Mini-exhibitions in M Shed during the festival include:
‘RUHLEBEN: BAME civilian internees in Germany during WW1’, Sonia Grant
Classified as British subjects, approximately 300 BAME men in Germany at the outbreak of World War One were rounded up and interned at a makeshift camp—Ruhleben—a racecourse outside Berlin.
Although relatively small in number, their experiences were unique and, for the most part, has remained obscured. A diverse group, some men fared better as internees than others in the camp—coined Little Britain—which had been transformed into a virtual outpost of the British Empire.
Ultimately, however, their collective stories represent triumph over tragedy and the overall narrative is the rescue of a marginalised group of men otherwise lost to history.
Sonia Grant ‘RUHLEBEN: BAME civilian internees in Germany during WW1’
‘Making it Home’ The resettlement of eleven WW1 ex-servicemen on Cleenish Island in Upper Lough Erne (Studio 2, M Shed)
Mark Rhead (photographer) representing the Bellanaleck Local History Group
This photographic exhibition accompanies the film ‘Making it Home’ (to be shown on Saturday 27th April, 11-12.25, Studio 2, M Shed’. The photographer will be available to talk about the film and answer questions after the film screening.
The film tells the story of eleven ex-servicemen who returned from the Great War to live and farm on Cleenish Island in Upper Lough Erne, County Fermanagh, Northern Ireland. The photographic exhibition depicts the ruins of these ‘homes for heroes’.
‘Wakefield Civilian Internment Camp 1914-18′ (Room 1, M Shed)
Claudia Sternberg
Lofthouse Park Camp held nearly 3,000 German and Austrian-Hungarian civilian and military prisoners during the First World War and was in use until the last officers left Yorkshire in December 1919.
These banners tell some of this story.
‘We are disabled by war’
Stella Man, Glenside Hospital Museum (Landing, M Shed)
This small exhibition showcases Glenside Hospital Museum’s collection of artifacts, photographs and stories from Beaufort War Hospital 1915-1919. Just under 30,000 soldiers were treated at the hospital, where the artist Stanley Spencer spent a year as an orderly. Our portable exhibition is about the hospital, and asks people to consider how we are ‘United’, ‘Moved’ and ‘Disabled’ by war’.
Includes postcard writing activity.
www.glensidemuseum.org.uk/beaufort-war-hospital-home-page/
Peace News Posters (Room 3, M Shed)
Peace News
A series of posters, celebrating the people and movements from around the world that resisted WW1
Refusing to Kill: Refusing To Kill: Bristol’s World War 1 Conscientious Objectors (Landing, M Shed)
Remembering the Real World War 1
A snapshot of the local exhibition by the history group helping organise the festival.
Women of Action
An exhibition sharing the story of the German Revolution 1918 and reclaiming the voices of the female revolutionaries who have, until now, been hidden from the official narrative. In November 1918, Germany erupted with a revolution which led to the establishment of the first democracy on German soil, the end of oppressive censorship, and the end of the war. This exhibition shares women’s eyewitness accounts and focuses on their roles during the revolution. How did they campaign for peace and what kind of post-war world did they want?