What life was really like under the Nazi jackboot.

Byline: Mark Chillingworth

What life was really like under the Nazi jackboot

Turn the television on or browse the shelves of the history section of any bookshop and you'll realise that history as a subject is undergoing a renaissance. The renewed interest is driven by a change of focus in history. Gone are the endless chronologies of war and politics. Instead, history now focuses on what it was like to be an ordinary person living in a Victorian house, or the stories of almost forgotten people whose efforts changed the world we live in, such as the American murderers who helped compile the Oxford English Dictionary, the surveyor who created geology, and a host of previously unrecognised explorers and gardeners.

The information industry too has recognised the shift in interest by historians, students and academics. Conditions and Politics in Occupied Western Europe 1940-1945 is the latest database from academic specialist Thomson Learning. The database is the result of a collaboration between Thomson and the National Archives. The latter has the content deep in its Kew headquarters while Thomson has brought to bear on the information its considerable experience at producing search and navigation technology.

Thomson describes the database as an attempt to reveal the "hidden history" of Europe during World War II to provide a new perspective on the

politics, diplomacy and everyday life during the war in the occupied countries.

All the content is based on National Archives file FO371, which is made up of the information available to the British government at the time. Countries covered include occupied Belgium, Denmark, France, Luxembourg, the Netherlands and Norway, as well as Mussolini's Italy. There is also information on neutral states such as Portugal, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland.