The Charlie Hebdo attack and the art of decluttering

The History Hour

BBC

History, Society & Culture, Personal Journals

4.4 • 879 Ratings

🗓️ 11 January 2025

⏱️ 51 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Max Pearson presents a collection of the week’s Witness History episodes.

We hear a first-hand account of the attack at the offices of French satirical magazine, Charlie Hebdo.

Our expert guest is Dr Chris Millington, who leads the Histories and Cultures of Conflict research group at Manchester Metropolitan University.

We also hear about Swedish diplomat Raoul Wallenberg who saved thousands of Hungarian Jews during World War Two.

Plus, the Bosphorus boat spotter tracking Russian military trucks in Turkey.

Russian military trucks on a civilian ship bound for Syria.

Also, the Norwegian man who invented the hotel key card in the 1970s.

Finally, we’re sparking joy with Japanese tidying expert Marie Kondo.

Contributors:

Riss – Charlie Hebdo cartoonist.

Dr Chris Millington - Histories and Cultures of Conflict research group at Manchester Metropolitan University.

Yörük Işık – boat spotter.

Archive recordings from 2015.

Anders – son of Tor Sornes.

Marie Kondo - organising consultant.

(Photo: Charlie Hebdo mural. Credit: Christopher Furlong/Getty Images)

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Hello and welcome to the History Hour podcast from the BBC World Service with me, Max Pearson, the past brought to life by those who were there.
0:13.4	This week, 10 years on, the attack on the French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo.
0:18.9	After the first shots were fired, I heard a voice that said,
0:23.1	Not the women, not the women.
0:26.1	So it was obviously the voice of the gunman.
0:29.6	Also, Raul Wollembourg, the Swedish diplomat,
0:32.7	who saved thousands of Hungarian Jews during the Second World War.
0:36.8	He invented what we call the protection passports,
0:39.7	and that was a piece of paper with the minister's signature and the photo and all that,
0:44.2	telling everybody that this man or woman is under our protection.
0:47.6	We'll also look at how hard evidence of Russian military involvement in Syria first emerged,
0:53.7	and we're sparking joy with the Japanese tidying expert Marie Kondo.
0:58.2	Now is a good opportunity for you to tidying.
1:02.1	I wish I could be there to help you tidy up your home.
1:06.7	But first, as I mentioned, the people of France have just marked the 10th anniversary
1:10.8	of an event which shocked the nation and made headlines around the world.
1:15.3	On the 7th of January 2015, 12 people were shot dead at the offices of a satirical magazine in Paris.
1:22.5	The two gunmen had targeted Charlie Ebdo because it had published cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad.
1:28.8	Rachel Naler has been speaking to the cartoonist, Reese, who was shot in the shoulder during that attack.
1:34.6	We started to discuss all the topics of the week.
1:38.4	Michel Wehlbeck had a book out, so we were discussing that.
1:43.2	And then we also started talking about young people
	...

Transcript will be available on the free plan in -76 days. Upgrade to see the full transcript now.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from BBC, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of BBC and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.