People are being invited to share their personal stories and artefacts to a new exhibition charting the 80th anniversary of a key year in the Second World War.
The National Memorial Arboretum is putting together the 1944 showcase and is keen for contributions from the public.
The year saw a number of key milestones in the conflict – including the D-Day landings – as the Allied forces turned the tide of the war.
Rachel Smith, head of learning and participation at the National Memorial Arboretum, said:
“The year of 1944 was one seismic change, with significant developments on the home front in addition to being a turning point of the Second World War.
“Back at home, the war was having a huge impact on daily life, with continued food rationing and more than a million children being evacuated from cities due to the new and terrifying threat of missile attacks.”
“This all came as families worried about the fates of or received tragic news about fathers, sons, and brothers fighting overseas.
“D-Day, the Battle of Monte Cassino and Operation Market Garden in Europe, and the Battles of Kohima and Imphal in India, were among the many engagements that were turning the tide in favour of the Allied forces, and are being acknowledged as part of the arboretum’s activity programme throughout 2024.
“Our new exhibition will take visitors on an interactive and sensory journey back to 1944, telling real people’s stories of what life was like at home and away during that momentous year, through photos, artefacts, music, and video.
“We need people, organisations and businesses, to help us inform and curate the exhibition by sharing experiences or memories passed down through generations, with a selection of stories, photos, and objects eventually being chosen to feature in the exhibition itself.”
Rachel Smith
People are being asked to have conversations with family members to uncover items such as old photos to compare wartime and the modern day, letters from loved ones servicing overseas, memories of school or working days at the time or childhood recollections of 1944.
Mike Goldstein, a volunteer at the National Memorial Arboretum, said he had several vivid memories of his life in 1944.
“It was doodlebug time and I found myself, just five years old, holding my mother’s hand in Stoke Newington High Street, North London, when a friend of my mother’s came by and told her they were signing children up to be evacuated – whatever that meant.
“The next thing I remember was being dressed up in my raincoat with a luggage label bearing my name attached to the lapel, and a ‘Mickey Mouse’ gas mask round my neck. We were waiting to get on the train, bound for Blackpool.
“It seems impossible now to comprehend that process. A young loving mother, separated from her husband by war, putting her two young children on a train to an unfamiliar town hundreds of miles away, not knowing who was going to look after them.
“I know that this experience was repeated thousands of times across the country, but that doesn’t in any way lessen its deep impact on me.”
Mike Goldstein
“Hugely significant”
As well as individual memories, the arboretum is also keen to uncover more about the businesses and organisations who contributed to the war effort or helped to influence daily life in Britain in 1944.
“From food marketing posters to design sketches of new products, delivery vehicles and uniforms, to new technologies or newspaper headlines, we’d love businesses to dig into their archives to discover their own connections to 1944.
“Many organisations have a long and proud history, and we would love to talk to them about relevant stories and artefacts in their archives and discuss ways in which they could contribute to this interactive programme for visitors during this hugely significant anniversary year.”
Rachel Smith
People can share details of their memories, alongside period images and photos of artefacts via a form on the National Memorial Arboretum’s website by 20th March.
