Tag: commemoration

  • Heritage and Memory: HMS Belfast

    Heritage and Memory: HMS Belfast

    Ben Humphreys, a second year History student at the University of Portsmouth, has written the following blog entry on the museum ship HMS Belfast for the Introduction to Historical Research module. Ben considers why the ship was chosen for preservation and reveals that political factors likely played a key role in the decision-making process. The module is co-ordinated by Dr Maria Cannon, Lecturer in Early Modern History at Portsmouth.

    Heritage and memory have always had a political relationship. War museums and memorials almost exclusively portray a heroic tale of the machines and men (and increasingly women) who ‘served the nation,’ for which we should be grateful. As Gerder Lerner fears, such a collective memory would be prone to selectiveness and the dark sides of events would be forgotten. [1] HMS Belfast is no exception and attempts to represent national values such as patriotism and strength, ignoring the countless lives which ended violently at the receiving end of her guns. As Geoff Cubitt has demonstrated, history and memory are undoubtedly intertwined although there is fierce historiographical debate over what the relationship is exactly. [2] What is certain, though, is the efforts of heritage sites to construct a collective memory for our imagined communities – the nation. After all, ‘The practice of history is […] a highly specialised form of commemoration.’ [3] This blog looks to examine HMS Belfast as a useful historical source, its effectiveness as a museum, the politics surrounding the preservation of vessels and why Belfast may not be the most suitable choice.

    HMS Belfast. Image: Wikipedia

    HMS Belfast is a Town-class light-cruiser of the Royal Navy, commissioned in 1938, just in time for the Second World War. Belfast was decommissioned in 1963 after being placed in Reserve. She had a relatively long service, involved in the European and Pacific theatres of the Second World War; the Normandy invasion, escorting arctic convoys and operations in the Pacific. She was also involved in the Korean War and then exercise after that. HMS Belfast became a museum ship in 1973, moored in London next to Tower Bridge, after a private trust fund was started and then managed by the Imperial War Museum, a government funded organisation. [4] At the heart of the country, the location is suitable for a war museum which is critical to a nation’s self-identification. [5] However, Belfast had a relatively uneventful or heroic service. She was not unique, being one of ten ships of her class. Light-cruisers stood to their name; they were not particularly large and in no way considered a flagship or a symbol of power for the Royal Navy. This makes Belfast a questionable choice for preservation, especially in comparison with other RN vessels, such as the famous HMS Dreadnought, which was world renowned for initiating a naval arms race pre-First World War – a ship so superior that all other battleships became regarded as ‘dreadnoughts’ or ‘pre-dreadnoughts’. [6] Yet surprisingly, Dreadnought was scrapped in 1921 despite her outstanding historical significance. This demonstrates to historians how objects are preserved and discarded based on contemporary perception of significance, which the preservation of museums ships verifies. [7] By 1921 Dreadnought was an inferior vessel and valued by its metal content. Almost a hundred years later and its significance is still widely publicised and regularly noted in history books. Another factor that contributed to the preservation of Belfast was the ease of access to worthy moorings; another contender for preservation was HMS Illustrious, the lead aircraft carrier of her type and therefore a true symbol of power, with a number of confirmed kills. Unfortunately, Illustrious was so large that there were few suitable options.

    The preservation of Belfast may reveal political tensions from its conception in 1972. The 1970s are hallmarked by tough political and economic conditions for Britain – power cuts, miners’ strikes and IRA bombings. Perhaps a coincidence, but the heritage and honour created in preserving a vessel named after the Northern Irish city it was built in was likely a strategic movement by the British government to quell tensions in Northern Ireland, by placing an achievement of Irish labour at the heart of England as a symbolic gesture. In this sense, heritage has been used for contemporary purposes. [8]

