Archive for the ‘History’ Category
40 years since one small step
July 20th, 2009 by Roger Darlington
Forty years ago today, man first walked on the moon and, all over the world, the media is rightly commemorating this spectacular event. At the time, I was a 21 year old student at the University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology (UMIST). The Soviet Union launched Sputnik in 1957 when I was nine, […]
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Remembering the Jedwabne massacre
July 19th, 2009 by Roger Darlington
On 10 July 1941, hundreds of Jewish residents of Jedwabne in German Nazi occupied Poland were massacred in an infamous incident that to this day divides opinion, especially in Poland. Following a round up of local Jews by local Poles at the instruction of the German occupiers, a group of about 40 Jews was taken […]
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The Jewish mascot of Nazi soldiers
July 3rd, 2009 by Roger Darlington
This video clip is about 11 minutes, but you should watch it because it tells a remarkable story.
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Remembering the Katyn massacre
June 27th, 2009 by Roger Darlington
What each of us knows and doesn’t know is very varied and very personal, but I’ve been surprised and saddened at how few people I know have heard of the Katyn massacre of 1940. The Wikipedia page on the subject introduces it as follows: “The Katyn massacre, also known as the Katyn Forest massacre (Polish: […]
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When were the First & Second Reichs?
June 18th, 2009 by Roger Darlington
Even today, there are constant references in the media to Nazi Germany, otherwise known as the Third Reich. Adolf Hitler boasted that his Reich would last for a thousand years but, in fact, it only lasted for 12 years (1933-1945). But, if this was the Third Reich, when were the First and Second Reichs? In […]
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Who was Thomas Paine?
June 8th, 2009 by Roger Darlington
Arguably he was the Englishman who has had the most influence on world affairs while combining the least recognition among today’s English. He played a key intellectual role in both the American Revolution and the French Revolution and can be seen as one of the founders of the modern democratic state. Today is the 200th […]
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What happened in Tiananmen Square?
June 4th, 2009 by Roger Darlington
I have visited Tiananmen Square in Beijing on two occasions – once in 2000 and again in 2001. You can read about my first visit here. Of course, today we remember what happened in the square and surrounding streets on 4 June 1989 – exactly 20 years ago. One woman who was there in the […]
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Henry VIII: man and monarch
May 30th, 2009 by Roger Darlington
Henry VIII – who reigned from 1509 to 1547 – is probably the best-known British monarch because of the size of his body and the number of his wives. But there was much more to the man who provoked the English reformation, the dissolution of the monasteries, the creation of a powerful navy and the […]
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Moral complexity in WW2 (1): ‘Operation Catapult’
May 29th, 2009 by Roger Darlington
At the beginning of the Second World War, British Prime Minister Winston felt compelled to order the Royal Navy to attack the pride of the French naval fleet in ‘Operation Catapult’, an assault which caused some 1,300 deaths and around 350 injuries – all of them citizens of France, our leading ally in the struggle […]
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Moral complexity in WW2 (2): Israel Kasztner
May 29th, 2009 by Roger Darlington
Many of you will have read the book “Schindler’s Ark” or seen the film “Schindler’s List” and know how the Czech businessman Oscar Schindler managed to affect the escape of almost 1,200 Jews from Poland so that they missed certain death in the Nazi concentration camps of World War Two. But what about the Hungarian […]
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