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...

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.

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...

"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 [email protected] to get your school involved. @htenuk.bsky.social @counsellc.bsky.social

Hugely important interview on Holocaust denial, distortion, and hate speech. 1/2 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.

"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. 1/2

Such a poignant day. In Paris for UNESCO commemoration of 80th anniversary of the liberation of #Auschwitz we have the privilege to hear from Ginette Kolinka, who turns 100 yrs old in a few days time. A survivor of Auschwitz & Bergen-Belsen she journeys back 80 yrs into her past to retell her story.

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

On my way to Paris for project w UNESCO & US Holocaust Museum. Developing guidance for countries wishing to develop Holocaust & genocide educational projects. Excited to share the concept with our advisory group of experts from India, Rwanda, South Africa, Argentina, Cambodia, Brazil & Nigeria.

In a few days the world commemorates 80th anniversary of liberation of #Auschwitz. But when Soviet troops arrived only 7000 inmates still remained alive. The SS evacuated the camp forcing 60,000 prisoners to walk 100s of miles on death marches, killing thousands along the way. #TeacherEducation 🧵

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...

This is really an amazing discovery - names and family details of almost every child who came to Britain on a Kindertransport. So many unaccompanied child refugees and their descendants can finally fill in gaps in their knowledge of where they came from. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Extraordinarily powerful & thought provoking podcast from Ellin Bessner. A reluctant visitor to the #Auschwitz exhibit in Toronto her journey into the galleries, what she finds there &the impact this all has is profoundly moving. An essential listen. shorturl.at/QwR4N @auschwitzmemorial.bsky.social

Exclusive Canadian showing of “Auschwitz - Not long ago Not far away” opens at ROM www.cbc.ca/player/play/...

Canada’s largest & most comprehensive museum is home to a world-class collection of 18 million artworks, cultural objects & natural history specimens, from around the world & across the ages. That the ROM chose to host our exhibit is testament to the enormous cultural significance of #Auschwitz.

Good job alert...

On my way to Toronto for the opening at the Royal Ontario Museum of “Auschwitz. Not long Ago. Not Far Away.” An internationally travelling exhibit produced by Musealia, featuring hundreds of original artefacts. Excited to bring these incredibly moving & powerful stories to a new audience.

I don't see many long threads on here, but I'll try one - it's about Holbein's Ambassadors, his 1533 masterpiece in the National Gallery. It's often presented as a great mystery, but I think once we understand the circumstances in which it was made, its meaning becomes clearer. 1/

#HistoryEducation #HistoryTeacher Do you have an enquiry question about the British Empire in your school curriculum? Do the words good or bad feature? Read this blog as a reminder that we can (and should) ask other questions and that recent scholarship can help.

Just listened to this. Such an important conversation - powerful, nuanced and compelling.

"'We really wouldn't have needed a campaign or a call [to leave],' said Eike Stegen, the GHWK's press relations officer. 'We had reached a point in our internal discussions where we said we wanted to leave the platform. But we wanted to join a campaign or a call because we wanted to motivate as 1/2

It’s been a huge privilege to write www.aboutholocaust.org for the World Jewish Congress and UNESCO. But all things must pass, and I am now looking for a new project. If you are looking for an educator and researcher specialising in Holocaust Studies, please be in touch!

Multiple organisations and individuals working in #Holocaust education silence their X accounts today. #NotOneMoreWord www.dw.com/en/holocaust...

For god's sake reach to Saydnaya slaughterhouse prison & rescue the rest!! Upon release list their names, secure the prison for evidnce. Governments & int. organizations, must immediately offer support to released detainees & support efforts to reunite them with families

We do not yet know what the end of the Assad regime will bring in Syria. But we do know the torture cells are being emptied & this brings to mind the remarkable story of 82 Names, written on scraps of cloth with ink made from blood & rust & smuggled out of prison by Mansour Omari. shorturl.at/mEu1p

Today, survivors of Hiroshima and Nagasaki receive the Nobel Peace Prize for the work of Nihon Hidankyo, a grassroots movement of Japanese atomic bomb survivors who have campaigned against the use of nuclear weapons for nearly 70 years. 1/3 shorturl.at/cLl0U

The shock of the new. What a wonderful curatorial choice for this exhibit on birth of Impressionism to continually contrast paintings from 1874 Salon w those of Monet, Cezanne, Pissarro et al first exhibited in Paris that same year. No longer a chocolate box cliche but a radical new way of seeing.

"To better understand denialism’s transnational nature, it is important first to contextualize this phenomenon as a continuation of the imperial project itself." Sean Carleton, Alan Lester, Adele Perry, and Omeasoo Wahpasiw's essay is live today. activehistory.ca/blog/2024/12...

Hello Bluesky Anyone able to translate this for me, please? (My only language is bad English, I’m afraid, and I’d really like to know what the artist - Lepic - chose to include here.)

The only Da Vinci in the Americas. I’ve never stood in front of Mona Lisa (I know, right?!) so unsure how I’d feel, “knowing” it too well, having so many expectations & preconceptions. This however, was wonderful, a portrait I didn’t know before so everything was new and fresh. Stunning, isn’t it? x

What an absolutely exceptional example of how to write #museum captions well. Lucid & eloquent, it begins with a question & draws our attention to small details helping to interpret the whole. Adds colour & nuance, highlights a legacy painter &subject wd prefer were overlooked, complicates thinking.

One of the most heartbreaking #museum displays I’ve seen. Fragments of stained glass from 16th St Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama appear to float in the air. 1963 a KKK bomb murdered 4 young girls, blinded &injured many more. A moment of horror still felt today. African American Museum, DC

Back in Washington DC for a meeting of the Education Committee of the US Holocaust Museum, part of the museum’s governing board. A privilege to serve on this body, and a great opportunity to learn more about the Museum’s important work.