Work was interrupted, however, by the First World War. It was eventually inaugurated by King George V in 1928. A ‘Children’s Gallery’ was thereafter opened in 1931. The life of the Museum was further disrupted during the Second World War. The museum was closed and most of its collections were put into storage. It was transformed into a radio repair school and the library and theatre became centres for wartime research. It was not until 1950 that the Science Museum became a settled institution once more.

For further information, visit the Science Museum website www.sciencemuseum.org.uk

To read more about the history of science, visit our Science Focus page.

150 Years of the Red Cross

The story of the Red Cross is the story of modern warfare. Nothing illustrates this better than the tale of the charitable organisation's founding. The Battle of Solferino - a decisive battle between the armies of Piedmont, Austria and Napoleon III - was fought in 1859. In its bloody wake lay twisted corpses and desperate prisoners of war.

Ann Hills explains how

Three days later Henri Dunant, a businessman from Geneva, came to the scene and found soldiers dying from their wounds due to lack of medical attention. He returned home 'determined to do everything possible to organise relief of the wounded' and that determination led him to found the Red Cross movement

The charity grew quickly. By the outbreak of the First World War, the Red Cross was the largest and most important charity in Britain. Simon Fowler described how

During the war it raised some £22 million ... Its volunteers left no stone unturned in their efforts to make money. Unlike most other charities of the time they used a great deal of imagination in their fundraising efforts, and developed techniques which are still used by charities today.

During the Second World War, secret messages and symbols were stitched into Red Cross quilts by British women POWs interned in Singapore's Changi jail by the Japanese. Bernice Archer recalls how:

In the jail, communication with their menfolk was banned, writing materials scarce and the written word suspect and incriminating. But by substituting conventional pen and ink with needle, thread and bits of clothing the women skilfully recorded their specific view of internment and eventually circumvented the Japanese restrictions by sending the quilts to the hospital in the military camp ... where they remained throughout the war as symbols of defiance and messengers of cheer and reassurance.

The charity has also had its share of controversy. In the 1980s, a book called Une mission impossible? by Jean-Claude Favez (The Red Cross and the Holocaust when published in English) caused arguments over the organisation's role in publicising Nazism's crimes. Douglas Johnson, in a History Today review, notes how:

Dr Maurice Rossel, a member of the International Committee's Berlin delegation, visited the [concentration] camp of Theresienstadt on June 23rd, 1944, he was greeted by a site filled with flowers. He reported favourably, stating that the camp's inmates were well-fed and that they were housed in clean surroundings. In some respects, he claimed, conditions in the camp were better than those in a town such as Prague.

Next week (June 23-28), thousands of Red Cross and Red Crescent volunteers and staff from around the world will gather in the town for a week of events commemorating the battle of Solferino and celebrating the work of the movement born out of the conflict.

Among the thousands attending will be 500 specially invited young volunteers from 150 National Societies. A youth declaration is to be drawn up and presented to representatives of the international community in Geneva following a symbolic journey from the battle site.

"Taking part in this anniversary shows the history of the Red Cross movement” said Caroline Sanderson, one of the British delegates. She continued

With so many young people here, it's also clear that the Red Cross and
its values will continue to be relevant long into the future.

In total, 56 British Red Cross volunteers and staff will be attending events in Solferino, culminating in a torchlight procession re-tracing the route taken by farmers transporting injured soldiers from the Solferino battlefield.

More info on both the charity and the 150th anniversary celebrations can be obtained from the homepage of the British Red Cross

The History Today articles quoted above are:-

• A Patchwork of Internment by Bernice Archer
• War Charity Begins at Home by Simon Fowler
• Review of The Red Cross & the Holocaust by Douglas Johnson
• Geneva's Museum to the Pity of War by Ann Hills
  

More on the Mau Mau

by Kathryn Hadley

Yesterday afternoon, the London-based law firm Leigh Day & Co issued a formal claim for compensation for human rights abuses against the British government on behalf of five Kenyan veterans of the Mau Mau uprising.

According to the Kenya Human Rights Commission, the Mau Mau uprising played an important role in the struggle for Kenyan independence. The movement culminated in an armed uprising against white settlers in the European-owned farmlands in central Kenya in 1952. It was, however, part of a wider and longer struggle against British colonialism, which spread beyond the farmlands of central Kenya. The movement is also believed to have drawn support outside Kenya and was notably supported by Prime Minister Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru and the Indian government.

According to the Kenya Human Rights Commission, the Kenyans who participated in the uprising against British colonial rule 'rightfully did so under the internationally recognized principle of self-determination. Britain's response to the Mau Mau uprising was a classical case of killing a fly using a sledge hammer. Armed with bomb-dropping warplanes and Her Majesty's well-equipped soldiers, Britain's response against the villainously labeled "Mau Mau terrorists" was nothing but a sickening show of imperial ruthlessness and brute force.'

Further information about the case is available on the website of the Kenya Human Rights Commission www.khrc.or.ke
A press release on the Mau Mau reparation suit issued in Nairobi in May this year is notbaly available on the website.

Mau Mau Veterans Sue British Government

by Kathryn Hadley

Today, June 23rd, five Kenyan veterans of Kenya’s struggle for independence presented the London High Court with a case against the British government for human rights abuses in the 1950s and 1960s. The five Kenyans, three men and two women all in the their 70s and 80s, have called for the British government to acknowledge its responsibility in the alleged crimes which it committed in the pre-independence era, in particular during and in the aftermath of the Mau Mau uprising. They have also demanded the government to offer them adequate compensation for the atrocities which they suffered.

The claim was presented to the London High Court by the Mau Mau War Veterans' Association and the Kenya Human Rights Commission, through the London law firm Leigh Day & Co. Quoted in an article on the BBC website, the veterans’ lawyer, Martyn Day, said that he believed his clients had ‘a good chance of success’. He also explained:

‘We want the British government to say what we did was so wrong back in the
1950s’.

The British government has, however, argued that the claim is invalid because of the time that has lapsed since the alleged abuses.