    A controversial factor in the preservation of Belfast was how far it should be modified for museum purposes, without damaging her authenticity. Some decisions were unquestionable, such as removing asbestos from the ship, for obvious health and safety reasons, in areas that were accessible to visitors. [9] Removing this insulation from some of her piping was insignificant in damaging her authentic condition. However, the interior of the vessel proves challenging for visitors with disabilities or even poor mobility, due to steep stairways, trip hazards, and watertight hatches, which require stepping over and through, and head height hazards. Jason Dittmer and Emma Waterton comment on the matter frankly: ‘Sailors in the Royal Navy were trained extensively in order to function as highly efficient combat machines. This is in sharp contrast to most visitors to HMS Belfast.’ [10] However, they do recognise the value in this physical challenge. The ‘alien experience’ is a learning opportunity that a museum ship provides. [11] Instead of reading the dimensions or viewing images of watertight hatches, visitors and historians get to experience it for themselves. This is something that historical textbooks and other types of primary sources cannot do. What is controversial, though, is the café installed on the ship, which arguably damages a historical relic, whereas others may appreciate the fact that museums must generate their own income, which a café will supplement, whilst improving the experience of the visitor.

    A final point to consider is that for Belfast the task of commemorating the crew and the conflicts is complicated by its long service. Whose story should it tell? How will the IWM depict the experience of the sailors on Belfast at Normandy, Belfast in the Arctic and Belfast in Korea? A decade later? Considering there were over 700 crew members at any given time, and four commanding officers throughout her service, how can the IWM decide who should be represented. Furthermore, the ship is not what she used to be due to numerous refits, which has significantly altered her appearance. For example, the removal of her catapult, scout aircraft and a fully enclosed bridge. [12] Thus, historians would have to rely on official or visual sources to learn about the original specifications of the vessel.

    In conclusion, HMS Belfast is a questionable choice of vessel in terms of symbolism and representation of the Royal Navy, although as some historians have discussed, heritage is part of the past chosen for contemporary issues, in this case, the political climate of the 70s. However, Belfast should be commended for remaining in relatively authentic condition, by minimising commercial refittings that other heritage sites have succumbed to such as gift shops, play areas and multifunctional areas. In fact, it is this authentic restricted and sometimes dangerous spaces within the ship which is the most valuable aspect of this floating historical relic to historians and casual visitors alike.

    Notes

    [1] Gerder Lerner, Why History Matters: Life and Thought (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1997), 52.

    [2] Geoffrey Cubitt, History and Memory (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2007), 30.

    [3] Ludmilla Jordanova, History in Practice (London: Bloomsbury, 2000), 138.

    [4] John Wingate, In Trust for the Nation: HMS Belfast, 1939 – 92 (London: Profile Publications, 1972), 14.

    [5] Sue Malvern, “War, Memory and Museums: Art and Artefact in the Imperial War Museum,” History Workshop Journal 2000, no. 49 (2000), 178.

    [6] Roger Parkinson, The Late Victorian Navy: The Pre-dreadnought Era and the Origins of the First World War (Woodbridge: The Boydell Press, 2008), viii.

    [7] Eileen Hooper-Greenhill, Museums and the Shaping of Knowledge (London: Routledge, 1992), 196.

    [8] Brian Graham, Gregory John Ashworth and John E. Tunbridge “The Uses and Abuses of Heritage,” in Heritage, Museums and Galleries an Introductory Reader, ed. Gerard Corsane (Abingdon: Routledge, 2005), 29.

    [9] Jason Dittmer and Emma Waterton, “‘You’ll go home with bruises’: Affect, embodiment and heritage on board HMS Belfast,” Wiley, Area. (2018), 5.

    [10] Dittmer and Waterton, “‘You’ll go home with bruises’,” 6.

    [11] Ibid.

    [12] John Wingate, In Trust for the Nation: HMS Belfast, 1939 – 92 (London: Profile Publications, 1972), 58.

