This month sees the 80th anniversary of the Yalta Conference and so provides an opportunity to have a fresh look at this event which, as historian Diana Preston in her book on Yalta writes, has become the 'byword for failure and broken promises'. 

This BBC article gives a good overview of the context, events and impact of the conference:

In 2005, President George W. Bush called Yalta ‘one of the greatest wrongs of history … Once again, when powerful governments negotiated, the freedom of small nations was somehow expendable.’

And this week's Economist has an article by Stephen Kotkin entitled The neglect of Asia was the great failure of Yalta' (You need an Economist account to read this article).

But, given the international context in February 1945, could the Yalta conference actually have been handled differently?

This could be an interesting question to ask students when looking at the ultimate failure of Yalta with regard to Poland and the fate of the countries of Eastern Europe as it involves an analysis of the situation in Europe at the time and the relationship between the three men. Indeed the articles below all consider the restraints on the decision making that led to the Yalta agreements.

Dresden Bombing

Another event being commemorated this month is the 80th Anniversary of the Allied bombing of Dresden which took place between 13th - 15th February, 1945. Victor Gregg, a British prisoner of war in Dresden in 1945 who lived through the Allied bombings of the city, gives a graphic snapshot of the impact of the firestorm that this bombing created:

“As the incendiaries fell, the phosphorus clung to the bodies of those below, turning them into human torches. The screaming of those who were being burned alive was added to the cries of those not yet hit. There was no need for flares to lead the second wave of bombers to their target, as the whole city had become a gigantic torch. It must have been visible to the pilots from a hundred miles away.”

This anniversary provides an opportunity to revisit this 'apocalyptic' event with students.

The reasons for the bombing, its impact as well as the controversy which surrounds it are covered in the articles below.

80th Anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz

We covered this in January's blog. But we wanted to draw your attention to a couple of other resources.

The Last Musician of Auschwitz is a BBC documentary on how inmates of Auschwitz performed and composed music as a lifeline and a way to resist. As this review from the Guardian newspaper states, it is an 'exceptionally moving and intelligent documentary'.

Another BBC documentary made for the anniversary, What happened at Auschwitz, is also worth showing to students as it highlights the urgency of making sure the holocaust is never forgotten - especially in the current political climate. Only 30 minutes long, it is centred around interviews with survivors of Auschwitz and directly addresses the problem of misinformation on social media today.

History in the news: Munich 1938 and Munich 2025

The Munich Security Conference involving European leaders and US Vice President, J. D. Vance, has just taken place. A key focus was Ukraine and how to bring the war/conflict to an end. The ensuing discussions have led to comparisons to the Munich Conference of 1938. In this case Ukraine's future rather than Czechoslavakia's future was on the table but some commentators have raised fears that the US will seek to appease Putin in the same way that Chamberlain appeased Hitler in 1938 in order to achieve peace. In historian Anthony Beevor's words, 'Trump’s overture to  Putin sounds like a terrifying echo of the betrayal of Czechoslovakia in 1938'.

This argument is set out in two articles below; one from the Ukrainian newspaper Kyiv Post, and the other from World War Two historian Anthony Beavor.

For IBDP History students studying the causes of the Second World War, this could be an interesting discussion; what are the similarities and what are the differences between the situation in 1938 and 2025? And to what extent do they agree with the conclusions in the articles below?

Site update

We have now uploaded a new topic for Paper 2: Topic 07: Origins, development and impact of industrialization (1750–2005) with case studies for Britain and Japan.

We hope that the current term is going well; please continue to contact us with your questions, comments and suggestions!