Max Pearson presents a collection of the week’s Witness History episodes.
We hear from 'wolf child' Luise Quietsch who was separated from her family and forced to flee East Prussia. Whilst trying to survive during World War Two, these children were likened to hungry wolves roaming through forests.
Journalist and documentary filmmaker Sonya Winterberg who recorded the testimony of “wolf children” for her book, discusses the profound impact it had on their lives.
We also hear about the first major series of English lessons which were broadcast on Chinese television in 1981.
A former student recalls the series of unprecedented teachers’ strikes which temporarily shut down most of New York schools in the late 1960s.
Plus the deadly attack at Milltown Cemetery which took place during the funeral of three IRA members.
Finally we head to Eastern Europe in 1989, where approximately two million people joined hands across across Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania to form a human chain demanding independence from the Soviet Union.
Contributors:
Luise Quietsch - chair of a community of wolf children called Edelweiss-Wolfskinder.
Sonya Winterberg - author of “The Wolf Children of the Eastern Front- Alone and Forgotten”.
Kathy Flower - presenter of Follow Me.
Monifa Edwards - former pupil at a school in the district of Ocean Hill-Brownsville.
Bill Buzenberg - American journalist.
Sandra Kalniete - a Latvian organiser of the human chain protest.
(Photo: Luise Quietsch. Credit: Rita Naujokaitytė)