Sally Coulter has been volunteering with the IBCC Digital Archive since September 2021. She has produced detailed, accurate, and highly readable summaries of items in French and German. A wealth of previously inaccessible information is now discoverable, allowing users to get a good sense of the content without reading pages and pages of text. We asked Sally to reflect on her valuable contribution, which she kindly did.
The IBCC Digital Archive team
My father served as a pilot and navigator in the RAF during the Second World War, hence my interest in the work of the IBCC. I knew very little about his experiences, other than he went to Canada for his training. My mother explained that he rarely talked about his war time experiences; too many people he knew were no longer there.
We were very impressed by the volunteer guides when we visited the IBCC; they were interesting, knowledgeable and had a good sense of humour. The website piqued my interest in volunteering and I was impressed with the number of interesting avenues for volunteering.
After taking early retirement, my volunteering started after I received a delightful email from the IBCC Digital Archive staff. They noticed that I had a French degree and enquired whether I would be interested in summarising French documents into English. Staff provided gentle guidance, a lot of encouragement and positive feedback, which has made the whole experience enjoyable and fulfilling. There has been no pressure to fit the work into any timescales; the pace is entirely up to me and can be done from home.
There has been such a variety of material: newspaper articles, propaganda, newsletters, letters, posters, leaflets, flyers. I have also summarised a number of German documents, some in Gothic script, and have deciphered signatures. I have even looked at some English captions from Italian for a wonderful collection of artworks.
The IBCC website has the strapline of ‘A story of discovery, education, and remembrance’. This has been my experience of volunteering. I have learnt so much about the Second World War, often looking up and learning about the places and protagonists described in the articles. It has taught me about the power of propaganda and shown how conflict today has many resonances with the past. Individuals have gained an identity and it has brought history to life. I have hopefully enabled people to search the website by identifying names, places, significant dates and events. I have found it hugely rewarding and have enjoyed putting my knowledge of languages to good use.