Charnwood’s Cold War
Oral history project
As the Cold War becomes history the men and women who experienced it become important eye-witnesses.
The basis for this project was an oral history teaching project which invited eyewitnesses to talk to students about their Cold War. The speakers ranged from RAF engineers, technicians pilots to refugees from Eastern Europe, from peace activists to military policemen. Their accounts fascinated the students and brought a new dimension to their studies. They showed how in the Cold War the barrier between the local, national and global dissolved.
We will be putting up student’s reports of their interviews with some of these speakers, including
- Maria, who fled from Poland as a nine-year old in December 1945;
- S C, who worked as a counter-intelligence officer in Germany and Cyprus;
- Evelyn, who as an activist at Greenham Common;
- Stuart, who flew bombers such as the Hawker Harrier and Buccaneer:
- Blazej, who grew up in Poland under Martial Law.
To extend this project we are looking for volunteers to be interviewed about their experiences of the Cold War. Please contact Robert Knight R.G.Knight@lboro.ac.uk if you’re interested in taking part.