Second World War | lothianlives.org.uk

I began my work experience at West Lothian Archives and Records Centre on Wednesday 4^th of July and for two months I have loved every minute of it! Having no previous experience in archives, the staff was quick to enlighten me and give me a wide range of tasks that gave me a better understanding of what it is like working in an archive.

I initially transcribed 19^th century log books from schools in the local area to see if there were any major developments or changes to the area that the school’s Headmaster would note down. It was fun to read about the nuances of the school’s daily life that were so different to my own school experience. There were outbreaks of measles and whooping cough and children “absent without leave” from the school as they went to help in the harvest, which all paled my “struggles” of homework and maths. I later transcribed World War Two log books from my local village and was fascinated to hear about the various changes that everyone – pupils, teachers and school officers – faced together. When reading about the air raids or a teacher being called up for military service after it was noted he was married three weeks beforehand, you get a real sense of what it was like for the everyday person during that difficult time as well as the community spirit of the people mentioned.

I also catalogued Community Council minutes and agendas of West Lothian from the late 1970’s to the mid 2000’s. This was more of a challenge for me as I had to fill in the details of the archives onto a database, but I had plenty of help and once I got the hang of it I was able to progress through them. The de-stapling of the minutes and keeping track of all the catalogue numbers was a challenge I embraced. Like the school log books, the feeling of a community is felt in their collaboration of making their town or village theirs by taking an interest in the issues and problems of their area.

Overall, I have thoroughly enjoyed my time in West Lothian Archives and I’m still amazed by what treasures they have in the building. Though some are grander than others, like the school log books and the Community Council Minutes, they are all a part of a community and I would like to thank the staff at the Centre for making me a part of theirs!

Excerpt from 'Workers Under Hitler's Heel' pamphlet, c. 1940s

A British-produced pamphlet called ‘Workers Under Hitler’s Heel’ is held at East Lothian Archives. The pamphlet was probably circulated in 1944, and has images of labour camps, enforced work, and Polish prisoners being forced to dig graves of their compatriots who had been murdered by Nazi troops. The pamphlet is noticeably left-wing and socialist in its tone, as it concentrates on working conditions, wages, and the banning of trade unions limiting the rights of workers in Germany. But it also mentions evidence of the death camps and eugenics, the science of race which the Nazis developed to ‘explain’ the persecution of Jews, Slavs, Romany gypsies and the disabled. Even though the pamphlet may not have been widely distributed and could have been perceived as overtly political or exaggerated, it shows that there was clear evidence of the Nazi ideas of racial purity, and the cruel punishments inflicted on those who were demonised by the Nazis.

Much has been written about the Holocaust, which is estimated to have killed 6 million Jews. It has frequently been asked whether the Allied Forces could have prevented, delayed or stopped the Nazis from committing such horrific acts. During the Allied advance the camps were liberated, and the full extent of the massacres were widely exposed. The survivors obviously welcomed the troops, and the prison guards surrendered.

The British Government did not intervene to help the Jews during the war period, though as this pamphlet shows, knowledge of the concentration camps was used in British propaganda to encourage the war effort, and emotions on the subject ran high. As Churchill said in a letter to the Foreign Secretary in July 1944, “there is no doubt that this is probably the greatest and most horrible crime ever committed in the whole history of the world, and it has been done by scientific machinery by nominally civilized men in the name of a great state and one of the leading races of Europe…There should therefore in my opinion be no negotiations of any kind on this subject. Declarations should be made in public, so that everyone connected with it will be hunted down and put to death.”

To read the pamphlet, browse the gallery below: