You might have noticed that I have created a forum on the assassination of John F. Kennedy. What I have done is to put a link from every page (now over 200) on the assassination to a specifically created forum on the subject. It is also linked to a series of student activities on the assassination. This includes activities that enable students to consider the different theories of the assassination that have been developed so far by researchers. They are also encouraged to develop their own theories.

http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/JFKindex.htm

http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/JFKresearch.htm

http://educationforum.ipbhost.com/index.php?showforum=126

So far I have created this forum for teachers. However, I now plan to create another section for students (see our new Student Forum).

http://www.studenteducationforum.ipbhost.com/

http://educationforum.ipbhost.com/index.php?showtopic=612

This will enable them to read what the teachers have said about the assassination as well as having the right to post questions and comments on the topic.

To help answer these questions I have persuaded several experts (ten so far) on the case to take part in this experiment. I am also trying to get important witnesses to the events surrounding the assassination to take part. So far I have persuaded two very important figures in the case to answer questions. Hopefully, I will be able to convince others to join in. I am also currently negotiating with two men who have both confessed to being involved in the assassination.

This approach could be taken with other topics. For example, I am considering starting up a similar forum on the Home Front during the Second World War. Please contact me if you have any elderly relatives who would be willing to answer student questions on this subject. I have four elderly relatives who have agreed to take part (one soldier who fought in Middle East, two women who endured the Blitz and a child who was evacuated). Only one of these is computer literate and therefore I will organize their registration and the posting of the answers of the other three. Are there any members who could help me with this? Do you have parents, uncles, aunts, etc. who might like to take part in this project. I am especially keen to get people from a wide variety of different countries to take part. For example, it would then be possible to have people from both the UK and Germany to answer questions on subjects like air raid shelters and food rationing. I am sure students would find the activity very stimulating. I will probably link the forum to my simulation on the home front during the war. I will then expand this out to cover other countries and other aspects of the war.

http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/2WW.htm

http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/2WWhome.htm

http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/2WWhomeAC.htm

Hi, John,

I'm happy to support this, and be a bit pro-active.

Thinking pragmatically, the groups of students most likely to take part are those who are studying the subject as a personal/individual study, and groups of gifted and talented students.

I will forward it to some colleagues who may wish to join in.

As usual, I have a big backlog of things to do. I've got some very good pictures (taken mostly years ago from the Royal Air Force News) that would be useful for the aviation project (I need only to scan them). If there is to be some collaboration with British Aerospace, then we could possibly extend that to the work they do at Brough (only a few miles from here).

I'm teaching the JFK assassination in a few months time and will try to build use of the forum into the (as yet unwritten) Scheme of work.

My extra curricular groups may wish to join in discussions related to the Home Front.

I am more than happy to join in the WW2 Home Front project. Both my parents were children at school in the north East of England, so have school memories, and my father in law was a farmer here in the Fens - exempt occupation - and had both German and Italian PoWs. Another relative spent the war years in the Navy, and thus has plenty of yarns to tell!
None are computer literate, but I can manage that.
It is an excellent idea for online learning.
Alf

I have created a place where people who are willing to answer questions about their experiences in the war can post their biographies.

http://educationforum.ipbhost.com/index.php?showtopic=624

John,

This is a great idea. The main problem is on the language.
For example, my father was 18 when Das Reich went in Tulle 2 days before Ouradour sur Glane. They hanged 99 persons and deported more than that.
It's such a big issue in this city (where I teach).
I can find some people that I know for this project but they are a bit old, have difficulties with technology and don't know a word of english....

one link in english:
http://www.dasreich.ca/oradour.html

In french
http://www.europe-memoire.org/dossier/dossier4.html

Don't know how to handle with that...

Jean Philippe

WWII

I can just remember WWII. I was 3 years old when the war ended. My parents were living in Kent at the time, a couple of miles away from the West Malling airfield. I can remember barrage balloons in the sky all around us. I can remember searchlights and the air raid warning sirens. I can remember sleeping in an air-raid shelter, a sort of metal box construction, on the ground floor in our house. I can remember the victory celebrations and being terrified when they lit a bonfire bearing an effigy of Hitler (I thought it was a real man). My most vivid memory is when my father took me into our back garden to watch a Spitfire from West Malling engaging with a V1 on its way to London. The Spitfire shot it down and it landed nearby in the hop gardens. On another occasion the pilot of a German fighter plane that had been shot down by a Spitfire bailed out over our house, but too late for his parachute to open, and was impaled on a pear tree in our next door neighbour's garden. My father, a male nurse, and the neighbour had to help remove his body.

