Fownhope’s Heart of Oak Society traces its roots to the age of friendly societies, when communities provided their own safety net. Its anniversary celebrations reveal a tradition still very much alive, says MARK SEDDON
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Even in the camps nazis could not kill the spirit
PETER FROST believes we can’t have too many reminders of the Holocaust
Dance to survive: Jewish comedian Esther Philipse on stage in Westerbork concentration camp in 1943
ANGUS REID explains the significance of Cuba’s egalitarian in letter and spirit Family Code and the pertinent lessons it holds for democracies anywhere in the world
Special report by PEOPLE’S WORLD
NICK WRIGHT considers how the isolation of Israel and a new film on the controversial Italian communist leader are creating new reference points for Italy’s left
CARLOS MARTINEZ says Cuba’s achievements in the face of a criminal blockade are startling, but the island’s future if the United States succeeds in crushing it looks bleak
AMNON BROWNFIELD STEIN reports that far-right MPs who mobbed the event organised by Hadash may have helped raise awareness of the brutality of the Israeli right
THE shocking results of a recent survey that revealed 5 per cent of UK adults do not believe the Holocaust took place, and one in 12 believes its scale has been exaggerated, made me determined to do what I can to educate people about these most horrendous events in world history.
Are these results simply a side effect of the extreme right trying to re-establish itself; part of the deliberate confusion from some that portrays any criticism of modern day Israel and its treatment of Palestinians as anti-semitism; or just another failure of Mr Gove’s school history syllabus being more concerned with British kings and queens than with real history?
In one sense I am simply trying to catch up with my granddaughter Lizzie who, while in the sixth form, won a UN Holocaust essay competition, visited Auschwitz and became a Holocaust ambassador talking to many other young people lest they forget the horrors of this darkest period of world history.
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GORDON PARSONS salutes the apt return of Brecht’s vaudevillian cartoon drama that retains the vitality of the boxing or the circus ring
On May 16 1944, Romani families in Auschwitz-Birkenau armed themselves with stones, tools, and sheer collective will, forcing the SS to retreat – leaving a legacy of defiance that speaks directly to the fascisms of today, says VICTORIA HOLMES
Paul MacGee of Manifesto Press invites you to a special launch on Saturday August 2.
From sexual innuendo about Blackpool Rock to Bob Dylan’s ‘God-almighty world,’ the corporation’s classist moral custodianship of pop music has created a roll call of censored artists anyone would feel honoured to join, writes NICK MATTHEWS