WW II radio propaganda & French relations

Matthew Sweet looks at new research from Ludivine Broch, Daniel Lee, Hannah Elias and Cathy Mahoney into religion & propaganda on the radio + French soldiers in Yorkshire & a post WWII gratitude train sent by France and Italy to the USA.

Daniel Lee is a BBC/AHRC New Generation Thinker who teaches at Queen Mary, London. His books include Pétain's Jewish Children: French Jewish Youth and the Vichy Regime, 1940–42 and The SS Officer’s Armchair due to be published in September 2020. Ludivine Broch is a historian at the University of Westminster who researches Vichy France, resistance and the commemoration of World War Two. Cathy Mahoney is Derby Fellow in Communication and Media at the University of Liverpool who has written on women's experiences in World War Two and depictions in the media. Hannah Elias is Lecturer in Black British History at Goldsmiths, University of London where she works on Modern Britain, religion, propaganda, and the transatlantic history of race and social protest in the 20th century.

Producer: Robyn Read Technical Production by Bob Nettles.

Daniel Lee has written a Radio 3 Essay about Vichy France Listen here: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p038dvyt

You can find a collection of episodes of Free Thinking exploring different aspects of War & Conflict on the programme website https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p06kgbyb7 and Matthew's discussion with guests including Hadley Freeman on her family's WWII experiences in our discussion on Jewish Identity in 2020 https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000fwqd