Bayeux Tapestry: the lost Nazi archive
Witness History

Bayeux Tapestry: the lost Nazi archive

B2Upper-intermediateSeptember 9, 202610 min
  • History

In 1994, documents from a Nazi study of the Bayeux Tapestry were rediscovered after more than 50 years. Former curator of the tapestry, Sylvette Lemagnen, tells Helen Ledwick how the missing archive was found and returned to Bayeux, revealing new details about a wartime investigation into one of the world's most famous medieval artworks. Witness History is a short BBC World Service podcast about history that takes you inside big moments from the past through first-hand testimony and archive. Each weekday, in around nine minutes, we revisit one moment that helped shape the world and hear it...

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wherever you get your BBC podcasts. And now I'm taking you back to 1994 for a surprising

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the French curator who refused to believe it had disappeared.

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  • 94% of the words are B1 or easier.
  • 140 words a minute: a natural pace.
  • 53 harder words (B2 and up) in the whole episode.

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1:00

Hello, this is Witness History from the BBC World Service with me, Helen Ledwick. And if this is one of your favourite podcasts already, you know the deal. If you're new, then welcome. We're the podcast that takes you back to a moment in history by speaking to those who are actually there. Episodes come out every weekday so why not subscribe

1:30

wherever you get your BBC podcasts. And now I'm taking you back to 1994 for a surprising twist in the long history of the biotapistry. It's the story of a lost Nazi archive and the French curator who refused to believe it had disappeared. I'm a pilot of Silvert-le-Manion.

1:53

I'm a conservator of the tapestry of the very first trontons. My name is Silvert-le-Manion. I was a chief curator of the biotapistry for almost 30 years. And I'm still passionate about the tales,

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