The uprising began in the European-owned farmlands in central Kenya, in 1952, when Mau Mau fighters launched attacks against white settlers in an attempt to reclaim land that had been seized by the British colonial authorities. In reaction to the attacks, the British army rounded-up thousands of people and placed them in camps. Kenyan veterans of the uprising say that they suffered barbaric treatment. Ndiku Mutua, one of the five veterans, was arrested in 1954, severely beaten and castrated with pliers, at Lukenya detention centre. He was quoted in the same article on the BBC website:

‘I live with the physical and mental scars of what happened to me [...] Not a
day goes by when I do not think of these terrible events. At last I can tell my
story and at last I can hope for justice from the British courts.’

Another claimant, Paulo Nzili, said that he too was castrated. The third male claimant, Wambugu Wa Nyingi, explained that he was tied upside down by the feet and beaten. The two female veterans, Jane Muthoni Mara and Susan Ngondi, were both sexually assaulted. At the beginning of last month, lawyers claimed that they had documented 40 cases of torture, including castration, sexual abuse and unlawful detention. According to the Kenya Human Rights Commission, 90,000 Kenyans were executed, tortured or maimed during the crackdown, and 160,000 were detained in appalling conditions.

It is not the first claim brought by Kenya’s former independence fighters against the British government. A formal claim for compensation was notably filed against the British government by six former Mau Mau fighters in October 2006.

For further information, read our article Burying the Bones of the Past.
For further information about how the Freedom of Information Act may have been used to protect the perpetrators of a war crimes in Kenya, read our article A Very British Massacre

Refugee Week

by Kathryn Hadley

Refugee Week was launched, at the beginning of the week, on June 15th, and ends on Sunday June 21st. The launch of Refugee Voices, an audio-visual archive of 150 interviews with Holocaust survivors and refugees, yesterday evening, at the Wiener Library was notably designed to mark Refugee Week 2009.

Refugee Week is a wide programme of events to celebrate the contribution of refugees to the UK. Events explore the experiences of refugees and range from exhibitions, to debates, conferences, film screenings, music and sporting events. Refugee Week was first held in 1998 and was created in response to the increasingly negative perceptions of refugees and asylum seekers held by the general public in Britain.

The BFI Southbank is hosting a Refugee in Films Festival this weekend, which will address issues of representations of refugees and migrants in the film industry. Film screenings will include The Betrayal about the experience of a Laotian family who fled to the United States in the aftermath of the Vietnam War. During the Vietnam War the US Army also waged a secret war in Laos. Following the withdrawal of the US Army, however, Laotian supporters of the Americans faced imprisonment or execution. This film is the result of a twenty-year-long collaboration between the director Ellen Kuras and Thavisouk Phrasaveth, a refugee and the co-director, and tells the story of the Laotian Phrasavath family, who took refuge in America after the war. The film is a recent Academy Award nominee for the best documentary feature.

Further information about planned events is available on the Refugee Week website. The website also includes an ‘Info Centre’ page with sections devoted to history’s most famous refugees, how refugees have been portrayed in film, music and literature and interviews with refugees living in Britain today.
www.refugeeweek.org.uk

The Betrayal
June 21st, 3.50pm
BFI Southbank
Belvedere Road South BankLondon SE1 8XT www.bfi.org.uk

For further information on immigrants and refugees in British society from the 16th century to the present, visit our Focus Page.

Launch of Holocaust Testimony Archive

by Kathryn Hadley

‘Refugee Voices’ will be launched this evening during a reception at the Wiener Library as part of Refugee Week 2009. ‘Refugee Voices’ is an audio-visual Holocaust testimony archive featuring a collection of 150 filmed interviews with Holocaust survivors and refugees, who escaped and survived Nazi-occupied Europe and rebuilt their lives in Britain. The interviews, in English, focus on the personal life stories of Holocaust survivors in Britain after the Second World War. The collection includes 450 hours of filmed and transcribed accounts and each interview is accompanied by photographs, artefacts and documents. Visitors will be able to consult the archive at the library.

The project was completed by the Association of Jewish Refugees (AJR), which was founded in 1941 as a self-help organisation by those refugees who fled Nazi-occupied Germany, Austria and Czechoslovakia. The association now aims to provide social and welfare services to victims of Nazi persecution living in Britain and to promote and support projects related to Holocaust education and commemoration.

The Wiener Library, founded in 1933 and the world’s oldest Holocaust memorial institution, is the first UK institution to receive a copy of Refugee Voices.

Prior to the official launch ceremony, this evening, a seminar is being organised during the afternoon on ‘War, Refugees and Testimony’. Speakers will discuss the arrival of refugees as a result of war, their contribution to Britain and the historical importance of the stories and testimonies they leave behind.

The Wiener Library Institute of Contemporary History
4 Devonshire Street
London W1W 5BH
Telephone: 020 7636 7247
http://www.wienerlibrary.co.uk/
The website of the Association of Jewish Refugees is http://www.ajr.org.uk/

For further information on the fate of Jewish children who were permitted to travel to Britain to escape the Nazi regime, read our article Kindertransport: Terror, Trauma and Triumph
For further information on the Jewish academics who emigrated to Britain following the Nazi takeover of Germany, read our article No Utopia - Refugee Scholars in Britain
For further information on British attitudes towards refugees especially at times of war, read our article Alien Attitudes?

Harry Patch 111 Today!

by Kathryn Hadley

Harry Patch, the oldest surviving Tommy, celebrated his 111th birthday today.
Patch received a letter from the Queen and the Belgian Ambassador, Jean-Michel Veranneman de Watervliet, also congratulated Patch, sending him a box of chocolates, books and a letter.
Patch is not Britain's oldest war veteran, however. Henry Allingham, who was an air mechanic during the First World War, turned 113 on June 6th. Allingham is also Europe's oldest man.
An article reporting on Harry Patch's birthday celebrations was notably published on the BBC webiste.

The History of Lace Making in Calais

by Kathryn Hadley

The Cite internationale de la dentelle et de la mode in Calais was inaugurated last Thursday June 11th. The museum is housed in the Boulart factory, one of the last surviving mechanical lace making factories in Calais, which has been renovated and extended over the past three years.
Industrial lace making techniques were imported from Britain at the beginning of the 19th century and Calais became, and remained, the French capital of mechanical lace making for over two centuries.
A series of displays chart the history of lace making, the development of lace making techniques, its impact on the social and economic history of the region and the ways in which lace has been used in fashion, from 1850 to the present.

