40 Objects 40 Years display, Freud Museum

In his essay Civilisation & its Discont­ents 1929, Sigmund Freud (1856-1939) had analysed the aggressive cruelty that changed men into sa­vages. Aft­er Hit­ler took power in Germany in 1933, as much as he recog­nised these trends, Freud was reluctant to apply them to Vienna. Even when the Nazis burnt all the books in 1933 by hated authors, including Freud! Yet he supported his sons Oliver (1891–1969) & Ernst (1892–1970), to leave Ber­lin and to move to London in 1933.

I invite you to reread Freud's escape: Nazi Vienna->London 1938. Austrian Chancellor Engelbert Doll­fuss DID ban the Nazi Party in June 1933, but he was assassinated by local Nazis a year later. Even then desperately hoped that Doll­fuss’ succ­ess­or would continue policies of ind­ep­end­ence and basic decency. Why? Freud’s revol­u­t­ionary visions into the uncharted sub­conscious mind SHOULD have prepared him for the dark forces moving ahead.

Anna and dad Sigmund Freud, Vienna, 1920

Freud Museum, London

Sigmund didn't believe that Aus­tria would come under German rule! Yet in 1938 German soldiers were massing on Austria's border, annexing Austria into the 3rd Reich. Many Jews urgently fled to safety, but Freud was 81 and very ill with cancer; and U.K migration quotas remained inflex­ible.

Why had Freud not left Vienna quickly? Because he’d spent his apol­it­­ical life­ claiming that Nazi sturm and drang was mere noise, the outward man­i­festation of messy inner liv­es. Note Hitler appeared on the balcony of Vienna’s imper­ial Hof­­burg Palace to declare the Anschluss in March 1938 i.e absorption of Austria into the 3rd Reich. Vienna was fill­ed with excited Nazi sup­p­orters, thugs looted Jewish shops, damaged synagog­ues and attacked Jews. And ruined Freud’s International Psychoanalytic pub­lish­ing house.

While Freud believed in­sight would return to his be­loved cult­ur­ed Vienna, everyone in Freud’s circle tried to get him to leave. Note these fol­low­ers risked their OWN political capital, personal income and physic­al safety to save him. Anna Freud (1894-1982) had ministered to all her father’s needs while man­aging her own pioneering child psycho-analyst pract­ice. She dealt with the new Nazi overlords who were extort­ing money from notable Jews seeking to emig­rate. But she would never have left her dad. Physician-neurologist Ernest Jones (1879-1958) tire­lessly pro­moted Freud’s ideas in Europe. When he heard the threat to Freud, Jones flew to Vien­na to bend British immigration rules. US’s ambassador to France William Bullitt Jr (1891-1967) had been Freud’s patient in the 1920s. Their friendship devel­oped later, through collaborating on a Pres Wood­row Wilson biography; the U.S even demanded Freud’s safe release. Dr Max Schur was treating Freud’s jaw can­c­er. Schur’s loyalty was clear when he delayed his own family’s exit! 

Marie Bonaparte (1882-1962), grandniece of Napoleon & wife of Prince George of Greece-Denmark, had been Freud’s pat­ient be­fore she too became a psychoanalyst. She rushed to Vienna, paying the Nazis for Freud’s huge flight tax.

The refugees boarded the Orient Express in June 1938, 3 months after Hitler annexed Austria, and they noted that tension inten­sified as the train rolled through Ger­many via Munich and Dachau. At 3AM the train reached the border where the Ger­man bor­der guards glan­ced at his docum­ents, then into France with Bonaparte, then continuing to London.

Freud's four sisters in Vienna 1941

Holocaust Historical Society

Of Freud’s children, Anna and Martin had been taken by the Gestapo, but lived. Freud’s 4 sisters Rosa, Marie, Pauline & Adolfine stayed and were exterm­inated.

Freud's home in Maresfield Gardens, Hampstead

Later the Freud Museum

Note the Blue Heritage Plaques

The remaining Freuds moving to London, in Maresfield Gardens Hampstead in July. They brought their belongings, AND an amazing intellectual world. Freud spent the last year of his life with the objects that shaped his views about mental health. His London study has been preserved just as he left it, including thousands of books. And he avidly collected 2,500 Egyptian, Greek & Roman figures, & Asian artefacts that showed his interest in ancient life.

In London Freud was too ill to work and died with a year. Anna, a pioneering child psychologist, continued to live there until her death in 1982. According to her wishes, it opened as a permanent Museum in July 1986, with the entire contents of her father’s study and library left intact. So let’s visit Freud’s home-museum in London this year.

Freud's psychoanalytic couch surrounded by his books and art objects

Freud Museum

 

Freud’s couch from Vienna came in 1938 because it had been the centre of his psycho-analysis practice, blurring the line between work and home. Thus the couch had been essential in recreating end-of-century atmosphere Vienna, remaining in Freud’s study in the London Museum today. And explore the amazing books and collectibles next to the couch.

The exhibition, Protected: 40 Objects 40 Years, displays the life & work of the great Freud family marking the Museum’s 40th anniversary. Novelist Esther Freud and others from the world of culture & psychoanalysis have chosen objects from Museum archives to celebrate the event. These objects tell the story of the Museum, the history of psychoanalysis and of exiled family life. Esther Freud chose a young letter from her dad-artist Lucian Freud (Sigmund’s grandson), who wrote to his parents (Ernst Freud & Lucie Brasch) whilst he was away at English boarding school. Some of the artefacts were hidden from sight in the museum’s attic and are being shown for the first time in a collection curated by Briony Davis. One of the pieces on display is a metal porcupine, a momento of Freud’s trip to the USA in 1909, picked as a reflection on confusions of intimacy. See animal figures in relief, chosen by Neuberger, who was fascinated to find such an item in Freud’s personal collection.

One wall of Freud's library

Freud Museum, London

 

See a C13th copper Chanukah lamp, featuring a Hebrew inscription about light from Proverbs. The psychoanalyst was famously ambivalent about his Jewish heritage so this lamp was probably never lit by him; rather it was and appreciated as a cultural and historical artefact, not religious.

