British Children Remember the Second World War

Young Voices

A compelling portrait of the Second World War, as experienced by the children who lived through it

Lyn Smith's Young Voices is a poignant and compelling look at children's lives in Britain during the Second World War. 
 
During the Second World War, British children were spared the humiliation and fear of enemy occupation. None the less, they endured six years of increasing deprivation, uprootings, and long separations, and many experienced both physical and psychological suffering. They witnessed and endured intense air raids, both by conventional bombing and by the new terror weapons of V1s and V2s. Many were exposed to sights of injury, death and destruction, and at a very young age were forced to cope with the loss of friends and family at a time when counselling was unheard of. 
 
For nearly thirty years, Lyn Smith has been recording the experiences of those who were children during the war. Through the richly diverse voices and writings of over one hundred contributors, covering a wide geographical area that goes beyond the home front, Lyn Smith has written a powerful oral history of the war as seen from a child's perspective. 
 
'What makes these accounts so compelling is that children's experiences have in their telling a particular immediacy... a vivid and moving collection.' New Statesman 
 
Lyn Smith has worked regularly as an oral history interviewer for the Imperial War Museum's Sound Archive for nearly 30 years. Using her own important contribution to the public archive, she has researched and written several books, including Forgotten Voices of the Holocaust and Pacifists in Action. She is also a lecturer in International Politics and International Affairs, and teaches at Regents College in London and at Webster University in St Louis, USA. Lyn Smith lives in Lewes, East Sussex.

Lyn Smith has worked regularly as an oral history interviewer for the Imperial War Museum's Sound Archive for nearly 30 years. Using her own important contribution to the public archive, she has researched and written several books, including Forgotten Voices of the Holocaust and Pacifists in Action. She is also a lecturer in International Politics and International Affairs, and teaches at Regents College in London and at Webster University in St Louis, USA. Lyn Smith lives in Lewes, East Sussex.

For British children the Second World War was a terrifying time of deprivation, uprootings and separation. But many also endured intense air raids or found themselves, shockingly, caught up in the action. 
 
Young Voices tells how British children across the globe lived in the days before and during the fighting. Meet nine-year-old Jean Greaves, whose father was taken by the Nazis for helping Jewish people; schoolboy Derek Bech who clung to a raft in heavy seas after his ship was torpedoed; baker's boy Ron Hurford in occupied Guernsey who stole German flour for his family; teenager and messenger Peter Izard who dodged a falling doodlebug; Manila internee Jacqueline Towell who couldn't walk for malnutrition; and many others who survived adversity and danger. 
 
Through the breathtaking stories of over one hundred contributors, Lyn Smith has written an extraordinary history of the war as seen through child's eyes.

A Century of Protest

Voices Against War

An engrossing account of how protestors stood against some of the key conflicts 1914 to the present day

Every page contains a deep and moving insight into the motives and consciences of those who have opposed military conflict and the weapons of war, from 1914 to the present. It is a wonderful book

A timely written compilation . . . the many voices represented here offer lucid reasoning and moving compassion

A very thought-provoking and revealing read . . . this book really does take the reader inside the ranks of the various anti-war movements

This is the most interesting book that I've read in years

A history  of 20th century anti-war movements which, whether we agree or disagree, mean we  no longer give blind acquiescence to our Government's military  follies

A sobering read that forces you to question some assumptions you might have

Lyn Smith is a university lecturer and oral history interviewer. She is the author of Forgotten Voices of the Holocaust, Pacifists in Action and the bestselllng Young Voices.

Based on nearly 200 personal testimonies from the Imperial War Museum's Collections, this landmark book tells the stories of those of those who participated in anti-war protest from the First World War 1914-18 to the ongoing conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan. 
 
Voices Against War is a compelling, emotional and very moving human story, essential for understanding war in its entirety.

A new history in the words of the men and women who survived

Forgotten Voices of The Holocaust

A landmark oral history of the Holocaust - from the bestselling and award-winning Forgotten Voices series

Powerful cries of pain...All of them capture some element of the torment, and of hope....What might seem a monotonous roll of horror stories becomes, under her keen ear, a mosaic of infinite variety...can be read with an assurance that there will be many aspects of Holocaust in them that will be new, remarkable and thought-provoking

Full of rich insights...There are no greater stories of courage than those of old relatives who sacrificed themselves so that others could survive

Deserves maximum space everywhere this autumn... poignant and sometimes horrific reading... it is a timely reminder to appreciate our lives and those we share it with

probably the most harrowing book I'll ever read...gripping....its subject matter is something that should never be forgotten

Lyn Smith BA (Hons) MA is a lecturer in International Politics at the Open University, and lectures in Politics, International Relations and Human Rights at the Webster University (USA) in London. Over the past twenty years she has worked continuously as a freelance interviewer for the IWM Holocaust Sound Archive, particularly after being specially commissioned for the new IWM Holocaust Exhibition when it was in the late 1990s.

Following the success of Forgotten Voices of the Great War, Lyn Smith visits the oral accounts preserved in the Imperial War Museum Sound Archive, to reveal the sheer complexity and horror of one of human history's darkest hours. 
 
The great majority of Holocaust survivors suffered considerable physical and psychological wounds, yet even in this dark time of human history, tales of faith, love and courage can be found. As well as revealing the story of the Holocaust as directly experienced by victims, these testimonies also illustrate how, even enduring the most harsh conditions, degrading treatment and suffering massive family losses, hope, the will to survive, and the human spirit still shine through.

Lyn Smith

Ordinary Britons who risked their lives to make a difference

In March 2010, twenty-seven Britons who took matters into their own hands to protect Jews from the Nazis during one of the darkest times in human history were formally recognised as 'Heroes of the Holocaust' by the British Government. The silver medal, inscribed with the words 'In the Service of Humanity', was created to acknowledge those 'whose selfless actions preserved life in the face of persecution'. Gordon Brown described the medal's recipients, who risked their lives to save those of Jewish friends, or complete strangers, as, 'true British heroes and a source of national pride for all of us. They were shining beacons of hope in the midst of terrible evil because they were prepared to take a stand against prejudice, hatred and intolerance.' 
 
Some, like Frank Foley, a British spy whose cover was working at the British embassy in Berlin, took huge risks issuing forged visas to enable around 10,000 Jews to escape Germany before the outbreak of World War 2. Others, like the ten British POWs who hid and cared for Hannah Sarah Rigler as she escaped from a death march, showed great humanity in the face of horrendous cruelty and suffering. All the recipients of the award were ordinary people, acting on no one's authority but their own, who found they could not stand idly by in the face of this great evil. 
 
Heroes of the Holocaust collects for the first time the remarkable stories of the recipients of the medal. Written by acclaimed Holocaust historian Lyn Smith, it is a moving testament to the bravery of those whose inspiring actions stand out in stark relief at a time of such horror.

Lyn Smith

Books by Lyn Smith

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