During it’s 70th anniversary, I have been tasked with created multimedia content to celebrate and tell the story of this remarkable place. This was a volunteer position.
A short documentary video about Amy Buller’s groundbreaking 1943 book, ‘Darkness over Germany’, republished in 2017 as ‘Darkness over Germany: A Warning from History’ by Arcadia Books and launched on 16 May 2017 at St Paul’s Cathedral, London. ‘Darkness over Germany: A Warning from History’ provides a timely reminder of how a message of hate once fuelled a nation to unite. It delivers a stark warning from history of how a man with little political experience rose up as a voice of the people, a voice for the disenfranchised who were suffering the injustices of social inequality and unemployment. The hate and support grew until every problem the nation had was the fault of others. Then the nationalism became militarised and the hate led to a devastating war and genocide. All this came from an anger at the failures of politicians and a burning desire for change.
This video also charts the establishment of the educational foundation at Cumberland Lodge in Windsor Great Park, 70 years ago, as a result of Buller’s book and with the support of the King and Queen, to help ensure that what happened in Germany in the 1930s will never be repeated. It features readings by the actress Tamsin Greig, excerpts from addresses by Dr Rowan Williams and Baroness Butler-Sloss, and interviews with Jane Furniss (Trustee of Cumberland Lodge), Professor Kurt Barling (Professor of Journalism at Middlesex University London, and author of the foreword to the new edition of ‘Darkness over Germany’), Katherine O’Lone (Amy Buller PhD Scholar at Cumberland Lodge) and Canon Vincent Strudwick (an early visitor to Cumberland Lodge in the 1950s, who met Amy Buller in person).
With grateful thanks to Laura Garcia (Research Associate at Cumberland Lodge and Lecturer at the University of Kent) for producing this video.
