Oral Histories – Air Raids, Anderson Shelters and Evacuation
Oral Histories - Air Raids, Anderson Shelters and Evacuation
Since SOFO began we haven't just collected objects and records. Volunteers have helped us record the memories of Oxfordshire people affected by historic conflicts in the form of recorded oral history interviews. You can hear some of these in use in the museum's galleries when you visit (such as in our Liberation of Bergen-Belsen Concentration Camp, Airpower and D-Day displays), and you can hear many others from WW2 veterans on this very website too.
A number of supporters of our new Crowdfunding project -building a life-size Anderson Shelter display inside the museum- have been sharing their own wartime memories of taking shelter during air raids. Because of this, we thought we'd share some of the Home Front oral histories that've been tucked away in the archive. Some of these recordings were used for our Children & War exhibition, and some of the indviduals interviewed also participated in local school workshops where students talked to them about their childhood experiences of The Blitz. If fully funded, we hope the Anderson Shelter will help both regular visitors and school trips engage with this part of our Second World War history in the same way.
We've recently launched a crowdfunding campaign to build a full-size Anderson Shelter that visitors can walk through to immerse themselves in Second World War Home Front history - and can to be used for school workshops too. You can find out more about the project, donate, and get rewards here. Some of our supporters have already been sharing their own memories of air raid shelters living through the Blitz on the Crowdfunder page.
Welcome to the first of a series of articles covering Second World War stories with county connections, celebrating the 80th anniversary of VE and VJ Day in 2025. Our commemorative exhibition is now open until 18 November 2025, but when we called out for your stories from the local area, we received more than we could fit into the exhibition alone! Last year, Tom Davis shared his many finds from…
Life Lines: Naomi Warren Art Project Part of our commemorations of the 80th anniversary on 15 April 2025, Soldiers of Oxfordshire Museum are inviting artists to participate in a three-part series of artist workshops to engage with the story of Jewish survivor Naomi Warren and the liberation of Bergen-Belsen, and create artwork in response to four themes: witnessing, kindness, vision and positivity. Artists will be encouraged to create artwork and/or…