 

Chanukah lamp with 3 animal medals and Hebrew letters in relief

13th century, Northern France or Germany

The Freud Museum London

Following Freud’s own vision, the Museum Director’s aim was to create chances for everyone to learn about and from psychoanalysis. They urged the cultural commentators to be wide-ranging in their choices, about the past of course and also about the contemporary relevance of their chosen object. Other objects on display include a battered leather suitcase belonging to the Freuds’ live-in maid Paula Fichtel and the hand-written recipe book belonging to Freud’s wife Martha for Viennese apple strudel etc. And see Anna’s sewing machine and her patterns for cardigans, plus her embroidery and lacework. She saw weaving and embroidery invaluable crafts, alongside the serious work of psychoanalysis.

The exhibition is presenting lectures and tours in the anniversary year, and they are also building the Freuds’ beloved garden into a mental health refuge.

 

Captain Eric Ravilious, WW2 art

London-born Eric Ravilious (1903-42) spent his early years in Eastbourne E. Sussex and won a scholarship to attend the Eastbourne School of Art in 1919. Later he enrolled at Royal College of Art London where he studied under Paul Nash, a War Artist in WW1. Later Ravilious worked as a painter, book illustrator and Wedgwood pottery designer.

With war starting in 1939, he joined the Royal Observer Corps based in Castle Hedingham Essex. Ravilious was one of the first official War Artists to be appointed by War Artists Advisory Committee-WAAC in Dec 1939, and in 1940 as a Captain. Established by the Ministry of Information, WAAC was a government body commissioning artists to record WW2 events. From 1940-2, Ravilious produced dramatic water colours & drawings of ships, aircraft and coastal defences, 50 of them now in the Imperial War Museums/IWM. 

A warship in dock, 1940

In Feb 1940, Ravilious was posted to Chatham Dockyard Kent to document the naval barracks’ factories & buildings. In A Warship in Dock 1940, Ravilious showed the bow of a destroyer in a flooded dry dock, tied down with many ropes. A man on deck holds one of the ropes while three other men board the ship via a gang-way on the port side. Shown from ground level, the warship looks menacing with angular marine camouflage and intimidating colossal scale. In the background there were many structures eg a ship crane and a factory with a smoking chimney. Despite the scene’s calming water in the flooded dock and vivid blue of the sky overhead, they were preparing for a country at war.

After Germany invaded Norway in Ap 1940, seizing Oslo and the main ports, the Allied forces tried to counter-attack on land but were under-equipped and out-numbered. In May troop evacuation from the Narvik port, Operation Alphabet, was authorised. Aircraft carriers HMS Glorious and HMS Ark Royal left Scapa Flow in Scotland in late May to assist with the withdrawal, escorted by 5 destroyers.

Ravilious was aboard HMS Highlander where the carrier’s dazzling camouflage was mimicked in the sea under the Arctic light. RAF Hurricanes from 2 squadrons flew around, riskily preparing to land on the deck of HMS Glorious, evacuated from the Norwegian Air Station. Next day HMS Glorious returned to Scapa Flow but was attacked by German battleships and sunk. 1,500+ souls tragically died.

Coastal Defences, 1940

The artist travelled to E.Newhaven Sussex in late 1940, to paint coastal defences. The port was targeted in Operation Sea Lion, a planned invasion of Britain by German forces, and needed heavy fortific-ation. In this scene, he depicted the semi-circular curve of the Coastline Defences 1940 in dark greens and blues, colours repeated in the sea and sky. In contrast, the searchlight was stark white, cutting through the night sky looking for enemy aircraft. See a row of boats speeding out to sea at the centre of the scene, leaving a stream of white as they moved in the water. The constant threat to Newhaven from above and below was clear.

He showed the moment a 9.2” naval gun fired from Dover's front port, a portrayal of spectacle and awe. A group of 5 artillerymen were shown as ghost-like figures, compared to the luscious greens of the front landscape. Ravilious spent mid 1941 in Dover before moving to Dundee Scotland.

Ravilious arrived at the Royal Naval Air Station/RNAS in Dundee in autumn 1941 and was quickly interested in the Supermarine Walrus seaplane. In this scene, 3 Walrus aircraft were floating on the river outside the station’s sick bay. The artist showed the interior which was not overly comfortable; just for convalescence. But the blue and white bedding with anchor motif conveyed a sense of homeliness in this stark environment. During his time at the RNAS, the pilots allowed Ravilious to fly in the air craft. After he successfully transferred from the Admiralty to the RAF.

De-Icing Aircraft, 1942

In March 1942 Ravilious was based at RAF Clifton airfield in York. He enjoyed flying over the city, observing York Minster from above and spotting abbeys and ruins. In De-Icing Aircraft 1942, Ravilious showed the airfield under endless snow. Men were scraping the ice layers from the wing of a de Havilland Dragon Rapide, a twin-engine biplane used for training purposes. Each engine had a fitted cover, protecting against harsh temperatures. And see another plane’s tail also covered in ice & snow, waiting to be fixed by the crew.

5 Spitfires at Sawbridgeworth, 1942.

In Mar 1942, Eric Ravilious’ wife and fellow artist Tirzah Garwood developed serious health problems, returning towards home. He went to RAF Sawbridgeworth Airfield Herts which was relatively close to their family home. Despite his terrible living conditions, Ravilious enjoyed painting everyday life on the airfield in early 1942, including aircraft in flight, never using oil paints in the war. Ravilious depicted Five Spitfires at Sawbridgeworth, 1942 at the base, but Spitfires were not at the site then.

Operation Room, 1942

Operations Room 1942 was a key war painting, acquired by IWM decades later. The watercolour depicted the interior of the airfield’s mobile operations room. It is decorated with light yellows and blue-greens, synonymous with functional WW2 buildings. Relaxing colour palettes were selected to be easy for workers inside for long periods. Large windows enabled a panoramic view of the airfield and a sector clock hung on the wall helped track air craft movements. There was no human in The Operations Room but human activity was detected; pinned notices under the clock, writing pen and ink on one table, and a blue reference folder on the other. Interestingly while at Sawbridgeworth, Ravilious wrote to his wife Tirzah in May 1942 stating “the weather gets finer all the time but I’m bored of pictures of planes on the ground and want to go flying.”

Ravilious soon flew to Reykjavik, driving to the RAF Kaldadarnes Airfield in Sept. From there he & 4 airmen flew on a rescue mission in a Lockheed Hudson and were lost off the Icelandic coast. Because his body wasn’t recovered, he had no grave; instead he was honoured at Chatham Navel Memorial Kent (above). Ravilious was one of three War Artists who died when his plane crashed, at 39. 

Thank you to the Imperial War Museum for the artworks and to the BBC for history.

