Jake Wallis Simons is a novelist, journalist and broadcaster. His most recent novel, The English German Girl – about the Kindertransport – won the Fiction Uncovered award, and received widespread critical acclaim. He writes regular features for the national press, and broadcasts for BBC Radio 4.
Imagine for a moment that, for whatever reason, you find yourself to be in possession of a case of monogrammed surgical instruments that in 1943-44 had been used by SS Maj Anton Burger on the inmates of the notorious Theresienstadt concentration camp. Lined with purple velour, the case contains a hacksaw, large knives, some scalpels, surgical scissors, clamps and straps, and some strange instruments that look like long-handled forks. Burger – who, it seems, had no medical training – used them on countless victims, mostly Jewish. What do you do with such an object?
By Jake Wallis Simons | Notebook - A selection of Independent views -, Opinion | Wednesday, 8 February 2012 at 1:17 pm
Nine decades ago, on February 2 1922, Ulysses was born. It arrived in a handsome turquoise cover, its face embossed in gold. (At least, it did in Paris. In the UK it remained banned for a further fourteen years, on account of a masturbation scene.)
By Jake Wallis Simons | Arts - News, notes and quotes on the Arts world - | Wednesday, 25 January 2012 at 8:46 am
Bedales School – a progressive, co-educational public school in the heart of Hampshire – is well-known for its famous alumni. Lily Allen, Sophie Dahl and Minnie Driver were all educated there, and celebrity parents include Mick Jagger, Jude Law, Jeremy Paxman and Boris Johnson.
By Jake Wallis Simons | Notebook - A selection of Independent views - | Friday, 11 November 2011 at 12:00 am
1How the Mail Online turned us into misogyny addicts
2It was Bayern who denied the Germans victory in the Champions League final, not Chelsea
3Charitable rape: Peacekeepers’ dirty little secrets
4Islam is not “the enemy” – irrational hatred is
5The next couple of months could shape the future of Arsene Wenger’s Arsenal
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