The memorial for the Bethnal Green Station disaster is located at the actual Bethnal Green Underground Station in London, United Kingdom. This memorial honours the one-hundred and seventy-three people who were crushed to death on the staircase leading to the underground station on the night of March 3, 1943 as they were seeking shelter from what they thought was an air raid but was in fact testing of a new weapon.[1] The memorial is a full-size replica of the Bethnal Green Station staircase wherein the staircase is made of teak and is suspended in an inverted position. All the victims' names are carved into the steps, and the inverted steps hang beside the existing steps of the Bethnal Green Station.[2] The memorial is suitably named "Stairway to Heaven"[3] to showcase the disaster and to honour the victims in a significant way. The importance of this memorial is that it finally allows people to openly talk about what happened, because at the time of the tragedy the government covered up the disaster to stop the enemy forces from using it as propaganda.[4] This cover up prevented people from talking about this tragic incident or to openly mourn the loss of their loved ones. Even though this disaster is the worst mass civilian casualty from World War Two and in the history of Britain ever, a memorial was only unveiled on December 17, 2017, seventy-four years after the tragedy occurred.[5] This memorial allows the survivors and the people of the East End of London to finally openly mourn the loss of so many people. This memorial also turns this disaster from being a dark secret from World War Two to be an important part of Britain's history.

[1] "Bethnal Green WW2 Tube Disaster Memorial Unveiled," BBC News (December 17, 2017), https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-london-42384399.

[2] Simon Edge, "Remembered at Last: The Victims Crushed to Death in a Wartime Tragedy that was Hushed Up," Express (November 24, 2014), https://www.express.co.uk/news/history/539490/Victims-crushed-bethnal-green-tube-WW2-memorial.

[3] "Bethnal Green WW2 Tube Disaster Memorial Unveiled," BBC News.

[4] Edge, "Remembered at Last," Express.

[5] Rushanara Ali, "74 Years Since the Bethnal Green Tube Disaster, Lessons Still Need to be Learned," The Guardian (December 16, 2017), https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/dec/16/74-years-bethnal-green-tube-disaster-aberfan-hillsborough-grenfell.

List of Sources

Ali, Rushanara. "74 Years Since the Bethnal Green Tube Disaster, Lessons Still Need to be Learned." The Guardian (December 16, 2017). https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/dec/16/74-years-bethnal-green-tube-disaster-aberfan-hillsborough-grenfell

"Bethnal Green WW2 Tube Disaster Memorial Unveiled." BBC News. (December 17, 2017). https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-london-42384399.

Edge, Simon. "Remembered at Last: The Victims Crushed to Death in a Wartime Tragedy that was Hushed Up." Express. (November 24, 2014). https://www.express.co.uk/news/history/539490/Victims-crushed-bethnal-green-tube-WW2-memorial.

During the Blitz of World War II, the Germans heavily bombed the residential areas, power stations, and warehouses located along the docks of the East End of London because this is where materials needed for the war were stored.[1] On October 7, 1940 there was an announcement in The Times that the government was going to establish air raid shelters for 1,000,000 Londoners to use every night and that a ticket system would be implemented to give priority to mothers and children.[2] The tube station in the Bethnal Green district was still under construction at the beginning of World War II and it became one of the largest underground air raid shelters as it could house up to 10,000 people.[3] Babette Clark recalls taking her bundle of bedding to the Bethnal Green underground shelter at night. While Babette describes the shelter as being a big East End community affair, she also vividly remembers the "horrible" smell of the buckets with chemicals in them for toilets.[4] Doris King remembers how dark it was in the tunnel and waking up in the morning with wet bedding from "the drips from the tunnel."[5] Bernard Kops lived near the docks and recalls sleeping in the underground tubes every night where "dignity and joy left the world" as families fought to keep to together on a three-foot section of concrete.[6] Bob Saxon only spent night in the tube station after his mom persuaded him to go because he looked so tired, and he only remembers that it "stank with fear."[7] Growing up as a child in the East End of London meant living through nightly bombings, having to sleep in dark, dank, and smelly underground shelters with no privacy and no space and being constantly afraid for one's life. These children also lost their families, their friends, and their homes. Not only was London scarred by the bombs, but the children of the Blitz were also traumatized and left with enduring psychological scarring from the war.

[1] "The 1943 Bethnal Green Tube Shelter Disaster: An Oral History," Bethnal Green Memorial Project, 2, http://www.bgmemorial.org.uk/index.php/find-resources/book.

[2] "Shelter Plans for London." The Times, 7 Oct. 1940, 4. The Times Digital Archive, http:/tinyurl.galegroup.com/tinyurl/9bAbS2.

[3] "The 1943 Bethnal Green Tube Shelter Disaster: An Oral History," Bethnal Green Memorial Project 2.

[4] "The 1943 Bethnal Green Tube Shelter Disaster: An Oral History," Bethnal Green Memorial Project 24.

[5] "The 1943 Bethnal Green Tube Shelter Disaster: An Oral History," Bethnal Green Memorial Project 25.

[6] Robert Westall, Children of the Blitz: Memories of Wartime Childhood, (Middlesex: Penguin Books Ltd., 1986), 107.

[7] "The 1943 Bethnal Green Tube Shelter Disaster: An Oral History," 24.

List of Sources

"Shelter Plans for London." The Times, 7 Oct. 1940, 4. The Times Digital Archive, http:/tinyurl.galegroup.com/tinyurl/9bAbS2. (Accessed 26 Mar. 2019).

"The 1943 Bethnal Green Tube Shelter Disaster: An Oral History." Bethnal Green Memorial Project. http://www.bgmemorial.org.uk/index.php/find-resources/book.

Westall, Robert. "Children of the Blitz: Memories of Wartime Childhood." Middlesex: Penguin Books Ltd., 1986.