The Big Lie

Historical (and present day) Notes on The Big Lie, by the author, Julie Mayhew www.juliemayhew.co.uk/projects/the-big-lie/

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‘Big books by blokes about battles’: Why is history still written mainly by men?

Only four female writers appeared in the list of top 50 bestselling history titles in the UK last year. And women are still perceived as more suited to writing about drawing rooms than battlefields. Why? Leading historians and biographers discuss sexism and subject matter

Why do we not know more about the revolutionary women of WW2? It’s complicated...

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Merry Christmas xx

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Fröhliche Weihnachten!

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Just before her interview comes on TV, Jess imagines signing autographs outside Kino Babylon. This is what it looks like today, in our non-Nazi present.

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This from today's Metro got me thinking... Holocaust Denial is not a specific crime in the UK, like it is Germany and other countries. Should it be? Or are our hate speech laws enough to counter public expressions like Haverbeck's? After all, is Holocaust Denial the actual crime being punished here, or the desire to convince others of it?

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Speer's daughter and the Syrian refugees - BBC News

Hilde Schramm, daughter of the Nazi architect Albert Speer, has spent her life fighting for causes she believes in. Now she has opened her home to young Syrians.

What can a daughter do to make up for the sins of her father? Here is a real life example of Jessika’s dilemma... 

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At the launch party for The Big Lie, guests added a square to a protest quilt (above). We spray-painted Clem's words above where the quilt hung – "We need this!" And then asked, "But what do we need?" Demands written onto the fabric squares ranged from the big issues (equal rights, war and peace) to the small and tangible (more crisps!)

The quilt has a rich history as an article of protest – predominantly protest by women. The gentle, traditionally feminine skill of sewing is subverted for powerful means, but more than that. A quilt takes many hands to make it. It creates community and a coming-together as the message itself comes together.

The Shoreditch Sisters WI (below) recently created a solidarity quilt from knitted squares that had been produced in a knitting project with refugee women. The sisters shared their yarn skills and the refugee women in turn shared their stories of being imprisoned for seeking safety in the UK. Something physical was created but also something much stronger – an understanding.

It's easy to dismiss craftivism and gentle protest. How does adding a square to a quilt make any real difference? But if you take anything away from The Big Lie, I hope it's that making someone stop, think and possibly change their mind is a revolution in itself.

And also, I believe in baby-steps. Today, you add a square to quilt, tomorrow who knows what you might do to make the world a better place…

Perhaps my favourite square was added to The Big Lie quilt when I visited a teen reading group at Watford Library – it reads "I'm not writting on a square" [sic]. That's a true rebel, right there. And one with a sense of humour (the best kind).

So, if you'd like me to bring the quilt to your reading group, school or women's group, get in touch. Let's start a quiet revolution…

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Missed my A History of the Nazis series in Standard Issue Magazine? Below are all the links you need to catch up. So - *Saul from Homeland voice* - previously on A History of the Nazis...

1. The Art Of Seduction

2. To Be A Bandit

3. How To Be A Girl

4. Beliebers

5. No Time For Nazis

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Logo of a German collective who try to counter the influence of neo-Nazi groups on young people. Translates roughly as ‘No Time For Nazis’ 

There comes a point when you’re researching a book about Nazis when you, understandably, cannot bring yourself to read or watch another thing recounting the horrors. This got me thinking, why do we keep writing books and making films about the terrible things that happened? We must learn from the past, certainly, but will there come a time when we decide to bury that awful piece of history? I explain more in this article for Standard Issue

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Justin Bieber was my muse when writing The Big Lie. Seriously. That comment he left in the visitors’ book at Anne Frank’s house didn’t make me angry at all. I thought it showed insight. Seriously. And it got me thinking about teenage fandom and pop music and how that connects to the young girls who were seduced by Nazism. I explain more in this feature for Standard Issue. Read and Belieb!

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That piece of music Jess ice skates to? Here it is - Fantasie in G Major by Anton Bruckner.