Durand-Ruel, Impressionist art, Geelong

Paul Durand-Ruel (1831-1922) was an art-dealer of belief; when the young Impressionists were ridiculed by French dealers, he bought their work and nurtured their cause, slowly influencing public taste in Europe. In 1865 he opened his first gallery in Paris. This dealer shaped the art market by discovering artists who later became global favourites.

Paul Durand-Ruel in his gallery, c1910

erinhanson.com

In the Franco-Prussian War 1870, Durand-Ruel packed his stock and left Paris for London. An artist there advised him to check out the work of two chaps named Claude Monet and Camille Pissarro. She said: this artist, Claude Monet, will surpass us all. Pissarro heard about the Monets Durand-Ruel bought, and not wanting to miss out, Pissarro left his paintings at the gallery. Durand-Ruel wrote to him saying “I am so sorry I missed you. I am delighted with the paintings you left. Could you name a price and bring me others?”

In late 1871 Durand-Ruel returned to Paris to meet Degas & Auguste Renoir, and started buying ALL the works in their studios. Buying so much so early was unusual. Other dealers would buy 10 works, wait for them to sell and then came back to buy more. But although it allowed him to corner the market, it was a risky gamble to invest his resources in an unloved art movement. It actually took 10-20 years to sell some of the paintings. There was no ready audience eg for Monet’s misty London’s Green Park, Manet’s battle between ships in America’s Civil War and Degas’ pale ballerinas.

Before he met Durand-Ruel, Monet had been so poor he tried to drown himself in the Seine. Monet and his painter friends had slaved away in poverty for years. Their abstractions of colour & light had met only ridicule from Paris’ experts. Durand-Ruel bought Renoir’s Boating Party Luncheon in 1882 and Monet’s Stacks of Wheat in 1891, 100+ works in Musee d’Orsay Paris’ collection and 100 paintings in Dr Albert Barnes’ Foundation Phil. Durand-Ruel bought c200 Manets, 1,000+ Monets, 1,500 Renoirs, 800 Pissarros, 400 Alfred Sisleys, 400 Mary Cassatts: c5,000 Impressionist works!

In 1876 he filled 3 rooms of his Le Peletier Gallery for a 2nd Impressionist show, but French critics were vicious. Durand-Ruel stayed loyal to his artists, giving them one-man shows and supporting them when they needed stipends & loans. When Monet bought his Giverny property, he bought it with advance monies from art he would present at Durand-Ruel’s gallery. Sadly Durand-Ruel did go broke and artists were anxious about their careers. Monet, painting on the Norman coast, wanted to destroy his canvases so Durand-Ruel wrote: Please don’t do that! I’ll send you money. Just send me the canvases in return.

In 1862 art student Ren­oir met Jean Frédéric Baz­ille, Mon­et and Sisley at Charles Gleyre's Paris stu­d­io, then met Edgar De­gas, Pissar­ro, Paul Cezanne and Edouard Manet via these contacts. These men socialis­ed in coffee shops and slowly created a theory base for their Impressionist style. Renoir also met Paul Durand-Ruel, in this time. At this happy meeting, Durant-Ruel agreed to be Ren­oir's agent and Renoir remained the favourite artist.

Monet, Haystacks Midday 1890

Geelong Gallery

Pissarro wrote the group's written manifesto and was the only artist to participate in all 8 Impressionist shows. At the 1st exhibition in 1874, there were 30 artists. Pissarro showed 5 of his paintings, out of the 135 on display. Even when Pissarro's work was finally beginning to attract buyers, a dealer’s support was always critical. His paintings were some of the first Impressionist works purchased by Durand-Ruel.

By 1876, Salon jurors clearly disliked Impressionist art and would not accommodate their paintings. So the young artists decided to get back together and rethink their plan. Monet, Renoir, Degas, Berthe Morisot, Sisley and Pissarro remained at the core. And then Jean-Baptiste Millet, (Jean-François Millet's brother, joined in. Gustave Caillebotte, who started out as a collector, ended up half funding the project. They opened in Ap 1876 and took 3 rooms in the Durand-Ruel Gallery on rue le Peletier, off of the Blvd Haussman. The number of paintings on display rose to 252, but the number of artists declined to 19. The critics were rude. Again! 

By the 3rd exhibition, cashed-up artist Caillebotte fully funded & organised the project, so planning began in his Rue Miromesnil home. Pissarro, Monet, Renoir, Sisley and Degas were as usual the steering commit­tee. Manet may have been in attendance too. But it was Caillebotte who risked not making a profit until money from exhibition sales arrived. They rented a spacious apartment at 6 rue Le Peletier, not far from the 2nd exhibition at Durand-Ruel Gallery, a year after the 1876 exhibition: Ap 1877. The number of works remained the same but only 18 artists participated.

But what a risk-taker he was. For 20 years 1871-90, Durand-Ruel spent hundreds of thousands of francs on pictures by the unknown and unloved Impressionists. Even after he spent millions on 12,000 paintings, incl 1,000 Monets, 1,500 Renoirs, 800 Pissarros, 400 each by Degas & Sisley, 200 Manets & 400 Cassatts. Durand-Ruel made and lost fortunes!

The other Impressionists were not pleased when Renoir went to the Dark Side i.e the Official Salon, but they were thrilled when Renoir returned to the Impressionist Exhib­itions in the 1880s. He submitted 25 of his paintings to the 7th Impress­ionist exhibition in 1882 in the Durand-Ruel gal­l­­ery. The next year, Durand-Ruel gave Renoir his first maj­or one-man show, showing 70 works! Once Durand-Ruel bought Renoir’s The Umbrellas and sold it to a collector, Renoir started to enjoy the pat­ron­age of weal­thy collectors and dealers.

There were other progressive, risk-taking art agents working in Paris in late C19th-early 20th. Amboise Vollard (1867-1939) was a fine art-dealer in the late C19th and when he exhibited the Impressionists’ art, he raised the rep­utation of individual artists and Impressionism in general. Berthe Weill (1865–1951) and Paul Guill­aume (1891-1934) were other key French art-dealers. But the rest of the Paris-based dealers seemed to be German-raised and educated: Daniel-Henry Kahnweiler (1884-1979), who dealt mainly in Post-Impressionism; Leonce(1879-1947) and brother Paul Rosenberg (1881-1959); Gaston and Jos Bernhein-Jeune’s father was a German art-dealer; and art-dealer/publisher Paul Cassirer who opened his Berlin art gallery in 1898 to specialise in French impressionist art.