  • Heritage and Memory: Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe

    Heritage and Memory: Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe

    Aimee Campbell, a second year History student at the University of Portsmouth, wrote the following blog entry on the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe for the Introduction to Historical Research Unit. Aimee discusses the process in which memorials gain meaning and serve as sites where past atrocities can be commemorated. The unit is co-ordinated by Dr Maria Cannon, Lecturer in Early Modern History at Portsmouth. 

    Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe

    Heritage presents the past through a memorialised fashion; compromising of tangible memorials, rituals and ceremony. Heritage and memory can be political in certain historical contexts and conditions. [1] In this blog I shall explore whether the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe in Berlin is successful as a site of remembrance with reference to the historiography surrounding debates on what makes a suitable memorial. As Sharon Macdonald has noted, “Heritage is deployed to show that the collective identity in question […] has not just been formed in the very recent past but somewhere further back”. [2] In the case of this memorial, for example, it is commemorating the Jews targeted by the Nazis, but this is a collective identity which was established far back in the past.

    On the 12 May 2005 the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe, designed by Peter Eisenman, was unveiled in Berlin, Germany. It consisted of an array of 2,711 rectangular stelae in varying heights, as well as an underground Information Centre presenting an exhibition about the Holocaust. [3] Henry W. Pickford argues that the memorial aligns itself with the idea of counter-monuments which, as suggested by Eisenman, refers to the fact that the horror of the Holocaust means that it could not be represented by traditional means. [4] Pickford displays this view because the site does not have any signage that indicates it is a memorial for the Jews murdered as part of the National Socialist regime. Geoffrey Cubitt writes that there is a desire to associate the idea of history with the idea of memory, thus suggesting that perhaps the only reason for the existence of memorials is for society to have something tangible which they can attach the past to or the suffering of a group with. [5] Therefore, the lack of anything signifying the purpose of the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe raises questions as to the effectiveness of it as a memorial. However, Bridget Sion argues that the lack of a focal point acts to reflect how the perpetrators and victims were everywhere and cannot be pinpointed to an exact spot. [6] Walking through the memorial is supposed to be a disconcerting experience with uneven pathways and a feeling of isolation. The design also muffles the outside sound of traffic, creating an eerie atmosphere that only adds to the discomfort of the memorial. [7]

    A key element to the memory aspect of the memorial is the underground Information Centre, the addition of which situates the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe in between representational and non-representational forms of memorial design. [8] Without the Information Centre it would almost be too easy for people to walk through the stelae and have no idea of their significance to the many Jews who fell victim to the Nazi regime. The Centre fulfils the idea that memorials must accord moral recognition of the victims of the past and stress the need for society to process their past collective experiences; without the Centre Eisenman’s design would not be sufficient as a site of memorial. [9] This raises the suggestion that perhaps a heritage site dedicated to memory is only useful if its purpose is fully understood by those who visit, otherwise it is an injustice being done to those to whom a memorial is being set up to commemorate. After all, as stated by Sion, the core mission of memorials is commemoration. [10] It is also worth noting, as Sion suggests, that “memorials depend for their success on sensitivity to their immediate and ramified contexts” [11]. In the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe the sensitivity and emotion felt by visitors is more commonly felt in the Information Centre than when walking through the actual site. Another element that needs considering with this specific memorial is ‘dark tourism’, when people specifically travel to places that are associated with death and suffering. Germany is the second most visited country behind Poland when it comes to the Holocaust, and, within its first year of being unveiled, the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe became a tourist magnet. [12] The very fact that the memorial is to commemorate an aspect of the Holocaust is exactly what draws people to it, highlighting how the purpose of a memorial is more for the present-day audience than those it is supposed to be commemorating. [13] Although the memorial was designed and commissioned with the intention of memorialising specifically the Jews who were victims of National Socialism, it has proved to be a place people can visit and share their grief, as well as pay their respects. As Joy Sather-Wagstaff argues, heritage is shared by groups of people as its foundations lie in collective memory, so a memorial is only efficient if it can unite a group of people in one common thought. [14] One of Eisenman’s intentions with this memorial was to have no sense of nostalgia or memory of the past, only the living memory of individual experience upon visiting the site. [15]

