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.

This week, a dilemma for black police officers during the Miami riots of 1980. And then I thought, but wait a minute, if I quit, that's

one less of us who's there to try to make sure that things change.

Plus the extraordinary history of Kowloon Walled City in Hong Kong,

a breakthrough in our understanding of autism,

and the man who invented the 3D printer.

All of the other engineers and sciences go, oh you can't trust that

computer modeling, you know. But pretty soon I was kind of running circles around all these

other guys. That's all coming up later in the podcast. But first an item from the past which calls to mind much more recent

events. During times of crisis in the UK, like the current pandemic, the Second World War

is often remembered as a period when the country rallied together to fight a common enemy.

British politicians still refer to the so-called Blitz spirit when they appeal for national unity.

But how real is that image of plucky Londoners working together in a crisis?

Well as Simon Watts has been finding out from the BBC Archives,

there was in fact a crime wave during the war years with a massive increase in looting and black marketeering.

In March 1941 the German Air Force bombed the Cafe de Peri nightclub in central London.

Then the city's most glamorous venue, it was full of aristocrats and stars of show business,

even during the Blitz.

The waiter was standing behind me, pouring out the champagne

over my shoulder for me to sample it when the bomb burst.

34 revelers were killed by the blast

...