Cite internationale de la dentelle et de la mode de Calais
Quai du Commerce
62100 Calais
Telephone : 00 33 3 21 00 42 30
http://www.citedentelle.calais.fr/

Pictures:
- view of the museum
- embroidery weaving loom in another Calais factory
- series of dress models from 1920, 1970 and 2004

Online History News

by Kathryn Hadley

A few history websites have recently been updated or newly created. Here is the latest news about some of the best history websites.

Oxford Dictionary of National Biography updated
The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography was updated at the end of May with new biographies and reference material. The update includes a special focus on garden history and on engineers who pioneered new standards in domestic and public sanitation.
The 30 new gardeners include Peter Barr, the Victorian ‘daffodil king’ who rescued the bulb from obscurity, and Christopher Leyland who cultivated the fast-growing conifer. These new additions are available via a free clickable map http://www.oxforddnb.com/public/gardeners/
The section devoted to Victorian and early twentieth-century engineers includes biographies of Thomas Twyford, George Jennings, who created the first public conveniences for the Great Exhibition in 1851, and Jesse Dawes, a pioneer of home refuse collection.
Lastly, 20 new ‘reference group’ essays were also added as part of ODNB’s project to include a set of 400 essays on well-known groups, clubs, and networks in the British past in which individuals came together and acted collaboratively.
The next update is due to be published on October 8th and will focus on the Britons who shaped the history of Latin America from independence to the 1970s.
http://www.oxforddnb.com/

1911 census for Wales
The 1911 census for Wales, taken on the night of June 2nd, 1911, went live on June 9th providing access to the records of 2.4 million people living in Wales at the time. Following the release of a first set of 1911 records last January, the recent release of the Welsh records completes the project to provide online public access to the records of the 1911 census, which covered England, Wales, the Isle of Man and the Channel islands.
http://www.blogger.com/www.1911census.co.uk

Archives Normandie 1939-1945
This new website is the first to include a database of copyright free photographs taken in Lower Normandy during the Second World War, from the occupation, to the liberation and reconstruction of the region. The website was developed in partnership with the U.S. National Archives, Library and Archives Canada and the Imperial War Museum. The database also includes photographs taken by veterans and by local inhabitants.
http://www.archivesnormandie39-45.org/

La Seconde Guerre Mondiale en Normandie
This new website was launched on June 6th to mark the 65th anniversary of the D-Day landings. It is the result of a joint project between the television channel France 3 Normandie, the Caen Memorial and the French National Audiovisual Institute. The website provides public access to a database of video and audio footage as well as images of the Second World War in Normandy, from the German occupation to the reconstruction in the 1950s. It also includes a timeline of the period, an interactive map and footage and images of D-Day commemorations, from the end of the war to the present.
http://www.2gm-normandie.com/

Photographs:

From the website Archives Normandie 1939-1945:

- locals drinking with British and Americain soldiers after the liberation of Ecouche (Conseil Régional de Basse-Normandie / National Archives USA )

- Summer 1944: St Lo after the Battle of Normandy

Forward to Freedom

by Kathryn Hadley

‘Forward to Freedom’ opened last Friday, June 12th, at the Museum of London to mark the fiftieth anniversary of the Anti-Apartheid Movement (AAM). Showcasing posters, stickers, badges, leaflets, photographs and footage of anti-apartheid demonstrations, the display reveals the diversity of the campaigns across Britain against apartheid and minority white rule, which ranged from cultural, to sport, to consumer boycotts. The display is organised in partnership with the Anti-Apartheid Movement Archives Committee and the Bodleian Library, which holds most of the archives. Anti-apartheid campaigners fought for almost fifty years before Nelson Mandela was eventually released from prison, in February 1990. Apartheid was officially abolished, in 1994, when he was elected to power in the first post-apartheid general elections.

The policy of apartheid was adopted in South Africa when the National Party, founded by Afrikaner nationalists in 1914, came to power in 1948. At the time, 70% of the population in South Africa was African, 17% was white and 13% was ‘Coloured’ (i.e. of mixed descent) or Indian. The white population owned 87% of the land. The African population owned the remaining 13% of the land. The Coloured and Asian populations had no land rights; they merely had resident rights. In accordance with the policy of ‘divide and rule’, Africans were placed in homelands and their movement outside the homelands was controlled by passes. It is estimated that by the 1980s approximately 3.5 million people had been uprooted from their homes.

It was not until June 26th 1959, however, ten years after the institution of apartheid in South Africa, that the Boycott Movement, which later became the AAM, was founded. The movement initially called for a boycott of fruit, cigarettes and other goods imported from South Africa. It soon grew, however. Opposition spread to a wide range of other fields and the AAM moved beyond being a British London-based movement, seeking to influence the policies of international organisations such as the United Nations and the International Olympic Committee.
In Britain, local authorities began to issue declarations against apartheid and, by 1985, over 120 local authorities had taken anti-apartheid action. A poll in 1986 also revealed that over a quarter of British people did not buy goods from South Africa. In 1964, the labour government imposed a ban on arms deals with South Africa (there allegedly remained loopholes, however, and the ban was lifted by the Conservative government in 1970). The boycott became a global measure in 1977, when the United Nations Security Council imposed an international ban on arms trade with South Africa. South Africa’s diplomatic relations were also affected. Following pressure from African and Asian countries and Canada, South Africa withdrew from the Commonwealth, in 1961 and, in 1963, the United Nations General Assembly called its members to end trade and diplomatic relations with South Africa.

British and international boycotts also extended to the cultural and sporting scenes. The ‘Public Declaration of Playwrights against apartheid’ signed by authors such as Samuel Beckett, Graham Greene, Harold Pinter and Arthur Miller imposed a cultural boycott on South Africa. In sport, South Africa was excluded from the Tokyo Olympic Games, in 1964. The Springbok rugby tour matches in Britain, from October 1969 to February 1970, were disrupted by protests and the Springboks were excluded from the first two rugby world cups in 1987 and 1991. By 1990, South Africa was expelled from every major world sports federation.

The ‘Nelson Mandela: Freedom at Seventy’ campaign, in 1988, was one of the last major campaigns led by the Anti-Apartheid Movement in an attempt to secure Nelson Mandela’s release from prison for his seventieth birthday. In 1989, the Harare Declaration was endorsed by the United Nations Security Council, setting the necessary conditions for negotiations to end apartheid.

The display is a credit to the resilience of those who supported and fought for the AAM, battling in Britain and exporting their campaigns worldwide to a wide range of different spheres. Nevertheless, it also raises a number of questions. Why did victory not come sooner? Why did the movement not begin earlier, immediately after apartheid became the official policy of the National party government in 1948? What sparked the protest movements at the beginning of the 1960s?

Cristabel Gurney is a member of the Anti-Apartheid Movement Archives Committee and became involved in the AAM as a student. She participated in the protests against the Springbok rugby tour matches, the Barclays Bank boycott and became the editor of Anti-Apartheid News, the movement’s weekly newspaper. Meeting her at the exhibition, I confronted her with some of my questions…

According to Gurney, the fight against minority white rule and racial discrimination on a larger scale was sparked by the Sharpeville massacre on March 21st, 1960. It was also inspired by the Civil Rights movement in the United States, which gained momentum in the late 1950s and early 1960s. Anti-apartheid protests were not new, however, in the 1960s. Further research into anti-apartheid movements in the 1950s is necessary. Nevertheless, student protests were organised in the 1950s and, from 1955, Labour Party conferences passed resolutions questioning South Africa’s fitness to be a member of the Commonwealth. The Sharpeville massacre exported the fight, however, to the global scene. Within a month of the massacre, the African National Congress and the Pan Africanist Congress, which had led the Sharpeville protest, were banned and hundreds of Congress Movement and Liberal Party activists were detained. Some fled abroad, turning overseas for support. Gurney explained the origins of the Anti-Apartheid Movement in an article published for History Today in 1999, to mark the fortieth anniversary of the foundation of the AAM. For further information, read When the Boycott Began to Bite

On June 26th, ACTSA will host a conference to mark the anniversary of the foundation of the AAM. Speakers, including Abdul Minty, the founder of the AAM, members of the movement during apartheid, Glenys Kinnock MEP and Jon Snow, will discuss the achievements of the AAM, the lessons of its campaigns and how they can be applied to the issues facing southern Africa today. In the afternoon, various workshops will consider some of these issues and produce proposals for action. Her Excellency, Lindiwe Mabuza, South African High Commissioner will host a reception in the evening.

Making hope a reality: Celebrating the past, building the future
June 26th
South African High Commission
South Africa House
Trafalgar Square
London WC2N5DP
Telephone: 020 3263 2001
http://www.actsa.org/

Pictures:

- Stop the apartheid bomb poster, produced as part of the campaign to end military and nuclear collaboration with South Africa in the 1980s (Anti-Apartheid Movement Archives)
- Consumer boycott poster encouraging shoppers to boycott South African goods, produced by the Anti-Apartheid Movement (Anti-Apartheid Movement Archives)
- Demonstration in Trafalgar Square, 25 March 1990 (Anti-Apartheid Movement Archives, Courtesy of the International Defence and Aid Fund for Southern Africa)

- Boycott Barclays poster, produced as part of the 16-year campaign to force Barclays to withdraw from South Africa in the 1970s (Anti-Apartheid Movement Archives)

Spanish passport for British members of the International Brigades

by Kathryn Hadley

Following the unveiling of a plaque just a month ago in the Fuencarral Cemetery, in the northern outskirts of Madrid, a further step was taken, yesterday, to honour the British members of the International Brigades who fought on the side of the republican government during the Spanish Civil War.

Seven surviving British veterans who joined the International Brigades were granted dual Spanish citizenship, yesterday, June 10th, at the Spanish embassy in London. The eldest veteran, Lou Kenton is 101 years old. Joseph Khan, aged 94, was the youngest survivor to be granted a Spanish passport. Carles Casajuana, Spain’s ambassador to the UK also awarded Spanish citizenship to Penny Feiwel, aged 100, Paddy Cochrane, 96, Thomas Watters, 96, Sam Lesser, 95, and Jack Edwards, aged 95.

An eighth veteran, Les Gibson, aged 96, was forced to decline the offer due to ill health. The offer also came too late for two other former members of the International Brigades, Jack Jones and Bob Doyle. Jack Jones, the general secretary of the Transport and General Workers' Union, from 1969 to 1978, died just over a month ago, on April 21st, but his son picked up his passport on his behalf. Bob Doyle died at the beginning of the year, on January 22nd.

Carles Casajuana was quoted in an article on The Times website:

‘This is an act of gratitude, an act of recognition […] We wish to pay homage to a group of extraordinary men and women who 70 years ago decided to give up their comfortable life and go to Spain to fight for democracy and freedom.’

He was also quoted in a previous article published on the website of The Guardian:

‘It should have been done earlier, but better late than never.’

Quoted by The Times, the 96-year-old Scotsman, Thomas Watters, described his feelings yesterday:

‘I feel great, elated. This is one of the great days of my life’.

Watters was a bus driver in Glasgow, when he decided to volunteer in Spain. He worked as an ambulance driver for the Scottish Ambulance Unit ferrying wounded republicans from the frontline. He explained how, unlike some volunteers, he was not primarily motivated by political conviction and anti-fascism:

‘This opportunity to do something of some good attracted me immediately […] Nothing to do with politics; I had no interest in politics.’

Paddy Cochrane, on the other hand, had strong leftwing sympathies. He was born in Dublin to a father who was killed by the Black and Tans. He left Liverpool, where he was looking for work, travelled to London and signed up as an ambulance driver. He was wounded by a hand grenade and taken to hospital. He also described his experience in an interview with The Guardian:

‘It was terribly hot there, practically unbearable, and we all slept out in the open. As well as us there was a whole row of chaps with shocking head wounds that could never be cured. They were dying … I remember one of them kept shaking the flies away. It was awful … I was coming to and passing out, coming to and passing out.’

The International Brigade Memorial Trust, which was formed in 2002, believes that there may be more surviving veterans who would be eligible for Spanish citizenship. Yesterday, its secretary, Marlene Sidaway, appealed for veterans who had fought in Spain to contact the trust.

The website of the International Brigade Memorial Trust is http://www.international-brigades.org.uk/

Obituaries of Bob Doyle and Jack Jones are available on the website of The Guardian http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2009/feb/16/obituary-bob-doyle
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2009/apr/23/jack-jones-obituary

For further information on the Spanish Civil War, visit the ‘timeline of Spanish history’ section of our Spanish History focus page.

Calvin 500th Anniversary

by Kathryn Hadley

John Calvin was born in Noyon in the Picardie region of France on July 10th, 1509. Commemorative events are being organised worldwide this year to celebrate the 500th anniversary of the life of the French humanist and supporter of the protestant reformation. The influence of Calvin’s teachings spread across the world and during his lifetime Calvin also travelled throughout Europe. Between 1525 and 1532, he studied in both the universities of Grenoble and Bourges in France. He returned to Paris in October 1533. Calvin then fled to Basel in Switzerland in January 1535. He subsequently worked on reorganising the church in Geneva with William Farel. Following disputes with the city’s council, however, he left for Strasbourg, in 1938. Geneva city council eventually called him back, in September 1541, where he remained until his death in May 1564.

Here is a selection of some of the exhibitions organised across Europe over the summer to mark his quincentenary.

Les lecteurs de Calvin
Until June 28th
Musée Calvin
Place Aristide Briand
60400 Noyon
Telephone: 00 33 3 44 44 03 59
http://www.ville-noyon.fr/
This exhibition explores the history of the book from the perspective of those who read and use books, showcasing, for the first time, a collection of printed works by Calvin that bear manuscript annotations by readers spanning four centuries, from the 16th to the 20th century. It includes the famous copy of the Institutes of the Christian Religion annotated by Sully, which has recently been acquired by the Bibliothèque nationale de France.

Calvinism. The Reformed Protestants in Germany and Europe
Until July 19th
Deutsches Historisches Museum
I. M. Pei Building
Unter den Linden
10117 Berlin
Telephone: 00 49 30 20 30 47 50
http://www.dhm.de/
This exhibition places the work of John Calvin in the context of the political and religious tendencies of the time, presenting it as an integral part of the social and cultural history of Europe and exploring Calvin’s enduring and wider influence on science, art, politics and the human frame of mind.

Post tenebras liber
Until September 30th
Geneva Library, Espace Ami Lullin
Promenade des Bastions 1 CH-1211 Genève 4
Telephone : 00 41 22 418 28 00
www.ville-ge.ch/bge
The exhibition illustrates the contribution of the Calvinist Reformation in four areas of the production of the Geneva presses in the 16th century: teaching material for instruction at the College and the Academy, a first Protestant historiography which illuminates the unrest of the century, polemical writings (disputations between confessions or churches, satires and polemics against the church of Rome, political pamphlets) and Bible exegeses (lectures and commentaries by Calvin).

A Day in the Life of John Calvin
Until November 1st
International Museum of the Reformation
4 rue du Cloitre
CH-1204 Geneva
Telephone: 00 41 22 310 24 31
http://www.musee-reforme.ch/
This animated exhibition, featuring a display of 16th-century artefacts including engravings and books, and in which Calvin appears animated and speaking, charts a typical day in Calvin’s life.

They had Calvin in their luggage – Calvin and the Huguenots
July 11th – October 31st
German Huguenot Museum
Hafenplatz 9 a
34385 Bad Karlshafen
Telephone: 00 49 5672 1410
http://www.hugenottenmuseum.de/
An exhibition devoted to Calvin and the Huguenots in France and Germany.

A series of lectures and conferences will also be held from June until the end of year. Again, here is a small selection…

June
Calvin and Capitalism
June 11th, 6.30pm
Swiss Embassy
16-18 Montagu Place
London W1H 2BQ
Telephone: 020 7836 1418
http://www.swisschurchlondon.org.uk/
Rev Dr Frank Jehle will both discuss Calvin’s works and address some more contemporary issues, in particular the possible relations between Calvinism and Capitalism, a thesis first put forward by Max Weber in 1904.

International Calvin Conference, Mainz
"Calvin and Calvinism - European Perspectives"
June 25th – 28th
Erbacher Hof
Akademie & Tagungszentrum Bistum
Mainz
Telephone: 00 49 6131 39 393 59
This international conference, in German, will focus on the European dimension of the Calvinist Reformation addressing three main topics: ‘Calvin's impact in Western and Eastern Europe’, ‘Expulsion – exile – rebuilding’ and ‘Spirituality and the media - the spiritual power of Calvinism’.

July
Conference: "Calvin500"
July 5th – 9th
St. Pierre Cathedral auditorium
Geneva
An international, interdenominational, and interdisciplinary commemoration of the life and work of John Calvin during which esteemed leaders, scholars, and ministers will discuss Calvin, his city, and the cultural, religious, political, and economic impact of his teachings.
A complete program of the Lectures and Sermons that will be given from July 5th - 9th in Geneva is available at http://calvin500blog.org/speakers-2/

September
John Calvin and the Reformation in Italy
September 4th – 6th
Centro Culturale Valdese
Via Beckwith 3
Torre Pellice
Turin
Telephone: 00 39 12 193 27 65
http://www.studivaldesi.org/
An international historical symposium, in Italian, organised by the Waldensian Studies Society that will consider and evaluate current studies on the relationship between Calvin and Italy, which Calvin is believed to have visited for the first time in 1536.

The Dutch Church of London will also host two lectures in September.
Calvin on creation and redemption
September 27th, 12.45pm
Light and shadow of the reformation
September 28th, 7pm
Dutch Church of London
7 Austin Friars
London EC2N 2HA
http://www.dutchchurch.org.uk/

October
Calvin’s significance for today
October 6th, 7pm
Crown Court Church
Russell Street
Covent Garden
London WC2B 5EZ
Telephone: 020 7836 5643
http://www.crowncourtchurch.org.uk/

Modernité de Calvin
October 8th, 7pm
Institut Français
17 Queensberry Place
London SW7 2DT
Telephone: 020 70731350
http://www.institut-francais.org.uk/
A lecture by Jean-Paul Willaime, Max Engammare and Gilles Petel.

