@paulsalmons
Specialist in “difficult histories”. Curator & consultant. Exhibits & educational initiatives in Europe, North America, India & Africa. Projects with Musealia, Claims Conference, US Holocaust Museum, United Nations & UNESCO. https://paulsalmons.associates/
It shouldn't be news that people don't fit into tidy categories, and they insist on doing untidy things like trading and travelling and falling in love and settling down; but apparently it's non-news we have to keep repeating because untidiness helps keep us human.
www.science.org/content/arti...
“Being able to touch a real fragment of the Berlin Wall that divided a city in two for almost 30 years, standing inches away from a postcard written by a prisoner in Auschwitz, or observing personal belongings from the Titanic…”
www.musealia.net/2025/06/24/t...
Original pieces of the Wall that symbolised a divided city, a divided country, a divided Europe, and a divided world.
A privilege & a pleasure working with Musealia on this extraordinary project.
At a time when democracy feels so fragile, our societies polarised, & the world dangerously fragmented, this exhibit “The Berlin Wall | A World Divided” could not be more relevant or more needed.
theberlinwall.com/en/
“The Berlin Wall. A World Divided.”
A clash of ideologies that brought us to the brink of nuclear war. A story of drama & high emotion. Families separated by a fortified border.
And the power of ordinary people to suddenly, unexpectedly, change our world.
paulsalmons.associates/projects/wor...
“The Berlin Wall. A World Divided.”
A clash of ideologies that brought us to the brink of nuclear war. A story of drama & high emotion. Families separated by a fortified border.
And the power of ordinary people to suddenly, unexpectedly, change our world.
paulsalmons.associates/projects/wor...
Six concrete slabs, once part of the Wall that encircled West Berlin, separating loved ones, now stand on a Paris street.
In the Cité de l’architecture hundreds of original artefacts and intensely moving personal stories explore the history, significance and legacy of this symbol of the #ColdWar.
Discover more about the exhibition at paulsalmons.associates/projects/wor...
In Paris, at the Trocadero, in view of the Eiffel Tower for the opening of Musealia’s major new travelling exhibition “The Berlin Wall. A World Divided.”
Bessner asks what an #Auschwitz exhibit means after the Hamas attacks of Oct 7th & as people take to streets to protest Israel’s response in Gaza. She wonders why visit another exhibit after studying the #Holocaust for yrs & being to Auschwitz itself? Hear what she finds.
thecjn.ca/podcasts/rom...
One day course on educating people about histories of slavery, colonialism and imperialism. Intended for professionals in the education, heritage & cultural sectors but anyone interested welcome. Sat 21 June, Sussex:
onlineshop.sussex.ac.uk/product-cata...
Although the Allies did fight to defeat Nazi Germany it was never a war aim to save the Jews of Europe.
Instead of focusing on "liberation" - on the story we like to tell ourselves about ourselves - should we ask if there is anything we can do to mend the broken world that Miriam says was destroyed?
For Miriam, "The first thought that ran through my mind was, 'Too bad. They are late. Because anyway it is too late to save anything. The whole world is lost. Destroyed. The world that deserves to be called a world is gone.'”
Miriam recalled:
"I was groggy, nearly in a faint & in that state I remember, vaguely, the sound of clapping. I opened my eyes and saw people. They were British & whoever had the strength cheered them."
But do anniversaries of liberation focus too much on stories of rescue?
A woman inmate of Belsen concentration camp kisses the hand of Army Film and Photographic cameraman Lieutenant Martyn Wilson. The concentration camp of Bergen-Belsen was overrun by British troops in April 1945. Such images became hugely influential in shaping British memory of its role in the Holocaust chiefly as a story of "liberation".
"I myself was lying on a heap of dead bodies & beside me was my sister, Lusia. Our mother was there with us but she was no longer alive."
Miriam Weinfeld was 18 yrs old & close to death when the British Army overran the Nazi concentration camp Bergen Belsen, 80 years ago today.
How shd we remember?
Join Paul Zanazanian & @ioe.bsky.social History Ed SIG 4 this open Zoom seminar exploring Historical Consciousness & Practical Life, 17 April, 5.30-7pm GMT+1. All welcome! Details at: blogs.ucl.ac.uk/hie-sig/2025... #historyeducation @histassoc.bsky.social @heirnet.bsky.social @1972shp.bsky.social
Join us online or face 2 face this Wednesday (5.30-7pm GMT) for a three-cornered exploration of disorientation in time and of the role that history education might play in addressing it. blogs.ucl.ac.uk/hie-sig/2025... #historyeducation @1972shp.bsky.social @histassoc.bsky.social @ihr.bsky.social
So it goes without saying, but let's say it anyway: the concentration of attacks on trans people isn't because trans people are the only people fascists hate (although they absolutely do hate them). It's because they're the people they think non-fascists are least likely to defend.
What do we do when conspiracy theories enter the classroom? How do we help young people to think critically, evaluate evidence, and weigh truth claims?
What is the role of #HistoryEducation in fostering understanding of how we know what we know about the past?
Hope this 🧵 & resources might help.
Here's a taster of our second Yorkshire History Forum #YHF25 for secondary history teachers. Tickets available from store.leedstrinity.ac.uk/product-cata... It's a fantastic line up of workshops and keynote all for the bargain price of £20 ...
Have spent all day dwelling in the principles @lauralondo1017.bsky.social & I developed for supporting #ITT #ECT beginning teachers to prepare for teaching sensitive and controversial issues.
Interested? More here:
uonhistoryteachertraining.school.blog/2024/08/15/r...
"I will de-Nazifi shit. I won’t re-Nazifi shit."
A rallying cry for our times.
“I used to play the cello… I can say without hesitation that it saved my life.”
In 2014, Newsnight spoke to Holocaust survivor Anita Lasker-Wallfisch, a cellist who as a young Jewish woman survived by playing music for the Auschwitz camp at the behest of Nazi officials.
[Part 1]
Secondary teachers!
Help students shape future teaching on the British Empire. Their voices are crucial.
Our national survey, live this term, offers a unique chance to inform this work.
Email a.pettigrew@ucl.ac.uk to get your school involved.
@htenuk.bsky.social
@counsellc.bsky.social
In suggesting Jews “invented” the #Holocaust to manipulate public opinion and benefit from this “hoax”, Holocaust deniers “try to reactivate the very antisemitic ideas that led to the genocide. That is why it is profoundly antisemitic. It says the genocide didn’t happen. But maybe it should.”
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Hugely important interview on Holocaust denial, distortion, and hate speech.
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www.youtube.com/live/I9AGaJ4...
Representation of women in the #Holocaust
Very important work by Katie Chaka Parks w implications not only for Holocaust museums, but also for the classroom and commemoration.
We need to do better to integrate and make visible these stories in our narratives.
#historyteacher
Prisoners left in Auschwitz were too weak to walk & would slow the SS retreat. They had to survive 10 days alone before Soviets arrived. Some broke into the SS stores & discovered food supplies including this can of condensed milk. Prisoners self-organized, fed & cared for the sick & clung to life.
Trauma led to 7 years of amnesia. Then, through art, Selinger recovered the memories of his #Holocaust experiences. He recounted them again in Paris when donating two of these remarkable artworks to UNESCO.
Such a privilege to hear him speak.
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"Nature gave me forgetfulness to rebuild myself. Art did the rest." Shelomo Selinger, now 98, survived 9 camps & 2 death marches. In 1945, when Soviet troops entered Theresienstadt, a doctor discovered him still breathing among a pile of corpses.
He was just 15 yrs old.
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