January: Holocaust Remembrance Day
Wednesday 19 January 2022
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You didn’t think about yesterday, and tomorrow may not happen, it was only today that you had to cope with and you got through it as best you could.
Iby Knill, survivor of the Holocaust
Holocaust Day is 27th January. The theme for Holocaust Memorial Day (HMD) 2022 is One Day.
The aim of this theme is to get people thinking and learning about about key dates which had significance in the direction of the holocaust and other genocides. Also to think about any 'one day' in the lives of individual survivors.
One Day is a snapshot
One Day is just a snapshot in time and therefore cannot give the full picture, the context, the background that is needed, but it can help bring a piece of the full picture to life. The age or gender of the victim, or their geographical location ensured that no One Day during the genocide was typical. The same date would be experienced very differently by Jews hiding in France, Jews incarcerated in Auschwitz, Jews awaiting their fate in Hungary, for example. For those who suffered for days, weeks, months, years focussing on just One Day is a starting point, a way in for us to learn more about what happened during the Holocaust and the genocides that followed in Cambodia, Rwanda, Bosnia and Darfur.
https://www.hmd.org.uk/what-is-holocaust-memorial-day/this-years-theme/
Here is a reminder of some resources that are available to help teachers discuss the significance of this day with students:
What is new on the site this month?
In the past month we have uploaded a new Paper 1 with mark scheme for PS 3, Case Study One on the Manchurian Crisis
We have also made a start on The Ottomans, Topic 12 for Paper 3, Africa and the Middle East Region:
Death of Desmond Tutu
Last month, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, the Nobel Peace prize laureate who helped end apartheid in South Africa, died aged 90. As a key figure in the apartheid movement and the post apartheid period, this sad event does give opportunity to review with students the life of Desmond Tutu and the Apartheid years in South Africa.
Desmond Tutu: South Africa anti-apartheid hero dies aged 90 (BBC News)
Tributes are paid to Archbishop Tutu, the Nobel peace prize laureate who helped end apartheid in South Africa.
Online Lectures
The London School of Economics in London hosts excellent online events which are free to join.
Coming up in a few days on Monday 24th January, Margaret MacMillan is giving a lecture on the end of the First World War: 'The lecture will look at the shifting balance of power and the changes in the alliances of the opposing sides and it will assess the part played by each in the ending of the war and the Allied victory. Finally it will examine the role of alliance relationships in the making of the peace.'
Victory and the Making of Peace: the Allies in the First World War (London School of Economics and Political Science)
6.30pm Mon 24 Jan | Margaret MacMillan | Registration Required | Free online public event at LSE
Podcasts: The China History Podcast
This podcast series covers lectures on a wide variety of historical topics on China from the Taiping Rebellion to US-China relations in the 1970s.
Movies and documentaries
Mr. Jones on Amazon Prime covers the true story of a report covering the 1930s famine in the Soviet Union:
‘Mr. Jones’ Review: Bearing Witness to Stalin’s Evil (Published 2020) (www.nytimes.com)
In Agnieszka Holland’s historically informed drama, a Welsh journalist travels to 1933 Ukraine, then in the grip of famine.
Also don't forget that this Friday sees the launch of Munich, based on Robert Harris’ book of the same name and centred around the Munich Conference of 1938
The Human Factor, a documentary on Netflix, covers three decades of negotiations between Palestinians and Israelis at a time when a peace deal seemed a possibility
The Human Factor review: a gripping account of three decades of Middle East peace talks (the Guardian)
Insight, analysis, expertise and the whims of powerful men all inform Dror Morehâs' balanced, far-reaching documentary