November
University colloquium in Orléans
November 12th – 13th
University of Orléans, Department of Law, Economics and Management
Rue de Blois
45067 Orleans
Telephone: 00 33 2 38 41 70 31
This colloquium, in French, will examine different aspects of the contributions of Jean Calvin and the Protestant Reformation in various spheres of spiritual, social, economic, literary and political life, through history and at the present day.

December
Calvin & Hobbes
December 14th – 17th
Institut Protestant de Théologie
83, Boulevard Arago
75014 Paris
Telephone: 00 33 1 47 07 56 45
http://www.iptheologie.fr/
A colloquium, in French, organised by the Institute of Protestant Theology and the International College of Philosophy.

For a full list of the events organised throughout the year to mark the Calvin09 festival, visit http://www.calvin09.org/

Wolfson History Prize 2008 Winners

by Kathryn Hadley

The Wolfson History Prize 2008 winners were announced last night at Claridges. They were Mary Beard for Pompeii: The Life of a Roman Town (Profile Books) and Margaret M. McGowan for Dance in the Renaissance: European Fashion, French Obsession (Yale University Press).

The Wolfson History Prizes were established in 1972 and are awarded annually to promote and encourage standards of excellence in the writing of history for the general public. The judges are Sir Keith Thomas FBA (Chairman), Dame Averil Cameron, Professor Richard Evans and Sir David Cannadine.

Pompeii was reviewed in our January issue this year by Edith Hall. Margaret McGowan’s book was reviewed in our February issue by Robert Knecht.
For further information, read Pompeii: The Life of a Roman Town and Dance in the Renaissance - European Fashion, French Obsession.

Films and History

by Kathryn Hadley

The BFI Southbank's Cinema and the Spanish Civil War film season begins today with screenings of The Spanish Earth, a film written and narrated by Ernest Hemingway showing people's daily lives in their struggle to survive, and Espana 1936, a propaganda film depicting the resistance of the Republic and the involvment of the International Brigades, which the Republic's Ministry of Foreign Affairs entrusted to Luis Bunuel. Seventy years after the events, the film season explores the Spanish Civil War in film cultures as diverse as Hollywood, the USSR, Spain, France, the UK and East Germany, offering different views of the period and its consequences. The season runs until the end of June featuring both documentaries and films that address the war directly, as well as others that use it as a backdrop to their storylines. Films span over 70 years, from 1936 to 2008, and also include a selection of Noticiarios Documentales or News and Documentaries, cinema propaganda newsreels that were broadcast by Franco’s regime to update the population about the latest official truths.

On Thursday, the 11th edition of the annual Mosaïques Festival will also open at the Institut français. The festival is designed to celebrate cultural diversity and will feature screenings of films from across the world, music and live events. Although events primarily address contemporary issues across the world as diverse as poverty in the Parisian suburbs, the effects of the 2004 Tsunami in Thailand or street life in Casablanca, the film festival features two films which address French colonial history in Algeria and Indochina.

The Sea Wall (Un Barrage contre le Pacifique)
June 13th, 7.30pm
Isabelle Huppert stars in this adaptation of Marguerite Duras' 1950 novel as the widowed matriarch of a small land-owning family in 1930s French Indochina who eke out a living from rice fields located perilously close to the ocean. Deceived by the colonial administration, she has invested all of her savings in worthless, regularly flooded farmland. Driven to fight against both nature and the corrupt bureaucrats who conned her and threaten expropriation, and refusing to accept the triumphant injustice of the system, she devises an imaginative scheme to build a dam against the sea with the help of the villagers.

Barakat!
June 16th, 6pm
Set during Algeria's civil war of the early 90s, the film tells the story of doctor Amel whose journalist husband is abducted by fundamentalists. Following his abduction she heads for the hills to find him accompanied by Khadija, a nurse who once fought for Algerian independence against the French. Despite their massive differences in outlook, politics and breadth of experience, the two women forge a bond of mutual affection and respect, and, over the course of the search, arrive at a deeper understanding of how their lives have been shaped by their country's history.

Cinema and the Spanish Civil War
June 9th – 30th
BFI Southbank
Belvedere Road, South Bank
London SE1 8XT
Telephone: 020 7633 0274
http://www.bfi.org.uk/

Mosaïques Festival
June 11th – 18th
Institut français
17 Queensberry Place
London SW7 2DT
Telephone: 020 7073 1350
http://www.institut-francais.org.uk/

Previously Unseen Photographs of Hitler Online

by Kathryn Hadley

Last week, to coincide with the 65th anniversary of D-Day, Life published a series of previously unseen photographs of Hitler on its website. The series, which document, for the most part, the Fuhrer’s private life, include over 50 colour pictures from the collection of Hugo Jaeger, Hitler’s personal photographer. Jaeger was granted unprecedented access to Hitler and photographed him from 1936 until his final days in 1945.

The photographs include shots of the interiors of Berghof, Hitler’s mountain estate in Bavaria, his residence in Berlin, scenes from parties and a photograph of him with Chamberlain at Munich. Jaeger also spent time documenting places of Hitler’s youth, including the building in the village of Fischlham, Austria, where Hitler began school in 1895, Leonding, where he grew up, from 1898 to 1905, and the village of Strones in Austria, the birthplace of his grandmother Maria Anna Schicklgruber. To this date, only a fraction of the collection has been published.

The story of the survival of the photographs is extraordinary. Immediately after the war, Jaeger hid the transparencies in a suitcase. However, the case was found by six American soldiers as they searched the house near Munich where Jaeger was staying, in 1945. The suitcase also contained a bottle of Cognac and the soldiers allegedly proceeded to share the bottle with Jaeger and the owner of the house, forgetting the remaining content of the suitcase. After the Americans left, Jaeger hid the photographs in 12 glass jars, which he buried on the outskirts of the town. In the years after the war, he occasionally returned to dig the jars up, repack and rebury them. He eventually retrieved the 2,000 transparencies in 1955, which had all been preserved intact. He stored them in the vault of a bank for ten years and, in 1965, eventually sold them to Life magazine.

