Parallel Lines by Peter Lantos

Author:Peter Lantos [Peter Lantos]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781909807341
Publisher: Arcadia Books Limited
Published: 2013-12-11T16:00:00+00:00

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The Imperial War Museum, previously a psychiatric hospital in Lambeth, South London, in addition to housing permanent displays and temporary exhibitions, is the guardian of an archive: a unique collection of documents relating to the two world wars and other military campaigns in which the United Kingdom and countries of the Commonwealth fought from 1914 onwards. It is there that I found further information on Bergen-Belsen.

The museum’s Reading Room is in the former chapel of the hospital. It is an octagonal room flooded with light from eight large semicircular windows in the dome. From the floor, on either side, a spiral staircase leads to a gallery, which runs along five walls: it is supported by six slender columns. If the visitor’s suspicions as to the original function of this room are not immediately aroused by these architectural hints, a quick glance at the wall beneath the dome where the altar once must have stood clearly confirms it: the Ten Commandments, written in large gold lettering on a black background.

‘Thou shalt do no murder.’

‘Thou shalt not steal.’

‘Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour’s house.’

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