My wife's cousin, John ("Jack") McMahon, is in his 80s, fighting fit and living on Salt Spring Island, British Columbia. His book "Almost a Lifetime" is an account of his first and only bombing mission and its consequences. He was shot down over Holland, sheltered by a Dutch family for a short while and then imprisoned in Germany. He survived a 400-mile forced march across Germany in 1945 as the Russians advanced from the East. For a review of his book see:
http://www.umanitoba.ca/outreach/cm/vol2/no1/almost.html
Jack often gives talks to children in Canadian schools.
He has recently written a romantic novel entitled "Dunraven House" - nothing to do with WWII.

John, if you send me a private email indicating what you think Jack might be able to offer, I will forward it to him. Jack owns a computer and uses email regularly. We'll be visiting Jack on Salt Spring Island towards the end of May.

I can just remember WWII. I was 3 years old when the war ended. My parents were living in Kent at the time, a couple of miles away from the West Malling airfield. I can remember barrage balloons in the sky all around us. I can remember searchlights and the air raid warning sirens. (Graham Davies)

Graham, you seem an ideal person to join our panel. Maybe it would be a good idea to re-register using a photograph of you as a child.

http://educationforum.ipbhost.com/index.php?showtopic=624

When do you want to launch this activity? (JP Raud Dugal)

I think we will have to wait until we have a reasonable number of people willing to answer questions and to engage in debate about their experiences. I have had several offers of help by email and hopefully in a few weeks we will have enough people to get in going (20?). I will advertise the idea in today’s forum newsletter and in my other two newsletters (Teaching History Online and Education on the Internet).

We can run the debate for adults on this part of the forum. I hope to make it available on the student forum as well. That creates issues about registration. See

http://educationforum.ipbhost.com/index.php?showtopic=612

John writes:

I found my own interview techniques regarding the Depression and World War II involved an analysis of other interviewers and their techniques.
Making up a list of possible questions and then discussing the merits of each question helped the students observe everyday life and the problems one would have if their father were away,if they had to ration gas or food stuffs or metals.
The best aspect of this interview was the ability and ingenuity of the students in finding substitutions for products and procedures.

Although Spain didn't take part directly in the WWII (Franco sent the División Azul to help the Wehrmacht in the Russian front), the course of events was anxiously followed by the Spaniards.
I, myself, remember that my father went, almost clandestinely, to the British embassy to get the BBC report. Nobody believed the official radio and papers.
As Jean Philippe indicated, the main problem is the language. I will try to find some witnesses and "translate" their testimonies.

My grand-mother, now 85, was raising her two kids in a farm in Brittany while her husband was a prisonner in Prussia. Many rural families where deprived of men at home. White russians (but not the Vlassov army) were billeted in this area. Seen as looters by the locals, they were mainly used to track partisans. I 'd be happy to help by interviewing her and add a translation.

Christian Bilien

I suspect your focus is on what happened in the UK and Western Europe, but I can still remember things in the US that happened during the war. Moreover, it (the war) is my professional field of interest as an historian. If I can be of any assistance with answering inquiries I would be very happy to help. I have interviewed a great many people over the years who participated and lived to tell about it. For example, it is rare to have the chance to talk with a British officer who won his Victoria Cross posthumously!!! I did that when I lived in London many years ago. I knew Curt LeMay personnally and for some years, as well as Canadian soldiers who landed at Dieppe, and got off of the beach that day, and later fought in Normandy. Anyway, if you think I can be of any assistance I am here! Professor James A. Mowbray, Air War College, Maxwell AFB, Alabama:
james.mowbray@maxwell.af.mil

I think that The Second World War project, as its outlined here on The Educational Forum is a good initiative.

My old uncle still lives and has vivid memory of his teenage period, which was during the War in Mähren (a part of Czech protectorate). He speaks a good German and I believe that he would be willing to contribute to whatever place at this forum.

