heathenhistory.co.uk

With Holocaust Memorial Day approching I thought it would be appropriate to post this article about Treblinka from the BBC. The mass graves found there expose the nonsense of those, like David Irving (see earlier posts), who deny the Holocaust killed so many. You may also like to look at this short film about the world’s oldest Holocaust Museum.

This excellent article from the Sunday Telegraph clearly shows the growing importance of archaeology to our understanding of the past. Just like the earlier article on Calleva Atrebatum it shows how recent archeological discoveries have changed our understanding of an aspect of the past.  As the article states,  “The old view is ‘Romans bad, Britons good’. This discovery muddies the waters. You can’t overestimate the shock and surprise when it was first found.” Read the article if you want to know more. You may also like to look at this short piece of video from the BBC describing the restoration process at the British Museum.

Mr Kydd.

A couple of excellent articles from the BBC to mark the centenary celebrations of the ANC. This video contrasts its early roots as a party of liberation with its post-Mandela disappointments. This Today interview from Radio Four looks at the problems of “a one party democracy”.

Do all revolutions disappoint in the end ?

Mr Kydd.

Another excellent audioslide here from the BBC. This one looks at the Gutenberg Bible and the student notes of Sir Isaac Newton (and how writing helped make the scientific revolution of the Enlightenment possible).

As a school boy I can remember my history teacher setting up a class debate “what was the most important invention in History ?” In the end the printing Press used for teh Gutenberg Bible beat penicillin and the Atom bomb. This was because, and the audio slideshow states, “it was the first real book to be mass-produced using movable type printing techniques – and so could be made in a fraction of the time it had previously taken scribes to write by hand.” Soon knowledge would not be just for the rich…

Mr Kydd.

I don’t propose to rewrite all this post. However, there were  a number of links which really are worth a look, and it would be a great shame if they were lost forever from the site. All are from the BBC.

1. This link is an audioslide show. It describes how the house from where Wifred Owen wrote his last letter home in 1918 has been turned into a place of reflection and a celebration of his work.

2. This article reflects upon the incredible work of Brian Stevens. He visited the Cenotaph earlier this century, and asked some of the surviving veterans if he could take their photograph. The results support the old saying that a picture is worth a thousand words. Obviously, these people fought in the Second World War. However, in the 1990s, Steve Pyke did something very similar for First World War veterans.

3. This link shows a map and explains where the 3,740 British troops who have died since the end of the Second World War in 1945 died.

4. Finally, this magazine post really is worth a look. It inverts how we look at the losses of the two world wars. Incredible though it might seem, there are only fourteen settlements of village size or larger that did not lose someone in either war. Arthur Mee called them “the thankful villages”.

Mr Kydd.

You may have noticed that the site was down for fours days last week, and that the November posts (including the excellent Remembrance stuff) has now gone.

No real harm done – I will repost these in the holidays.

Mr Kydd.