WW2 Resources

Education Pack

EMOHA volunteer Jeanette Young has compiled an education pack which is a guide to World War Two oral history resources. This is available for consultation at the University of Leicester's Education Library, University Road, Leicester LE1 7RH (0116) 252 3739.

The pack looks at links to the History Curriculum Key Stage 1 and 2 Unit 9, 'What was it like for children in the Second World War?'. It lists learning objectives, resources, and suggestions for activities, and makes other links to Literacy and Citizenship. The topics of 'Evacuation', 'Air Raids, Shelters and Gas Masks', and 'Restrictions on People - how the War affected everyday life' are looked at using material from the recordings and websites listed below. Also in the pack are photographs illustrating bomb damage in Leicester, people protecting themselves, civilian and military life, and houses in Leicester before and after they were bombed.

The oral history recordings available at the Education Library are:

Websites with useful World War Two content include:

http://www.emsource.org.uk/ - em:source. An excellent site with lots of World War Two resources for teachers; printer friendly versions of documents, articles and pictures. Features material from the Records Office for Leicestershire, Leicester & Rutland.

http://www.wartimeleicestershire.com/index.html - Wartime Leicestershire. Maps, memories, links. Some of the before and after photographs of bombed areas are reproduced in the EMOHA education pack.

http://www.timewitnesses.org - the Timewitnesses website contains many individual stories from the Second World War, several of which are in the EMOHA education pack.

http://atschool.eduweb.co.uk/chatback/english/memories/ - Learning Alive. Memories and stories, maps, downloads. Themes such as children in war, people in uniform, victims of war, and the home front. Moderated by Tom Holloway who also runs the Timewitnesses site.

http://www.museumoflondon.org.uk/archive/exhibits/blitz/index.html - The Museum of London's 'Remembering the Blitz' with activities and oral history accounts of living in London during WW2.

http://www.iwm.org.uk/server/show/nav.001008007 - the Imperial War Museum's online resources.

A Leicester couple, Olive and Eric, wrote letters to each other during WW2, and you can read them here - http://www.oliveanderic.com/

BBC sites

http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/worldwars/ - general world wars site.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/ww2children/ - specifically for 7-9 year olds.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/ww2peopleswar/categories/ - People's War
http://www.bbc.co.uk/ww2peopleswar/categories/c1138/ - People's War accounts from Leicestershire and Rutland.

Details about other oral history collections in the UK which contain information about WW2 can be found at 'Recollections of WW2' - http://www.recollectionsofwwii.co.uk/

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