Was Evacuation a success?

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EVACUATION

Q1)

Source B is a black and white photograph taken in September 1939. The source being a photograph has many uses; it provides one with a virtual image of the happenings. It provides a lot of information as it allows historians to see what actually happened. Source B shows evacuees going to a train station in London ready with their belongings to be evacuated to the countryside. The photograph is very useful as it shows that evacuation was a great success. It shows that the evacuees are happy with being evacuated, and this can clearly be seen in the source as the mass number of evacuees are scurrying towards the train station and are smiling and waving at the camera. This shows that the evacuees were happy with being evacuated and it also shows that a great deal of evacuees were evacuated and they were happy with the idea. Furthermore, it can also be seen in Source B that the evacuees were very well supervised as they were being evacuated. All this shows that from Source B it can be clearly seen that evacuation was a great success. Apart from this I can also say that evacuation was a great success based on my own knowledge. I believe that evacuation wad a great success because it saved a lot of lives. It saved lives of the evacuees because they were away from being targeted by Nazi’s as civilians. In addition to this it improved morale of the workers as they knew their children were safe and they could concentrate on their jobs. Also the children who were evacuated had access to clean food and water, they also had medicine and were still able to go to school.

Then again, as well as being useful, Source B does have its limitations. The photograph could have been staged just to show the workers that there children were safe and happy. If this was the case then the Source is still useful in the sense that it shows us to what extent and level the government took propaganda to. Also it shows us what the government wanted people to think. Furthermore, if the photo was staged then it is also useful because it could show us that evacuation was not a success because the government had to lie to the people just to prove to them that there children were safe and happy and they would only have to lie if they had something to hide.

Source C also shows us that evacuation was moderately successful as well as having some bad points. Source C is an interview with a teacher which took place in 1988. I believe this source is very useful as the teacher who is being interviewed is speaking from personal experience as she was there at the time. The interview was taken some time after the evacuation; almost 50 years. So this somewhat makes the useful a little unreliable as it is quite hard for someone to recall events exactly as they were 50 years later. However, this could be a good thing as it gives the interviewee plenty of time to reflect, think and make a correct judgement. Also the full interview is not shown so does not allow us to see exactly all the good and bad things and what the teachers overall views were of evacuation.

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In addition to this, it is hard for one to actual use this source as we do not know the purpose behind the interview being taken, and we do not know if the teacher is telling the truth. This shows some of the source’s limitations.

From the two sources, I personally believe that source B is much more reliable as it is a virtual image of the happenings and it supports the views of many historians who believe that evacuation was a great success. Furthermore, I doubt that the photograph was a form of propaganda as the ...

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