Geelong Gallery

Georges d’Espagnat, Autumn afternoon,1899

Geelong Gallery catalogue

UK’s first major show honouring Durand-Ruel was in National Gallery London 2015. Inventing Impressionism included c85 works, among them some of Impressionism’s greatest master-pieces which had never seen in the UK. Most of the works had been dealt by Durand-Ruel, borrowed from the key European and American collections he helped form.

Geelong is the second biggest city in Victoria. In its 130th year, Geelong Gallery and Art Exhibitions Australia, are proud to present Discovering the Impressionists: Paul Durand-Ruel art-dealer among the artists, the most ambitious international exhibition in Geelong’s history. The exhibition, 20 June-11 Oct 2026, flows over 5 galleries, presenting 70+ works from 2 generations of Impressionist artists, most from private collections in France and never before seen in Australia, re Durand-Ruel’s remarkable legacy.

Albert André, Montmartre, view of Boulevard de Clichy, 1921

Geelong Gallery

Throughout the Gallery, works by Monet, Renoir, Morisot and Pissarro hang in direct dialogue with a second generation of painters long overshadowed by their famous predecessors: Albert Andre, Georges d’Espagnat, Gustave Loiseau, Maxime Maufra and Henry Moret. Supported by Durand-Ruel in Impressionism’s late years, these artists are now being rediscovered, and Geelong Gallery is offering visitors time to appreciate their work. Never before touring outside Europe-UK, Discovering the Impressionists is the first of its kind to trace their story via the art-dealer who made it possible.

Who'll win 2026 Booker Prize, by John Self

2026’s International Booker Prize shortlist writers are a diverse group, both geographically and in style, from main-stream blockbuster to experimental wittiness. Independent presses are rewarded for their efforts in promoting translated fiction, and recognising the translators.

1.German-Iranian novelist Shida Bazyar in her novel The Nights Are Quiet in Tehran (Scribe), translated by Ruth Martin, reminds that Iranians are the victims of history many times over. The story comes from 4 members of an Iranian family over 30 years. In 1979, young Behzad greets the Islamic revolution that deposes the Shah, but his hopes for a communist utopia are thwarted. Instead he’s surrounded by people who have been waiting for the chance to become bullies for life. He and his wife Nahid flee to Germany: she takes the story in 1989 & their daughter takes it in 1999.

Laleh visits Iran, amazed by the cultural differences from Germany. In 2009, Laleh’s brother Mo hears about protests across the Middle East, and his excitement: As soon as Ahmadinejad is gone, it’ll kick off in Egypt too and eventually all the dictators will be out; this is even more heart breaking given Iran today. A timely novel doesn’t always deliver but this one’s empathy could make it worthy.

2.The Witch (Vintage) translated by Jordan Stump is a deep cut from French novelist Marie NDiaye’s back catalogue in 1996. When my daughters turned 12 I initiated them into the mysterious powers, it opens irresistibly. Narrator Lucie has divination powers and can see people’s futures, and when she does, she cries tears of blood. She dislikes being a witch but still teaches her daughters, as her mum taught her.

Set against this weirdness is a complex comedy of domestic discontent: Lucie’s timeshare-salesman husband runs off with the family money; then she tries to reunite her separated parents. She begins to lose everyone, and her powers fail to help her; thus the book raises knotty questions about making use of our capabilities. This accessible but surprising novel is perfect for newcomers to NDiaye, but the acceleration of events as the story proceeds and the arbitrary ending is frustrating. It probably won’t win.

Shortlisted books in 2026

The Booker Prizes

3.In Brazilian Ana Paula Maia’s previous novel Of Cattle and Men, cows were slaughtered. Now in On Earth As It Is Beneath, translated by Padma Viswanathan, it’s the men’s turn. A penal colony for the worst criminals started out with 42 inmates: now there are only 3 prisoners as the warden, eaten away by the system he defends, keeps releasing, hunting and shooting them. Authorities are coming to close the colony down!

Strangely this book has classic sitcom elements: people who can’t get along, stuck together & facing one mess after another. The tension between absurdity and grotesque violence gives the book an effervescent energy, and turns it into an existential thriller, all in 100 pages. Confusion reigns, power balances shift, and nobody on the outside cares what happens to the men anyway. This brilliant novel is loosely connected to Of Cattle and Men; an eccentric but very deserving contender.

4.The most formally inventive book on this year’s shortlist is Bulgarian Rene Karabash’s She Who Remains (Peirene), translated by Izidora Angel. It’s narrated by a 33-year-old woman in rural Albania living under archaic traditions. The narrative jumps about, mostly told in a prose poetry without full-stops. Details bubble up through repetition: her violent father’s disappointment (your father wanted a son, but out came you); how years ago Bekija jilted her fiance and revenge was exacted by his family. Bekija decided to become a sworn virgin, i.e a woman who lives as a man.

There is powerful eye-catching and stomach-turning activity, plus a love story hidden deeply in the backstory, but the book’s eccentric form keeps the reader at a distance, and many elements will only make sense retrospectively. This may have benefited the novel in the Booker stakes, where the judges gain the benefit of things a first-time reader might miss. Still, this spiky story looks unlikely for the prize.

5.Equally experimental but more approachable is Taiwan Travelogue by Taiwanese writer Yáng Shuāng-zi, translated by Lin King. What’s going on here? What’s going on is a novel disguised as a rediscovered travel memoir, complete with multiple afterwords and fictional footnotes alongside the translator’s real ones. It’s set in 1938, where a Japanese-Taiwanese novelist Aoyama goes on a food tour of Taiwan.

Aoyama has monster appetites, which may be concealing something else: she grows fond of her female guide Chi-chan, but struggles to articulate it. Whenever I start craving something, anything, my stomach burns with this insatiable greed. You’ve been the only one to appease this monster. But social strictures of gender & class (Chi-chan is a concubine’s daughter) make things harder. This is a simple love story that educates as it entertains, though it takes a long time to get to where it’s going. The complex structure seems more like window dressing than essential to its ideas. It will charm many, but may not be weighty enough to win.

6.Daniel Kehlmann’s The Director (Riverrun), translated by Ross Benjamin, is the most mainstream novel here: delightful and illuminating literary fiction that animates the wartime experiences of German film-maker GW Pabst, one of the great directors. A master, a legend. Trapped in Germany when the borders close, Pabst must decide whether he will work for the Nazis if that’s the only way he can get to keep making films. The book is full of big characters, real and invented, an obsequious anti-Semitic caretaker; a threatening government minister; Leni Riefenstahl with her skull-like smile. Pabst believes I’m not a political person, but he must learn that everything is political now. No one can ignore what is happening: not film-makers; not prisoner of war PG Wodehouse, who narrates one chapter; not even humble critics. Critics? We have no critics! Criticism is a Jewish genre that no one needs. It is not only its traditional form and direct plot that make The Director stand out on the shortlist, but its range, wit and chilling relevance. This would be a very popular winner and a fully deserving one. The winner will be announced on 19th May.

What should win this year’s International Booker? by John Self Mon 18 May 2026. Winner to be announced at Tate Modern London, Tuesday 19th May 2026.

Latvian shoot-up London 1910-1

Few places in the world were as infamous for murders as the East End of London. Jack the Ripper, The Krays and 1811 Ratcliffe Highway murders were all frightening. But the Latvians threatening London’s East End were UNexpected. They arrived from the Russian Empire against an intense debate about the large numbers of struggling immigrants from Eastern Europe.

Matching the earlier horrors were 2 events in Dec 1910-Jan 1911. Houndsditch is a mainroad running from Bishopsgate to Aldgate High St. Located at 120 Houndsditch was an import business run by Max Weil. In mid Dec 1910 Weil arrived at #120 to find his sister and housemaid in a state of agitation. They heard noises coming from the jeweller’s shop next door, as if someone was breaking at the rear.

Latvian revolutionaries aka Leesma weren't revolutionaries; later research found the c13 members carried out robberies to fund Lenin and his Bolsheviks.

Home Secretary Churchill, watching the Siege close up

Wiki

#119 backed onto a flat at 11 Exchange Buildings. Weil alerted the police of a likely break-in to the Exchange Buildings jewellers. He returned with Constable Piper who knocked on #11’s door. Piper had a brief talk with the man who answered the door and then left to summon help. Fritz Svaars & Josef Sokoloff were from Latvia in the Russian Empire. They’d fled the country after a failed attempt to overthrow the Tsar in 1905. Robbing jewellers was to raise funds for their cause.

Cons. Piper returned with 3 sergeants and 5 constables. Sgt Bentley hit on the door which was answered by the same man who had spoken to Piper. After another brief talk, the man tried to shut the door in Bentley’s face. However the sergeant pushed his way into #11 and chaos erupted. Bentley received two gunshots in the neck. He staggered back through the doorway and died. Standing behind him, Sgt Bryant now saw the gun being turned on him, hitting him in the chest. Constable Woodhams ran to his assistance only to fall to a bullet in the thigh. Both Bryant and Woodhams survived their wounds but were invalided out of the police force. Sgt Tucker was shot in the heart by a man in doorway #11 and died. The killer ran from the building, followed by other men and a woman. As they fled, Cons. Walter Choat jumped out of the darkness at them, grabbing an escapee who fired bullets into his leg. A gang-member came behind Choat and shot 2 bullets in his back. Choat fell.

Murdered police officers, 

London Museum

The gangster who’d been shot by his own cohorts was found dead in his room a day later. George Gardstein had been the de facto leader of the gang of Latvian revolutionaries in Leesma! After Russia’s revolution, one Leesma member Jacob Peters was 2nd in command of Cheka, the feared Bolshevik secret police. Perhaps Latvian Peters had killed Englishmen Bentley, Tucker & Choat, and injured Bryant.

Metropolitan & City Police launched an operation to hunt down the surviving revolutionaries and by that year Peters & others were caught. In Jan 1911 a figure slipped at night into London City’s police headquarters in Old Jewry. Although not officially identified he was perhaps Charles Perelman, former landlord to some Leesma members. Perelman had important information: Svaars & Sokoloff were hiding in a 2nd floor room in Sidney St, armed with Mauser pistols.

On 3rd Jan a file of police officers wound through the silent East End to Sidney St, from Commercial Rd to the northern junction of Whitechapel and Mile End Rds. The officers hadn’t been told about the mission, but they knew that it was dangerous; married policemen were excluded! Some were armed but their weapons were antique, as compared to the powerful hand-guns the Latvians carried. On getting to Sidney St, the police evacuated the first two floors of #100 and by daybreak the stage was set.

Svaara & Sokoloff were soon alerted to their danger. The front door was banged and stones were hurled at the revolutionaries’ window. They answered with some shots. Det Sarg Leeson fell gravely wounded but like Bryant & Woodhams, he survived. Battle commenced, and despite being so heavily outnumbered, it was Svaars and Sokoloff who won the firefight. Equipped with rugged handguns, they easily beat the police’s inferior weapons.

Hours passed, so the police appealed to Scotland Yard for assistance and they in turn sought help. Home Secretary Winston Churchill permitted the army to respond and soon 20 Scots Guards arrived, changing the situation. And the fire brigade arrived, to prevent fire from spreading.

Firing line of Scots Guards. Sidney Street Siege

gravelroots

Now the soldiers elevated their efforts, shooting into #100’s windows. Sokoloff peered at the maelstrom but the burning house collapsed. The ceiling killed him, ending Sidney St’s siege. And one more death. On entering #100 District Fire Officer Charles Pearson was hit by falling masonry, severing his spine and dying 6 months later. A honour plaque to the dead first responders was unveiled there much later.

Detectives inspect the 100 Sidney St house, post-siege

Gravelroots

Other Latvian anarchists, Jacob Peters, Yourka Dubof, John Rosen & Nina Vassileve were tried for the Houndsditch murders in the East End but 3 of them were acquitted. Only Vassileve was found guilty of a minor offence, later quashed. Gardstein, Svaars and Sokoloff were “probably guilty”.

The police soon tracked other revolutionaries, offering rewards for the capture of named suspects. Well covered by the press and captured on newsreels, the Siege also had lasting impacts for the scared communities living in the East End’s early C20th: political refugees, socialists & ex-Eastern European Jews, including my Russian Jewish grandmother.

Read Devilish Kind of Courage: Anarchists, Aliens and the Siege of Sidney St, 2024, by Andrew Whitehead 

Tower of London: palace, execution, tours

After defeating the last Saxon king of England Harold II at the Battle of Hastings, William the Conqueror/William I of England would con­trol his new kingdom. He distributed the conquered lands to his fav­our­ite nobles, a useful practice from wars in Norm­andy. They built motte-and-bailey forts and soldiers built a wooden tower to house the battal­ion, its weapons, horses, food and val­uables. The bar­r­acks could become a refuge, if the outer defences were breached. Around the hill, Norman soldiers built an enclosure for a well, rais­ing crops, feeding livestock and holding weap­ons. 