    In conclusion, the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe is an interesting case when considering the process of heritage and memorialisation. Eisenman’s memorial is a “self-reflective contemporary artwork and historically referential monument”. [16] Traditionally, monuments are geared towards the production and extension of knowledge and the awareness of such as part of social memory. [17] However, if someone was to visit the memorial and not the Information Centre they would come away potentially feeling moved by their experience but their understanding of the Jewish experience would not be advanced. Alternatively, it is not always essential for a monument to be a source of knowledge. It can sometimes just be a place to deposit memory and thought. [18] Despite its abstract nature, then, the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe is effective because it combines both a simple and passive structure with the informative and moving Information Centre, which work together and complete one another to fulfil the embodiment of a memorial.

     

    Notes

    [1] Joy Sather-Wagstaff, “Heritage and Memory”, in Palgrave Handbook of Contemporary Heritage Research, ed. Emma Waterton and Steve Watson (London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2015), 191.

    [2] Sharon Macdonald, “Undesirable Heritage: Fascist Material Culture and Historical Consciousness in Nuremberg”, International Journal of Heritage Studies, 12, no.1 (2006), 10.

    [3] Bridget Sion, “Affective Memory, Ineffective Functionality: Experiencing Berlin’s Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe”, in Memorialization in Germany Since 1945, ed. William John Niven and Chloe E. M. Paver (London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2009), 243.

    [4] Henry W. Pickford, “Dialectical Reflections on Peter Eisenman’s Memorial for the Murdered Jews of Europe”, Architectural Theory Review, 17, no.2-3 (2012), 424.

    [5] Geoffrey Cubitt, History and Memory (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2013), 30.

    [6] Sion, “Affective Memory”, 243.

    [7] Sion, “Affective Memory”, 246.

    [8] Pickford, “Dialectical Reflections”, 421.

    [9] Cubitt, History and Memory, 51.

    [10] Sion, “Affective Memory”, 251.

    [11] Sion, “Affective Memory”, 251.

    [12] Sion, “Affective Memory”, 247-248.

    [13] Henry W. Pickford, “Dialectical Reflections”, 426.

    [14] Joy Sather-Wagstaff, “Heritage and Memory”, 192.

    [15] Sion, “Affective Memory”, 247.

    [16] Sion, “Affective Memory”, 249.

    [17] Geoffrey Cubitt, History and Memory (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2013), 26.

    [18] Sion, “Affective Memory”, 251.

  • ‘Making waves’: the activities of the Port Towns and Urban Cultures group.

    ‘Making waves’: the activities of the Port Towns and Urban Cultures group.

    This blog, by Dr Mel Bassett, research associate for the Port Towns and Urban Cultures project, discusses the many activities of the PTUC group, from working on major First World War exhibitions, to sharing their research with schoolchildren. Mel’s research interests centre on dockyard workers’ identities and the role of empire in the Edwardian period.

    Situated on the south coast, and on the doorstep of some of the nation’s most important naval and maritime heritage, the History Department at the University of Portsmouth are undertaking exciting new research into the influence of maritime history on land.

    Port Towns and Urban Cultures (PTUC) group was established in 2010 by Professor Brad Beaven, Dr Karl Bell and Dr Robert James, and now boasts a team of international collaborators from the academic and professional world.

    We have a vibrant postgraduate environment. There have been 11 ‘Port Town’ PhD students so far, and the creation of the new Naval History MA in October 2016 has already welcomed over 40 students.  We also had the pleasure of welcoming a visiting scholar from the University of Oviedo, Asturas, Spain.

