When The Queen met Ceaușescu
Nicolae Ceaușescu was the first communist leader to be given a full state visit to the UK, but it was controversial from the outset. The Romanian president was a known dictator who ran a brutal regime, but Britain was still cash-strapped after World War Two and was desperate to build new trading partners. Dorian Galbinski was one of the main translators for the visit and he explains to Rebecca Kesby some of the background to the event.(Photo: June 1978: Romanian dictator Nicolae Ceaușescu rides in the state carriage with Queen Elizabeth II on his official visit to Britain. Credit: Central Press/Getty Images)
20 Elo 202112min
Saddam Hussein's foreign hostages
In August 1990 following the Iraqi dictator, Saddam Hussein’s invasion of neighbouring Kuwait hundreds of foreign nationals were held hostage by the Iraqi government. Among them were the Rahims, a British Muslim family who had been in Iraq on a religious pilgrimage. Sameer Rahim has been speaking to Farhana Haider about his time as Saddam's prisoner. Image: Saddam Hussein with western hostages, Iraq 1990 Credit: Shutterstock
19 Elo 202112min
India's secret freedom radio
When Indian independence leaders, including Gandhi, were jailed in 1942, activists set up a secret radio station to carry the message of rebellion against British rule. Among the campaigners who worked at the station was Usha Mehta, who was later imprisoned for broadcasting anti-British news and playing patriotic music. Claire Bowes has been listening to archive material of Usha Mehta and speaking to her nephew, Indian film-maker Ketan Mehta. Image: Usha Mehta Credit:Mani Bhavan Gandhi Sangrahalaya, Mumbai
18 Elo 20219min
US withdrawal: The fall of Saigon
The last remaining US forces pulled out of Vietnam on April 30th 1975 as communist North Vietnamese troops took control of the country. There was a desperate scramble to evacuate US personnel and some Vietnamese colleagues who feared brutal reprisals at the hands of the communists for having helped the Americans. With the airport destroyed, they had to use helicopter airlifts from inside the US embassy compound to transport people to the USS Midway, an aircraft carrier waiting offshore. Rebecca Kesby speaks to two former US servicemen, Stu Herrington and Vern Jumper, who were involved in the mission.(Photo: A CIA employee helps Vietnamese evacuees onto an Air America helicopter from the top of 22 Gia Long Street, a half mile from the U.S. Embassy. April 1975. Getty Images.)
17 Elo 202114min
The man who coined the term genocide
Genocide has a long and grim history, but until the 1950s, the mass extermination of a people or a group was an atrocity without a name, a definition or an international law against it. One man did more than anyone else to change that: the Polish Jewish lawyer, Raphael Lemkin. He coined the term genocide and fought for decades to stop it. He also survived it, but lost his whole family in the Holocaust. Viv Jones hears his story from Israeli journalist Lili Eylon, who met him at the United Nations and witnessed his one-man lobbying campaign. Photo: Raphael Lemkin in 1950 Credit: Bettmann / Getty Images.
16 Elo 20218min
Inside an East German jail
Vera Lengsfeld was a prominent human rights activist in East Germany who was arrested and jailed for taking part in a peaceful protest. She was sent to Hohenschönhausen, the main political prison of the former East German Communist Ministry of State Security, the Stasi. There she was kept in solitary confinement until shortly before the Berlin Wall came down. Vera Lengsfeld spoke to Lucy Williamson about her time in jail.This programme is a rebroadcast.Photo: A cell inside Hohenschönhausen Prison which has now been made into a museum. Credit: Flickr Commons.
13 Elo 20218min
East Germany's nudists
For years Germans have been bathing nude at the beach. Many are members of a naturist movement called the FKK, which was banned under the Nazis and faced official disapproval during the early years of communist rule in East Germany. Mike Lanchin spoke to one East Berliner who recalled the heyday of naked sunbathing beside the Baltic Sea.This programme is a rebroadcast.Photo: Bathers enjoying the beach at Baerwalder See, Eastern Germany (Sean Gallup/Getty Images)
12 Elo 20218min
Exiled from East Germany: Wolf Biermann
East Germany's most famous singer-songwriter was exiled to the West in November 1976, causing an international outcry. Wolf Biermann was stripped of his GDR citizenship while on tour in West Germany.Wolf Biermann spoke to Lucy Burns about his political songs and his fame on both sides of the Berlin Wall.This programme is a rebroadcastPicture: Wolf Biermann in concert. Credit: Keystone/Hulton Archive/Getty Images
11 Elo 20218min