Upper photo: Tower of London

Lower photo: entrance through the Byward Towers

defended by the moat and draw­bridge

Post-Hastings William I wanted to stake his claim to Saxon lands and to control hostile subjects. Clergy­man Gundulf (1024–1108), who des­ig­ned castles & ch­ur­ches in France, became Bishop of Roch­ester in 1077 and was asked to design the new fort­ress-castle. In 1078, William ordered building the White Tower of London, a 90’ high square tower with tapering walls, soaring up over Lon­don. The 1st floor had liv­ing quarters, soldiers’ ref­ec­t­ory, dormitory and Roman­esque Chapel of St John. The 2nd floor’s rooms were for the con­stable/Tower’s comm­ander: a great hall, ch­apel gall­ery, meet­ing room and living-rooms. And there was a cellar.

The Tower took 20 years to build, only finished when William II had a stone wall built around the Tower. Then Gun­d­ulf began a stone curtain-wall enclosing land between the Tower and riv­er. Under Henry III (r1216-72) and Edward I (r1272-1307), the Tow­er reached today’s basic design: the central White Tower surround­ed by two curtain walls with their 20 towers. The main C13th entrance was via two cyl­ind­rical Byward Towers and defended by the moat and draw­bridge.

Two of the Tower’s early prisoners of state were King John the Good of France, taken in Battle of Poitiers in 1356; Char­les Duke of Orléans, captured at Agincourt in 1415.

When King Edward IV died in 1483, Richard Duke of Glouc­ester became lord protector of his son Edward V. Glouc­ester put Ed­ward and his young brother Richard Duke of York in the Tower, awaiting Edward V’s coronation. But spurred on by Glouc­es­ter, Parl­iam­ent made the 2 princes illegitimate, confirming Glouc­ester as King Richard III. Were the young Princes in the Tower mur­d­ered in the Tower in mid 1483?

Inmates wrote of torture in Bell Tower records and torture objects used in 1500s & 1600s are in the Royal Arm­ouries.

By the 1500s Henry VII abandoned his Tower Palace home after losing his firstborn son. His most lasting contribution was founding the Tower Yeo­men of the Guard, direct ancestors of today’s Yeoman Warders/beefeaters.

Yeomen of the Guard

guarded the tower interior, including the crown jewels

Then the site became a notorious prison, the Tower’s most famous prisoners being gaoled by nasty King Henry VIII. When Henry sought to divorce Cather­ine of Aragon and split from the Cath­olic Church, Thomas More wouldn’t accept the king as supreme head of the Church of England. More was gaoled in the Tower, convicted of treason and executed.

2 of Henry’s wives went to the Tower. Anne Boleyn gave him one daug­h­t­er (later Elizabeth I) but no sons, so Anne was arrested for treason & executed in 1536. Henry’s 5th wife, Catherine Howard, was arrested & executed for adultery.

Inevitably the Catholics and Protestants battled on. Young King Ed­ward VI, who’d been raised a Prot­es­tant, created his Device for the Succ­es­sion (1553), dis­inheriting his Catholic half-sister Mary and his Prot­estant half-sister Elizabeth. Instead his crown passed through his aunt’s line to her Prot­estant granddaughter Jane Grey. But noone told Jane & only 3 days after Edward’s death in 1553 she became became queen anyhow. Queen Jane quickly lost the support of her entire Privy Council; in 1553 the Catholic Mary was formally declared by Parl­iament as the next mon­ar­ch. And although Queen Mary rel­uc­t­antly signed Jane’s death warrant, Jane’s trial and execution quickly followed.

 (ex Queen) Jane Grey was executed, 1553

Historic UK

Queen Mary’s fears about usurpers continued. She gaoled her half sister, Princess Elizabeth-whom Mary believed had masterminded the plots. So in 1554, 20-year-old Eliz­a­b­eth was also kept under house arrest in the Tower, living as mum Anne Boleyn had. Still, finding no evidence of treason, Mary moved Elizabeth from the Tower to house-arrest elsewhere.

Mary died in 1558 and Elizabeth took the throne. The new queen still used the Tower to hold enemies of the crown; from Walter Raleigh to Guy Fawkes, infamous prisoners and deaths at the Tower maintained its notorious reputation. Even Samuel Pepys was ac­cus­ed of complic­ity in the Popish Plot, selling naval secrets to France and piracy. He was imprisoned there in 1679 and eventual­ly disch­arged, but was later re-gaoled for plotting to restore exiled King James.

The Tower also stored chancery records, relating to diplomatic corr­es­­p­on­dence and government­ decisions, plus pr­operty ownership docu­m­ents and tax­at­ion. The Records Office was in the Wake­field Tower, the largest in the Tower of London complex, where it remained un­til 1858. Only then did the Public Records Office move to Chancery Lane.

Now the blood has been cleaned up, the Tower is London’s most famous tourist site. Admire the Crown Jewels, including the coron­ation reg­a­lia worn at a new monarch’s investiture, and the cerem­on­ial regalia worn at the State Op­ening of Parliament. St Edward’s Crown is a C17th replace­ment for Saxon King Edward the Confessor’s crown.

Crown jewels

British Heritage

  

London's worst 2 years ever: 1665, 1666

 The Bubonic Plague of 1665-1666 had been known in Europe for cent­uries. In England, this was the worst out-break of plague since the Black Death of 1348.

The Plague Window in Eyam Church

Historic UK

It was the rat, attracted by impoverished, rubbish-filled city streets, that brought in the black rat-flea. It was the flea that carried bacteria and caused the plague. The Bubonic Plague created buboes i.e swellings in the lymph nodes found in the armpits, groin & neck, and victims experienced splitting headaches, vom­iting, swollen tongue and fever, turning the victim’s skin black.

Incubation took only 4-6 days and when the plague appeared in a household, the house was sealed, thus condemning the whole family to death! These houses were distinguished by a red cross and the words ‘Lord have mercy on us’ on the door.

The plague started in the Far East and quickly spread through Eur­ope. In London it began in the poor, overcrowded parish of St Giles-in-the-Field outside the city walls. In May 1665, only 43 people died. But the death rate began to rise during the hot summer months and at its peak in August, 31,160 people died. While 68,600 deaths were formally recorded in the city in 1665, the true number was probably 100,000, c15% of London’s population.