I chose this song for two reasons. Firstly, because it fitted into Jess’s world. Hitler was a huge admirer of the 19th Century composer’s work, seeing him as great man dismissed by the Jewish elite, an unappreciated artist and a ‘pure German’, even though he was Austrian - very similar to how Hitler saw himself. Bruckner’s music would be played at Nuremberg before speeches, and the story of his life and career was manipulated by the Nazis to sell their own message.

As a a result, his music was little-played post war because of its associations.

So the second reason I chose this song was so Jess might reclaim it, use it for escape and give it connotations new...

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Recognise this book from The Big Lie? It’s the book Jess and Lilli had to read to learn about sex and relationships - and it really existed. Read more on this, and the popularity of handbooks for girls through history in my article for Standard Issue Magazine here

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Protest art from the exhibition at The Big Lie launch (credit: Spencer Wilson, Ben Jennings, Abbey Thornton)

I always start with visual images when writing a book - it helps me create the world and the mood of the novel in my head and heart. So it made sense to return to the visual image for the book’s launch, by curating a display of graphic art on the theme of politics and rebellion. Upcoming artist Abbey Thornton even took my approach in reverse - starting with words from The Big Lie and turning them into pictures.

Here’s my initial mood board (I hate that phrase but what else to call it...?) for The Big Lie...

Stuck on a writing project yourself? Go to a magazine and start tearing...

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Writing a book about history (even if it is set in the present) relies on a certain connection. Looking at photographs of the women who went before me, I would find myself trying to know them or trying to place myself beside them in their world. Would they be my friend? My rival? My hero? In another life I could have been Jess. In another life I could have been Clem. I could even have been the women on the right in this photograph, though I fear I'm not as strong as she is. As I explain in this Standard Issue article.... http://standardissuemagazine.com/arts/a-history-of-the-nazis-in-pictures-to-be-a-bandit/

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Nicole Kidman is about to take on the role of scientist Rosalind Franklin (above) in a new West End play.

Franklin’s part in the discovery of DNA was all but written out of history because she was a woman, so Photograph 51 sheds some light on her life and work.

In this interesting video about the play, Nicole Kidman talks about how women are still fighting for their voice in many fields of work. However, it’s what she says afterwards that intrigues me most: Kidman says that Franklin is particularly impressive because she saw no need to shout about her achievements.

“There is incredible virtue in not selling yourself on a superficial level and staying committed to what you do,” she says. “And that can be enough.”

Part of the reason I wrote The Big Lie is because I felt women’s voices from WW2 were rarely heard. But does it really matter - as long as we feel the effects of their achievements?

I would argue that if we want the next generation of women to feel they are able to change the world, they need to hear about the women who went before them.

But I suppose what Kidman is really arguing for is commitment. If you’re too busy Twittering about it, are you really doing it? 

I’ll leave you with that question and get off Tumblr...

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Familiar? Add some pink paint, and this is The Big Lie cover girl. Jessika, if you like. Of course, I have wondered who she really was and why she was chosen to be a poster girl for the regime. I harbour a desire to track her down…

Let me explain more - in this article for Standard Issue: http://standardissuemagazine.com/arts/a-history-of-the-nazis-in-pictures-the-art-of-seduction/

(This is the first in a series of articles documenting the things I discovered about the Nazis - and more importantly about us in today’s society - when writing the book. I’ll post the links as they go up.)

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Why is The Big Lie written from the point of view of an 18 year old girl? In this piece in Guardian Books, I explain...

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It was interesting to watch the footage from Pyongyang, North Korea as Slovenian group Laibach put on a show for a still and seated audience. Laibach, who performed their own songs, some Korean folk tunes and, oddly, A Sound Of Music medley, are the first foreign rock band to play a full concert in North Korea. Though the band wear military uniform on stage and use totalitarian political imagery in their artwork, they claim this is a critique of such ideaology, saying: “We are fascists as much as Hitler was a painter.” 

In The Big Lie, the inspiration for the Jay Acker concert came from Bruce Springsteen’s historic show behind the wall in 1988 which ignited the passions of East German youth, and more recently Madonna defending the actions of Pussy Riot while on stage in Putin’s Russia.

Pop music can often be thought of as disposable and meaningless, but I think its ability to stir emotion, start important conversations and to create community, particularly among young fans, should never be underestimated.