Nevertheless what will be an outcome of the project? A library of memories? Placed at your Spartacus site?
I find it more and more difficult to engage my students in taking any educational interest in such kinds of libraries. They often lack the patience to read through it and furthermore they are not enough skilled to read this kind of stories in foreign language.

On the other hand they like to produce this kind interviews and subsequent story telling based on them themselves. Even if they do not have a great skill at doing that they are most often very proud about the results.

Will there be any possibility for the student’s active participation? How will that be organized?

My contribution was slightly off the subject …. When I reread the postings I of course discovered that there would be no library with old peoples memories. Instead the plans are for creating possibilities for students to ask questions and get answers ...... . Sorry.

As David wrote:

I have discovered this forum after surfing on the internt in order to collect information about my research for my university.
I actually didnt find the thing that i search for BUT...
i will be more than glad to help you with the WWII issue.

My country,greece,had played a main role during the WWII.The resistance was outstanding,in fact so good that not even Mussollini couldnt defeat it and Hitler had to send troops down here.This thing delayed the cccp invasion.This had the result of Hitler having to invade cccp at winter,which was the main disadvantage he had.

The village i live in has been burned by the Nazis because of its brave resistance,together with many other villages all around the world.
I can also collect information for you about the Partisans,the guerilla army tha actually hammered the Fascists,the most "bleeding" open wound of Balkans.


So...if you really like some information about how WWII went here in greece i will be more than glad to help you and to give you information,if you do so...just email me please.

Friendly
Me.

ps:forgive me for the bad condition of my english.

Could those who have volunteered to join the project add the biographies of the participants at:

http://educationforum.ipbhost.com/index.php?showtopic=624

I have also had several private emails from people willing to join the project. If you have not done so already, please add your comments to this thread.

Dear Colleagues,

I am very pleased to take part in your new topic because we had lost 3 million people during WW2 and every family defeated by this war. My students are working with veterans now, writing their memories, stories, getting photos and documents from this period of time. A lot of them we placed in our school museum. I'll be happy to translate some of them and re-send to your forum.

As Russians we were "sentensed by nazi" to death because belong to slavonic race but nobody and never could do so in our current history. Unfortunately, still now we are isolated in Europe, all our neighbors are members of EU-CE but we continue to live at iron curtain.

Anyway, I am working with my teachers and students just to feel that we are part of Europe and would like to cooperate and collaborate with my colleagues abroad.

My best wishes to all veterans of WW2 who won this struggle for freedom and independence, a lot of happiness and good health for all of them, we remember you and admire you because you are an excellent example for the next generations.

With peace and love,

Vladimir

This is such a good idea and very necessary for the understanding of the trauma of WWII. Many of the children during the war are now retired - and they are not getting any younger. I would not only like to try to participate (with some limitations, see in the end of this text), but I would encourage all the participants to tape (if possible) the "interviews" and encourage more interviews with this generation. Now a little bit of what I - or rather my mother can do;
My mother was born in Finland 1933. My grandparents, she and her little sister lived in Helsinki. When the war broke out (the Winter War) she and her family was evacuated to the Finnish countryside. After the armistice of March 1940 they moved back home.
In June 1941 the war broke out again. In February 1942, when the bombing of Helsinki was to intense, she and about 70 000 other children were evacuated to Sweden (by train over Torneå-Haparanda). She and her younger sister (5 years old in 1942) travelled together with a little nametag around their necks. In Sweden they were separated. My mother first stayed two months at an orphanage before she ended up in a Swedish family in Sundsvall. At the time she did not speak any Swedish at all...
It took 18 months before she and her sister got to come home. Her sister had then forgotten most of her native language. After the bombings of Helsinki once more increased many children were sent again to Sweden. In February 1944 she was back in her Swedish "warfamily". This time it would take 16 months before she saw her parents again (June 11th 1945).
Today she lives in Southern Sweden. She is a member of the Swedish National Association of Finnish Warchildren (Riksförbundet Finska Krigsbarn). She and several other members can tell anybody about their experiences, but I don't know if they can participate "on-line" (several of them does not speak English very well), but questions can be asked and I would see to it that answers were published as fast as possible...

Anders MacGregor-Thunell