Robert's European History Blog

If there is one truism I learnt as a graduate student, it’s that the higher you rise in the study of history, the less we know for sure about the ... Read More

Archaeologists digging in Atapuerca in Northern Spain have discovered the oldest west European human ancestral remains currently found. The lower jawbone and teeth date to between 1.2 and 1.1 million ... Read More

This article from ABC news reports on a new exhibition about Germania, the capital of the Third Reich which Hitler planned to build in Berlin once he had conquered Russia. ... Read More

Many of the medieval churches of England were filled with colorful murals depicting religious themes, vital in teaching: a congregation which couldn’t read the Latin bible could learn from the ... Read More

For a bit of fun over the Easter weekend, why not try this list of the 10 most inaccurate historical films, clearly inspired by the release of 10,000 BC. It ... Read More

Having mentioned medieval church murals this week (above), I thought I’d also note this story: rooms once lived in by Octavian Caesar, also known as Augustus, first Emperor of Rome, ... Read More

On Wednesday 12th 2008, Lazare Ponticelli, the last surviving French veteran of World War One, died. Originally an Italian immigrant, he lied about his age in August 1914 to join ... Read More

The Iron Cross, a German military medal, wasn’t invented by the Nazi government, but it has become synonymous with Hitler’s regime. You can therefore imagine the upset when the German ... Read More

Max Hastings is an acclaimed, if controversial, journalist and historian. This, his forthright review of Franco and Hitler: Spain, Germany and World War II by Stanley G Payne contains an ... Read More

Belgium author Misha Defonseca’s 1997 memoir of the Second World War - Misha: A Memoire of the Holocaust Years – has been translated into eighteen languages, made into a movie ... Read More

A few months ago I reported on the case of thieves who were arrested stealing a World War Two tank from Bulgaria, where it – and many others – had ... Read More

icWales has published a passionate defence of Aneurin Bevan, the man more than any other responsible for the creation of Britain’s National Health Service (where healthcare is free to all), ... Read More

The New York Times reported this week on a new style of teaching being used to tackle the Holocaust in German schools. I was taught, at the same age as ... Read More

World War Two left a mark on Europe in many ways and in Germany that included a whole range of words associated with Nazi government and practice being effectively frozen ... Read More

We’re in the middle of a series of Cold War themed articles here on About European History, so I thought I’d mention this news story: a former nuclear bunker, complete ... Read More