    Indeed, Portsmouth has become the centre of all things ‘Port Towns.’ We have established links with universities and museum networks in Liverpool, Hull, London and Scandinavia, and are now looking East and forging partnerships with Kobe University’s ‘Port Cities’ project in Japan. Moreover, we have a presence on the internet and social media. The Port Towns and Urban Cultures website features a range of collaborators from established academics to postgraduate students and offers a vibrant platform in which those interested in the influence of the sea can share their research. This is complimented by our presence on social media where we have loyal followings on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. There is now also a book, edited by Beaven, Bell and James, which showcases the importance and social and cultural uniqueness of port towns from around the globe.

    We are currently undertaking research into several areas. One of our most ambitious projects has been to map the impact of Royal Naval, merchant and fishing sailor communities on land in Portsmouth by using our ‘Sailortown’ app, which was officially launched this year. Scholars and the general public will be able to understand the relationship between maritime livelihoods and community structures and physically walk through sailortown using our online guides. We hope to also extend this project out to other maritime communities, and are working in collaboration with the University of Gothenburg to do the same in Sweden.

    Profs Mark Connelly and Brad Beaven admiring the Jutland pop-up exhibition

    Another exciting project has been to research the impact the First World War’s most famous naval engagement, the Battle of Jutland, had on the British public. The project was funded by the AHRC’s Gateways to the First World War research centre, and working with the National Museum of the Royal Navy, Portsdown University of the Third Age, and several undergraduate student volunteers, we traced every Royal Naval sailor killed at the Battle. This has enabled us to make unique insights into how the naval war affected contemporary society, where sailor families lived and the long-term effects of the war at sea on memorialisation and heritage.

    Mel Bassett at the opening of Portsmouth City Museums WW1 Exhibition

    I am the original PhD student that came out of the Port Towns and Urban Cultures stable, so to speak, and am now a Research Associate on the project. As a postgraduate a few colleagues and I helped to establish the PTUC website and social media presence, which has gone from strength-to-strength since its creation in 2013. I have been very fortunate to work on a number of important and interesting projects such as Portsmouth’s First World War Centenary commemorations which included staging a £97,000 Heritage Lottery Funded exhibition and events programme. I came from a Museum professional background before undertaking my PhD, and this has helped greatly in forging links and establishing working relationships with non-academic collaborators. Another great project was working with the University’s UP for Uni team on workshops introducing children to the world of ‘Sickly Slums and Sailortowns’ – a Horrible Histories-themed day where they could learn about slum living, sailor slang and create their own tattoos (on nylon).

    Prof Brad Beaven placing exhibits of Centenary Exhibition 2014

     

    ‘Sickly Slums and Sailortowns’: showing off tattoos

    I also teach part-time at the University of Portsmouth, and without doubt, the most exciting part of my work is getting the opportunity to spread our research to our undergraduates. We have had several students volunteer on high-profile projects such as our AHRC Gateways to the First World War-funded Battle of Jutland project. Through working on an actual research project in tandem with Professor Brad Beaven and me, the students were able to get a real sense of the purpose of the research. They could see the tangible results that were produced through assisting us, and also got to see their work make a difference too. As a result the students have not only learned skills to help them in their degree, but also have experiences to cite on their CVs; which will raise their chances of employability. We are also pleased to note that some were so inspired that they undertook dissertation projects based on the topic.

    The University of Portsmouth’s History Department is making big waves on land on the subject of maritime history, and I am glad to be at the forefront of new and exciting research.

     

    Follow us:

    Website: porttowns.port.ac.uk

    Twitter: @PortPTUC

    Facebook: Port Towns Ptuc

    Instagram: porttownsandurbancultures

     

    All images author’s own.

  • The Battle of Jutland: Its impact on the people of Portsmouth

    The Battle of Jutland: Its impact on the people of Portsmouth

    Dr Rob James, senior lecturer in history, and John Bolt, research assistant and PhD student, have written the following blog on their experiences of creating an online map, with the help of a local community group, Portsdown U3A, to identify the impact of the Battle of Jutland on the people of Portsmouth and the local area. The online map is available to view on the Port Towns and Urban Cultures website http://porttowns.port.ac.uk/.

