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Birkbeck historian appointed to UK Holocaust Memorial Foundation academic advisory board

Professor Nikolaus Wachsmann will advise on the content of the UK Holocaust Memorial and Learning Centre, an initiative backed by all former British Prime Ministers.

Professor Nikolaus Wachsmann who has been appointed to the academic advisory board of the UK Holocaust Memorial Foundation

Professor Nikolaus Wachsmann from Birkbeck’s Department of History, Classics and Archaeology has been appointed to the academic advisory board of the UK Holocaust Memorial Foundation, where he will advise on the content of the UK Holocaust Memorial and Learning Centre. The initiative has been backed by all living former Prime Ministers – Sir John Major, Tony Blair, Gordon Brown, David Cameron and Theresa May – to ensure we never forget one of the darkest chapters in human history.

Author of the award winning KL: A History of the Nazi Concentration Camps, Wachsmann’s research focuses on deviance and discipline in modern Germany, with a particular focus on repression and resistance during the Third Reich. Having worked on the regular Nazi legal system, with its courts and prisons, he has since studied extra-legal terror, looking at the emergence and development of the Nazi concentration camp system.

He said: “It is an honour to support the mission of the UK Holocaust Memorial Foundation to further the understanding of the Holocaust and preserve its memory – this is more urgent than ever at a time when anti-Semitism is on the rise and the last survivors of the Holocaust are falling silent.”

The United Kingdom Holocaust Memorial is dedicated to the six million Jewish men, women and children murdered in the Holocaust and all other victims of the Nazis and their collaborators. The Learning Centre will focus on the Holocaust and subsequent genocides and will educate future generations on the importance of fighting prejudice and persecution in all its forms.

Announcing £25 million of funding for the centre, former Prime Minister Theresa May said: “By putting our National Holocaust Memorial and Education Centre next to our Parliament, we make a solemn and eternal promise that Britain will never forget what happened in the Holocaust.

“Seeing this through is a sacred, national mission. In the face of despicable Holocaust denial, this Memorial will stand to preserve the truth forever.

“And this education centre will ensure that every generation understands the responsibility that we all share – to fight against hatred and prejudice in all its forms, wherever it is found.”

Professor Wachsmann currently convenes the MA in Contemporary History and Politics, and teaches on a number of modules, including: The Contemporary World (BA), The Birth of Modern Germany (BA), The Third Reich (BA), Mastering Historical Research (MA), The Nazi Capture of Power (MA), The Holocaust (MA), and Auschwitz in History and Memory (MA).

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