Witness History Folgen

New York housewife, Jean Nidetch, started by simply talking to her friends about how to lose weight. They weighed each other and swapped dietary advice, but soon Weight Watchers had turned into a franchise. Ashley Byrne has been speaking to Lauren Cohen who joined in the 1960s and eventually became a 'trainer' leading her own Weight Watchers group.Photo: Jean Nidetch in 1969. Credit Alamy.

In May 1972, the controversial American populist politician, George Wallace, was shot while running for President of the United States. The governor of Alabama had made his name as a supporter of segregation during the civil rights era. Simon Watts talks to his son, George Wallace Junior, author of "Governor George Wallace - The Man You Never Knew"PHOTO: Governor George Wallace, in 1963, rejecting a federal government order to allow black students into the University of Alabama (Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

In May 1981, documents surfaced that eventually led to the trial of the most senior French official to be convicted of war crimes during the German occupation of France in the Second World War. Former government minister, Maurice Papon, who was considered the most distinguished civil servant of his generation, went on trial twenty years ago for helping the Nazis to deport French Jews. He was sentenced to ten years in jail. Louise Hidalgo has been talking to American academic Stephanie Hare who did a series of interviews with Maurice Papon after his release.Picture: Maurice Papon in October 1997, shortly after his trial for war crimes opened. (Credit: Francois Guillot/AFP/Getty Images)