    Image taken from http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~nrg1/TheBattleOfJutlandMay311916RoyalChristmasCard.jpg

    The Battle of Jutland took place on 31 May 1916. It was the largest sea-battle of the First World War, and was one in which many men from both the British and German navies perished. To mark its 100-year anniversary, a group of researchers from Portsdown U3A decided to conduct a research project to honour the local people who had died in the battle. Their aim was to identify the names of the 662 men from Portsmouth and the local area who had perished and create a Roll of Honour. Portsdown U3A’s Jutland research group planned to display the Roll of Honour at a series of pop-up exhibitions across the city of Portsmouth. The exhibition would also include a number of detailed information panels summarising the battle, as well as featuring short biographies of some of the men from the area who had lost their lives.

    In May 2015 two members of the group, Carole Chapman and Steve Doe, arranged a meeting with Rob to discuss how they could take the project further. They had planned on submitting a Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) grant application in order to finance their exhibition, but were seeking ideas for what else they could do to develop the project. Rob had been working on a mapping project with the Port Towns and Urban Cultures (PTUC) team in which the heritage of Portsmouth’s ‘Sailortown’ districts was being plotted on to contemporary maps as a resource for academics and visitors to the city (see the ‘Sailortown’ app), and suggested that the U3A could create a map that would detail the loss of men from Portsmouth and the local area. It was decided that a paper copy of the map would be created to take around the various pop-up exhibitions, as well as an online map that would be hosted on the PTUC website, where visitors to the site would be able to click on the various ‘pins’ in order to find out more about the men who had lost their lives. The plans had been made; now all that was needed was success in the planned HLF application…

    It was with delight and great relief that the U3A heard that their grant application to the HLF was successful. Their vision could now become reality. The grant allowed co-investigator Rob to employ John as a research assistant in order to create the required maps. After taking receipt of the huge database the U3A had collated, John began work on verifying all of the information he had to hand, checking it alongside a database that PTUC’s Dr Mel Bassett had been working on as part of an AHRC-funded project that captured the national casualties of the battle (to access the database go to http://porttowns.port.ac.uk/source-information/jutland-casualty-database/). Once the data had been verified John, along with the team of Online Course Developers (OCDs) at the University, began working on the paper map.  This process consisted of plotting each participant of the battle who had a link to Portsmouth on to a 1910 map of the Portsmouth area by using information on next of kin and their places of birth.

    After the paper map was completed, John and the OCDs started work on the online map. An historic map of Portsmouth was overlaid on to a current Google map of the city so that all of the service personnel’s locations could be plotted on the map. This did create a number of difficulties, not least because many street names had changed or vanished due to the passing of time, from both war and urban renewal, which a computer programme is not able to immediately recognise. After many hours working through the database, John was able to accurately locate the vast majority of men using multiple resources, including contemporary Ordnance Survey maps and local history sites (a few couldn’t be located exactly due to incomplete records). The map was now ready to launch!

    It is with great excitement, then, that this blog announces the launch of the online map that reveals the details of the sailors who lost their lives during this momentous First World War battle between two of the world’s biggest navies of that time. We hope you find it a fascinating tool for understanding the extent to which the Battle of Jutland impacted Portsmouth and the local area. The map also demonstrates that there are further opportunities for plotting the effect of other events and battles on contemporary maps. Ideas for future projects are therefore welcome!

    Click the following link to access the map: http://porttowns.port.ac.uk/jutland-map/index.html

     

    Rob James is Senior Lecturer in Cultural and Social History at the University. He is one of the founding members of the Port Towns and Urban Cultures research group.

    John Bolt is a PhD student at the University. His doctoral thesis evaluates the cultural and social history of the Royal Marines.