The photographs are available online at http://www.life.com/
For further information on Hitler and Nazi Germany, visit our Nazi Germany focus page.

D-Day Commemorations

by Kathryn Hadley

Celebrations to mark the 65th anniversary of the D-Day Landings began, this morning, with a drop of British parachutists at the Pegasus Memorial in Ranville to mark the airborne phase of the Normandy landings. Commemorative events, including firework displays, exhibitions, walks and film screening, will be held throughout the weekend both in France and in the UK. Here is a small selection…

In London, at the Imperial War Museum…

D-Day Film Programme
June 6th, 11am-2pm
Imperial War Museum London
Lambeth RoadLondon SE1 6HZ
Telephone: 020 7416 5000
http://www.iwm.org.uk/
A series of three film screenings about the D-Day Landings.
A Harbour Goes to France (1944) is a documentary about the prefabricated Mulberry Harbour, which was towed out to France to help bring the supplies for the Allied invasion ashore.
At 12pm, screenings will include an official Army record film of the landings at Sword Beach, an amateur film shot by Lieutenant Michael Serraillier on board the landing craft Queen Emma, and Operation Neptune in Colour, recording scenes of Royal Navy activity at Arromanches the day after the Normandy landings, on June 7th, 1944.
Screenings at 2pm, will include an American commentated account of the landings, from the time, which was prepared to show to the heads of the Supreme Headquarters Allied Expeditionary Force, and Overlord (1978), a semi-fictional documentary charting the D-Day landings, which mixes a staged personal story with archive footage from the Imperial War Museum.

In France…

Lighting up of the Coast
June 5th
Normandie Mémoire
Telephone: 00 33 2 31 94 80 26
info@normandiememoire.com
The association Normandie Mémoire will organise 25 simultaneous firework displays along a 50-mile stretch of coastline from Ste Marie du Mont to Merville-Franceville to commemorate D-Day.

In the Footsteps of No.47 Royal Marine Commando
June 6th, 9am
Tourist Board of Bayeux Bessin
Telephone: 00 33 2 31 51 28 28
info@bayeux-tourism.com
A public walk from Asnelles to Port-en-Bessin retracing the steps of the British soldiers who liberated Port-en-Bessin on June 7th 1944.

Veterans Voices
June 6th – September
Juno Beach CentreVoie des Français Libres14470 Courseulles-sur-Mer
Telephone: 00 33 2 31 37 32 17
http://www.junobeach.org/
A commemorative ceremony will be held at 10am at the centre. Also taking place is the inauguration of this new temporary exhibition, which tells the story of the Battle of Normandy through the eyes of 12 surviving veterans of the Canadian forces.

D-Day Portraits - “Héros Anonymes”
Until June 12th
Musée de l’Armée
Hôtel national des Invalides
129 rue de Grenelle
75007 Paris
Telephone: 00 33 810 11 33 99
http://www.invalides.org/
Every year, for 25 years, Ian Patrick attended and photographed the D-Day commemorative ceremonies organised in Normandy. On display in this exhibition are 60 of his black and white photographs, taken between 1984 and 2008, which include portraits of veterans and of those who came to remember them, as well as photographs of landscapes and monuments.

Survivre: Sauver les enfants
June 18th – December 31st
Le Mémorial de CaenEsplanade Général Eisenhower
14050 Caen
Telephone: 00 33 2 31 06 06 44
http://www.memorial-caen.fr/
This exhibition explores the experiences and courage of children during the Second World War - more than 1,300,000 of whom were victims of Nazi persecution.

For further information about the D-Day landings, here is a selection of our free articles.
In D-Day Propaganda Caroline Reed looks at the massive propaganda accompanying the D-Day landings.
In Picturing D-Day Michael Paris examines the way in which aspects of D-Day were filmed at the time and have subsequently been reconstructed in popular cinema.
In The Part Played by Resistance Movements M Houlihan claims that the Allies could have used Resistance to better effect before and after D-Day.
In The Road to D-Day Geoffrey Warner considers the reasons for the delay in opening a second Allied Front.
In Montgomery and the Preparations for Overlord Stephen Brooks charts the five months Montgomery had to mastermind the Allied D-Day Landings.
In The Liberation of Europe: A Bridgehead Too Late? John Grigg critically analyses whether D-Day could have taken place earlier and the extent to which it, instead, dragged out the course of the war.

New Project to Catalogue Cambridge University Library’s Incunabula

by Kathryn Hadley

Cambridge University announced, today, the beginning of a new project to catalogue, for the first time, the University Library’s celebrated collection of incunabula, pre-1501 printed books. The term incunabula literally means swaddling-clothes, or cradle, in Latin and was adopted to describe a book printed at an early date, in the first infancy of printing.

Very few records of the Library’s 4,650 treasures are currently in its online catalogue. Records will begin to be catalogued this autumn and, over the next five years, the University Library will produce detailed records for each item, which will be accessible through its Newton Universal Catalogue.

The Library’s incunabula collection notably includes the first printed edition of Homer’s works, produced in Florence in 1488; a copy of the Gutenberg Bible, the first book printed in Europe from moveable metal type and produced in Mainz in approximately 1455; the first book to contain italic type, printed by Aldus Manutius in Venice in 1500; and several editions of William Caxton, who first introduced the printing press into England in 1476.

Medieval historian and author Professor Miri Rubin, of Queen Mary, University of London, explained the significance of the collection:

‘These earliest printed books were the product of medieval craftsmanship, but they also reflect new - often humanist - trends in learning and reading. Religion and politics, poetry and science are all to be found in these early books. Hence the project will have a major impact by offering new opportunities for scholars and others.’

Some of the books from the collection are decorated with elaborate illustrations, such as the illuminated copy of Dio Chrysostomus, De regno, published in Venice in 1471, and the hand-coloured copy of Hartmann Schedel’s Nuremberg Chronicle (Nuremberg, 1493), which illustrates the history of the world up to 1492, in 1,809 woodcuts. Another rare book in the collection is a Book of Hours, printed on vellum by Caxton’s successor, Wynkyn de Worde, which is inscribed by Catherine Parr, Henry VIII’s future wife, and her family.

One of the most important gifts to the Library was a collection of 340 books donated by Arthur Young, a retired lawyer and member of Trinity College. He allegedly arrived at the Library in a taxi, one morning in the 1930s, with the books, which he claimed included an old bible. The said bible was a copy of the Gutenberg Bible.

Although the project does not involve a complete page-by-page digitisation of the Library’s incunabula, the Gutenberg Bible has been fully digitalised and is available online http://www.humi.keio.ac.jp/treasures/incunabula/B42/

Images:

- Gutenberg Bible, the first book printed in Europe from moveable metal type (Mainz, c. 1455)
- Illuminated copy of Dio Chrysostomus, De regno (Venice, 1471)

Death of Last Witness to the German WW2 Surrender

by Kathryn Hadley

In March, I wrote an article about the death of Susan Hibbert, the last British witness to the signing of the German surrender in Reims in May 1945. Hibbert was a British staff sergeant in the Auxiliary Territorial Service (ATS) and was working at the Supreme Headquarters Allied Expeditionary Force (SHAEF) in Reims. She was responsible for typing the English version of the Act of Military Surrender. In March, there remained only one surviving witness to the surrender, Albert Meserlin, who was Eisenhower’s American staff photographer.
Meserlin passed away, however, on March 29th, aged 88.
He was also present at the D-Day Landings on Utah Beach, as part of a small photography unit that was responsible for taking photographs for newspapers and military archives.

Death of the last Australian First World War Veteran

by Kathryn Hadley

John ‘Jack’ Ross, Australia’s oldest man and the last remaining Australian to have served in the First World War, died yesterday, aged 110, at a nursing home in Bendigo in the state of Victoria. Ross was the last of 417,000 Australians who served in the First World War.

He enlisted in the Australian Imperial Force in February 1918, aged 18, and was posted to the 1st Battalion at Broadmeadows camp in Victoria. The war ended, however, before he could be sent abroad and he was discharged on Christmas Eve, 1918. He served with the Volunteer Defense Corps, which was inaugurated on July 15th 1940, during the Second World War, but, again, did not fight overseas. In 1998, Jack Ross was awarded the 80th Armistice Anniversary Remembrance medal. He also received the Centenary Medal for his contribution to Australian society in the 100 years since the formation of the federation of Australia, in 1901. He attended his last Aznac Day march in 2006.

The last Australian to serve in the First World War, Evan Allan, died in October 2005. He enlisted in the Royal Australian Navy when he was 14. The last battlefield Digger, Peter Casserly, died in June 2005, aged 107. The last Gallipoli Aznac, Alec Campbell, who lied about his age in order to enlist, died in May 2002, aged 103,

The Australian Veterans Affairs Minister, Alan Griffin, was quoted in an article published on the Reuters website:

‘It now falls to Australians everywhere to ensure that veterans memory is kept alive. We must ensure that their contribution to Australia's wartime history is passed on to future generations, so that their sacrifice is never forgotten’.

Nelson’s Accounts Sell For £7,500

by Kathryn Hadley

A series of Viscount Horatio Nelson and Sir William Hamilton’s accounts were sold yesterday by Christie’s auctioneers in King Street, London, for £7,500. The lot was a set of 16 weekly accounts, dating from June 21st 1802 to April 4th 1803, whilst Nelson, Sir William Hamilton and his wife Emma Hamilton were living together at Merton Place. The accounts were estimated to fetch between £6,000 and £9,000. Two of the accounts are signed by Nelson and two others include financial calculations in Nelson’s hand. All the accounts are signed by Francis White, who is presumed to be Hamilton’s steward.

It appears that Nelson and Hamilton largely shared the costs between them. On the accounts bearing Nelson’s signature, the viscount paid half the household expenses, the residue being paid by Francis White on Sir William Hamilton’s behalf. On the remaining accounts the balance is paid by Francis White. The weekly disbursements vary from £27-1-7½, in late June 1802, to £156-4-4, in March 1803, and included payments for tradesmen and foodstuffs, to the butcher, greengrocer and fishmonger, as well as washing and household wages. The payments to household staff notably include £2 13s 9d, over three months' wages paid to a maid called Phillis Thorpe.

Dr Thomas Venning, a manuscripts expert at Christie's, was quoted in an article on the website of The Telegraph referring to the maid’s wages:

‘That's only about one-third of the amount they forked out for fish in a single week[…]. These accounts provide a valuable insight into life in England just before Trafalgar.’

Sir William Hamilton and Emma were introduced in 1782 by Charles Greville, the lover of Emma Hamilton’s mother. William Hamilton was Charles Greville’s uncle and a widower and antiquarian who was the ambassador at the court in Naples. William and Emma married in September 1791. Two years later, Emma and Nelson met in Naples for the first time. It is believed that the couple became lovers in December 1798, when Nelson evacuated the Hamiltons and the Neapolitan Royal family to Palermo, Sicily, in the aftermath of the Battle of the Nile. Lady Hamilton organised the purchase of Merton Place, a country estate in Merton, Surrey, in 1801 and Nelson moved in with the couple at the end of October. Hamilton died, however, on April 6th, 1803, just two days after the date of the last account paid in his name.

Emma Hamilton died in poverty in France, in January 1815. Shortly, after her death, in the summer of 1815, Memoirs of Lady Hamilton, which detailed the ‘habitual adultery’ between Emma and Nelson, was published anonymously. The book caused a sensation and the first edition sold out in weeks. It was only over 200 years later, however, in 2008, on the eve of the 250th anniversary of Nelson’s birth, that the mysterious author was discovered. For further information, read our article Peeping John.

In 2001, a series of letters written by Frances, Lady Nelson, to her husband’s prize agent Alexander Davison were also discovered. A significant number of the letters date from the time of the break-up of Nelson’s marriage, in early 1801, and provide an insight into the feelings of his wife. Margarette Lincoln and Colin White debate the significance of the letters in our article Kiss me, Horatio.

For further information on Nelson’s character and views, read our article Nelson: Admirable Lord. For Andrew Lambert’s view on why Nelson’s life and death should never be forgotten, read our free article Nelson, Trafalgar and the Meaning of Victory.