The short videos below feature the personal testimony of 11 veterans and eye-witnesses of World War Two.
There are varied experiences across the 12 videos – from military personnel to people who were children during the war. Experiences of evacuation, rationing, blitz bombings and VE Day are all discussed.
The videos are suitable for teaching history at secondary-level in England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland. However, teacher review is recommended prior to use in class as the videos contain references to war both on the battlefield and on the 91ȱ Front.
Created in partnership with Imperial War Museums.
Anna Cevirgin
Bernard Morgan
Graham Zeitling
Moya McCarthy
Peter Penney
Alan Francis
Gladys Hale
Bernard Smale: Part 1
Frank Tolley
Kitty Baxter
John Tasker
Bernard Smale: Part 2
Teacher Notes
Before viewing:
- One option might be to study World War Two in overview: key events and aspects, such as the causes of the war, theatres of conflict, the civilian experience, the role of women, and the contributions of people not just in Britain but across the world.
- Another option might be to study one topic in depth (eg evacuation, enlisting, the 91ȱ Front, occupation in mainland Europe).
- You could focus on understanding how different types of historical sources are used rigorously to make historical claims.
- Consider using the films to establish their utility. What do they tell us? How far are they limited in what we learn? How reliable is the evidence provided? How far might source provenance influence the utility and reliability of the content?
- Build a glossary of relevant key vocabulary, such as 'evacuation', 'occupied', 'Blitz' as used in the contexts of the films.
- Note that the films have a predominantly UK and particularly London focus.
- Note that as the interviewees are now adults their perspective is naturally that of children or very young adults.
During viewing:
Pose a historically-valid question to guide the enquiry.
An example “How far is it accurate to suggest that that Evacuation was a success?” This invites pupils to use their knowledge to consider what success might have been in the historical context. Then, equipped with a reasoned criteria, analysis and judgements may be pursued.
Invite pupils to develop a key enquiry question based on what they have learned so far, and see if they can answer from the new film evidence.
A table might be useful to direct pupils’ focus. It might move from knowledge acquisition notes, through to higher level skills of provenance. An evidence based scoring tariff to assist in the assessment of each film, will guide analysis towards your learning objectives. Subsequently, contrast and compare the films’ values, to build an overview and summative reasoned analysis that addresses the initial key question.
An example:
Source film | New knowledge learned? /5 | How useful for the enquiry? /5 | Limits to its’ use? /5 | How far does the witness provenance enhance or undermine the source value? /5 |
---|---|---|---|---|
Graham | ||||
Kitty | ||||
John |
Pupils make notes from viewing the films, then score the value of their research (1=weak to 5=excellent), as the evidence furthers their ability to answer the key question.
- The films will variously introduce new knowledge, confirm or question existing knowledge or assumptions, thereby being more or less useful or limited. The circumstance of the witness may enhance or undermine the credibility (and therefore value) of the evidence.
- To further extend critical thinking, the class can be encouraged to discuss the idea that the sources may help with other enquiries even though they are considered to be limited for the current one.
- You will probably be selective in the films used using those which address your theme. Alternatively you may compare and contrast the experiences of different interviewees when discussing the same topic.
- It can be useful to show the selected films twice. Once to “take in” the content, then again to take notes and analyse.
- You may choose to organise the exercise into pairs or groups to stimulate discussion and reasoning skills.
After viewing:
- Pupils summarise what they have learned from the films. This exercise can begin at the foundation level of apparent knowledge learned and then be developed through stages of higher level analysis, reflecting the design of the table used during viewing.
- All reasoning should use examples from the films and ideally, existing prior knowledge to assess the utility of the new evidence.
- Contrasting sources such as contemporary accounts, official government ones, those from the press and newsreels, visual versus written evidence, could be analysed in a similar way to broaden and deepen the analysis of different types of evidence.
- Another opportunity is for the class to perform role-plays. This might be one person providing testimony to the class, or 'hot seating' where different pupils occupy the evacuee, soldier or other character and answer questions about their experience. Such activities can deepen secure knowledge and understanding.
SEN and supported learning:
- Differentiate your grid with one focus of knowledge learned from the films. This can then be extended to perhaps consider how the new learning compares with earlier knowledge. Does it confirm or question what we knew?
- The group ideas previously mentioned can promote all abilities to contribute and build confidence. They can also expose the class to different perspectives of analysis.
- Writing frames or cue cards linked to the analysis frame used during viewing of the films may also support the construction of balance and reasoned discussion and summaries.
Further development:
- The class might redeploy their developed analysis skills using further 91ȱ Teach resources. Both Our Greatest Generation and The Last Survivors collections would ideally support a consolidation and development of the historical enquiry methodology used before. The collections are specific to the study of World War Two.
- The class might be encouraged to interview family members regarding past and contemporary events. Examples might include; Migration to the UK or the Covid -19 pandemic, as both relate to options at GCSE: Medicine Through Time and Britain: migration, empires and the people c790 to the present day. This could take the form of a collection of films recorded via mobile telephones.
The videos and the suggested approaches on this page will support key aims of the curriculum across the different national curricula of the UK, in developing pupils’ abilities to:
- frame historically-valid questions and create their own structured accounts, including written narratives and analyses_
- understand the methods of historical enquiry, including how evidence is used rigorously to make historical claims, and discern how and why contrasting arguments and interpretations of the past have been constructed.
- develop critical thinking and analysis of evidence.