Sometimes whole communities died and corpses littered the streets, since there was no one left to bury them. In other places the corpses were brought out at night in answer to the cry,’ Bring out your dead’, put in a cart and taken away to the great gaping plague pits dug into the earth.

King Charles II and his Court fled for Hampton Court in Surrey, then to Oxford. People who could afford to send their families away from London in these months did so - most doctors, lawyers & merchants fled the city. So Parliament was postponed and had to sit in October at Oxford. Court cases were also moved from Westminster to Oxford.

The Lord Mayor of London and the aldermen remained in London to enforce the King’s orders to try and stop the spread of the plague. The poorest families had no choice but to remain in London with the rats and the plague victims. Watchmen locked and kept guard over infected houses. Parish officials provided food. Searchers looked for dead bodies and took them, always at night.

Consider the measures taken by King Charles II in response to the plague. All trade with London and other plague towns was stopped. The Council of Scotland declared that the border with England would be closed. There were to be no fairs or trade with other countries. This meant many people lost their jobs, including those who worked on the River Thames. Orders to the mayors ensured that no stranger was allowed to enter a town unless he had a formal Certificate of Health. No furniture was to be removed from an infected house. There were to be no public gatherings like funerals.

A couple suffering the buboes of bubonic plague

C15th Toggenburg Bible

The plague spread across England. York was one city badly affected. The plague victims were buried outside the city walls and it is said that they have never been disturbed since then, as a pre­cau­tion against a resurgence of the dreaded plague. The grassy emb­ankments below the city walls are the sites of these plague pits.

Memorials were placed everywhere. In some towns and villages in England there are still the old market crosses which have a dep­res­sion at the foot of the stone cross for vinegar. In Derbyshire the small village of Eyam, 6 ms north of Bake­well, has a story of tragedy and courage that will always be remembered. The Plague Window in Eyam Church still recalls the era.

So how did the plague ever end? Did the black rat develop a greater resistance to disease? If the rats did not die, their fleas would not have needed to find a human host and fewer people would have been infected. And the humans who had not died also started to develop a stronger immunity to the dis­ease. After 1666, more effective quarantine methods were used for ships coming into the country.

King Charles II returned to London in Feb 1666, then the gentry returned. Tradesmen opened their businesses again, and life might have returned to normal. Then in Sept 1666 the Great Fire of London destroyed much of cent­ral London. Fortunately the fire also helped to kill off the black rats and fleas that had carried the plague bacillus. When the City was rebuilt after the Fire in brick and stone (not wood), the streets were widened and the open sewers were eradicated. This was the last major plague that London ever saw! 

Two men discovering a dead woman in the street in London, 1665.
Photo credit: Wellcome Trust

Read Daniel Defoe, A Journal of the Plague Year, 1722. And Samuel Pepys’ Diary gave a vivid account of London’s empty streets. The Lost City of London – Before the Great Fire of 1666 is an excellent blog.

Why the Thames Frost Fairs ended, 1814

Frost on the Thames, Samuel Collings, 1788-9.
Credit: Sharon Lathan

Using the ice for leisure activities must have had a  happy history for many Londoners. The River Thames has frozen over many times in the last 700 years, and festivals known as the Thames Frost Fairs sprang up on the river. The first recorded time people took to the frozen riv­er for organised activities was 1309, but a frozen river was unpredictable. It only froze c1 year in 10, except for 4 winters during 1649-66.

The Frost Fair of 1683
The History Press

Until removing the medieval London Bridge in 1831, there were 24 winters in which the Thames in London had frozen over. The river froze more often upstream, beyond the reach of the tide, especially over the weirs. The last big freeze of the upper Thames was 1962–3.

The Thames did not totally freeze over in the London area for centuries. Clearly the river was wider and shallower pre-1831 AND it had not yet been embanked. But mostly the river had been impeded by the Old London Bridge structure. When chunks of ice got caught between the 20 arches, it slowed the water flow, making it more likely to freeze over (for up to two months at a time).

The first big Frost Fair was in winter 1607-8. Once the Thames froze, Fair traders grabbed their chance; dozens of shops popped up overnight. Unlicensed gambling, games, drinking and dancing were held at the fairs, along with stalls selling food and drink, skittle alleys and fair-ground rides. Cheap souvenirs were available and printers set up their presses, making cards & popular sheet-music. Vendors sold a very hot alcohol made of wormwood wine and gin: purl. People enjoyed bull-baiting, puppet shows, bowling and ox-roasting. Boys played ice football games.

It was not until Jan that people started setting up camp. Pubs located on both banks of the river made a fortune during Frost Fairs. The most famous was Blanket Fair, held in 1683-4. Diariest John Evelyn wrote that whole streets of booths were set out on the Thames. He crossed the ice to dine with the Archbishop of Canterbury at Lambeth, and again in his coach, from Lambeth to Horseferry at Millbank. The ice had now become so thick as to bear streets of booths in which they roasted meat, and diverse shops of wares eg fruit, shoes, books, toys. Hackney coaches carried fares from Somerset House and the Temple to Southwark. Fashionable men in dresses promenaded with wigs and swords, & ladies shopped briskly. The drink­ing tents were filled by female companions, dancing reels to the sound of fiddles, while others sat round large fires. Tea, coffee and edibles aplenty!

Londoners might have been rugged citizens back then, but even so, the Frost Fairs sometimes lasted only a few weeks, and only in cold wint­ers. People had to be aware of rapid thawing, and the potential loss of life and property eg in the fair of 1739 a whole band of ice sank and swallowed up tents, businesses and people. In 1789 a ship was anchored to a riverside pub in Rotherhithe, steadily tied until the ship swung in the melting night ice. The rigid cables carried away the beam, levelled the house & killed 5 people asleep.

Most were held between the C17th-early C19th in the Little Ice Age (C16th-19th), when the river most froze over, though still rarely. At that time, British winterw were more severe than now and the river was wider and slower, further impeded by 19 piers of the medieval Old London Bridge which were removed some years later.

Frost Fair on the River Thames London, 

print, 1814

The British Museum

The 1814 Fair, the worst winter in living memory, ended when the ice began to break Feb 5th, after only 4 days, resulting in deaths. Even though one of the highlights in 1814 had been an elephant being led across the ice to show the river was safe!! Nonetheless this was the last ever London Frost Fair! The Fairs stopped because A] the climate grew milder in 1815. And because of two other important events! B] Old London Bridge was demolished in 1831 and replaced with a new bridge with wider arches, allowing the tide to flow more freely; and C] the river was incrementally embanked later. All of this made the river less likely to freeze. When the new London Bridge opened in 1831, it only had 5 arches. So the Thames never froze over in London again, despite it reaching -20C in very cold winters.

As Europe began to emerge from the Little Ice Age, and globally temperatures began to rise, ice became an ever-rarer sight on the Thames. There was nearly a fair during the severe winter of 1881, when it was expected by many that a Frost Fair would again be held on the Thames. But no.

People on the frozen River Thames, Twickenham, 1881 but there was no Fair.

The National Archives,

The river last fully froze in 1963, and although some Londoners skated, it could no longer host a Frost Fair.

Operation Pied Piper, London bombs

 In 1939, a year before the Blitz started, the government knew Greater London would become an air-raid target. The media pred­ic­ted 4 million people could die in Lon­don, so the gov­ern­ment collected coffins and plan­ned a mass evac­uat­ion. The evacuation early in WW2 was the most concentrated mass movement in British history. Just in early Sept 1939, 3 mill people were transported from endangered urban areas.

Still in London, all school children were fitted with gas masks and ran raid drills. 

Credit: Wikimedia Commons. 

Parents lined up waving to their children packed on the trains in Paddington Station.

Credit: The Daily Mail. 

Children wait for the next trains in Paddington Station.

Credit: Imperial War Museum 

 
Sin­ce many par­ents had to continue working, only their children could be sent away. The military beg­an Operation Pied Piper when 100,000+ tea­chers gath­ered millions of child­ren in/near Lon­d­on, putting them on trains. It was a huge, logistical issue of co-ordination and control, backed by the government order of late Aug 1939.

BBC announced the school children were aged 3-13. Each child car­ried a gas mask, food, clothing and neck tags with nam­e and addres­s. There were far too many children to leave in the same evacuation day, so police and LCC school off­icials saw that an avenue to their plat­form was kept free for the children. 10,000 children left New Cross Gate Southern Station, Aldgate Metrop­olitan or Paddington.

Middle-class families had already arr­an­g­­ed to send their chil­dren to live in their summer cottages, with friends and family. Or to boarding schools. But nearly everyone else had very sad memories when they left! To avoid pan­ic, parents were ord­ered not to tell the young child­ren the truth, so the kids thought that they were just going on a short school trip. Music teach­ers lightened the mood when the child­ren sang cheer­ful tra­v­el songs eg Doing The Lambeth Walk, Wish Me Luck as You Wave Me Goodbye.

This was followed by evacuation of toddlers and their mums, expect­ant mums, blind and any physically handicapped peop­le who’d rec­eived their evacuation instructions. Hospital evacuat­ions also went smoothly. Along St Thomas' Hospital corridors, medical st­ud­ents wheeled 70 patients who were not seriously ill in their beds to two centres on stretchers. And many babies were among the first batch of patients removed from Guy's and Charing Cross Hospitals.

Evacuation of London schoolchildren went quite well. They cheerfully left their parents and jumped aboard for unknown but adventurous dest­inations. Once they arrived in their new towns, bill­eting officers lined the children up against a wall in the vill­age hall while local women walked around, until the children were all chosen to stay with foster parents.

Children arriving at their destination, carrying their belongings in suitcases. 

Credit: Defence Media Network. 

When children first arrived in the new town, they were fed in community centres 

Credit: The History Vault 

With such a massive operation, naturally not ev­ery­thing was perf­ect. Parents assumed that the government had already arranged foster homes, but they really had no idea where their children would be liv­ing. Thus the children were urged to write letters as soon as poss­ib­le. And even though all the chil­dren eventually learned that their parents had sent them away for their own safety, they still had to live with the fear that the family left behind in London might die.

Some of the local women sent to select foster children were apathetic, doing it only as their duty. Some foster child­ren were given food to eat and a place to sleep separate from their new families. Some families physically ab­used foster children or stole their ration-cards. Thankfully research suggested only a small min­or­ity (12%) was ill-treated.

Many of these children spent 6 years of their young lives, living away from home with strang­ers. As it happened, many Lon­don children settled happily and maintained those links long after the war ended. Going to the cinema, learning to bake bread and camping.. remained fond memor­ies. For many it was a life-enhancing, mind-broadening experience.

The first bombs to drop on London landed in Aug 1940, affecting Har­r­ow etc within the London Civil Defence Area. London’s docks suff­er­ed from Day 1 of the Blitz, when German planes drop­ped 337 tons of bombs. Throughout the Blitz, ending in May 1941, the poorest families of the East End suffered the worst, from bombs and from fires. 448 civ­il­­ians were killed that last day.

Towards the end of the war, during 1944/45, London came under heavy attack again by pilotless rockets, fired from Nazi occup­ied Europe. V1-2 flying bomb-drones landed in Mile End in June 1944 and continued for months. Thousands of Londoners were killed.

By Oct 1944 the government were planning for the Oper­ation Pied Pip­er children to return home to London and their own parents. Had the danger had passed yet? It took months to create the Op­er­ate Lon­don Return Plan when the Ministry of Health had to arrange free tran­s­p­or­t­­at­ion in trains. They were given health check-ups and food ration cards. Some of the children had grown into teenagers, and they needed to be set up with jobs when they returned home. Bec­ause of all this planning, the return of evacuees was only approved in June 1945, officially ending March 1946.

Some toddlers were only 2-3 years old when they had left their own par­ents, so they had grown up feeling as if their rural foster fam­ily was their real home, and they did not want to leave. For these child­ren, the government put an emphasis on programmes like the Boy and Girl Scouts to help them re-adjust back to big-city life.

Children running towards their parents as they returned home to London. 

Credit: Getty Images 

Post WW2, the government failed to locate the par­ents of 13,250 evacuees in London, most likely because they died during the war. And sadly, for the 15% of children who were abused by their foster famil­ies, there was no plan to get them professional help. Only later did ther­apists realise just how traumatic the experiences had been.

Conclusion
Casualties estimates in 1939 were over-exaggerated, so Government propaganda caused panic, not controlled move­ment. But Oper­at­ion Pied Piper was very successful, saving thous­ands of lives. And while the children who escaped had to endure their own traumas, mostly they enjoyed a better education and quality of life com­pared to what they would have enjoyed in London in the war. Credit: Operation Pied Piper: Mass Evacuation of Children in London in WW2 by Shannon Quinn for the history and photos