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Professor Sir Ian Kershaw's The End (2011) marked his `final word' on the Nazi state and so concluded research that fundamentally changed public understanding of Nazi power. A key stage in this transformation came with the publication of Kershaw's definitive biography of Adolf Hitler (2 vols: 1998, 2000), which during the assessment period continued to shape how the Third Reich was taught in schools and universities. Through his concept, 'working towards the Führer', Kershaw's publications have shifted public understandings across Europe of Hitler's relationship with the German people. A variety of publishing formats, including TV collaborations and a major exhibition at the Deutsches Historisches Museum, Berlin, testify to the extent of the impact while responses to the research culminated with the Leipzig Book Award for European Understanding. Beyond the Nazi state, Kershaw's work has profoundly influenced contemporary understandings of the Holocaust by demonstrating the incorporation of ordinary citizens in the system of government that made it possible. His research has thus changed both scholarly and public understanding of the nature of Nazi power, within both Germany and the wider confines of occupied Europe. Kershaw's contribution to European reconciliation, as emphasised by the Leipzig Book Award judges [S4], lies in our deeper comprehension of the historical circumstances of the Second World War and the Holocaust, which has allowed current generations to come to terms with these events, both in Germany and elsewhere.
The research has had an impact on public understanding of the contested German past. Pathways include public lectures, radio broadcasts, newspaper coverage, and the production of two documentary films as well as A Level source materials and school textbook chapters. The reach has included diverse audiences in Europe, the USA, Australasia and elsewhere. It has improved the knowledge and understanding of students and teachers in the UK, professionals involved in public history activities in Germany and interested members of the public. In the Rhineland, it has led to changes in how the legacies of former officials are commemorated. The research has been of particular personal significance to people variously grappling with the continuing legacies of Nazism and the Holocaust, and the East German dictatorship.
This case study describes how David Cesarani's research on modern Jewish history and the Holocaust has informed Holocaust education in the UK and influenced policy debates around Holocaust memorialisation and post-Holocaust issues domestically and internationally. It illustrates how Cesarani, research professor in History and director of the Holocaust Research Centre (HRC), has engaged with research users through his role as first a Trustee of and more recently Historical Consultant to the Holocaust Memorial Day Trust, a consultant to the Holocaust Educational Trust, an adviser to the Foreign Office, and by his contribution of research expertise to television programmes seen in the UK and around the world.
Professor Rainer Schulze's research on the history of the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp provided a new analysis of the singular role of Bergen-Belsen in the system of Nazi concentration camps. This research informed a new permanent exhibition at the Gedenkstätte (memorial site) at Bergen-Belsen. The new exhibition has educated hundreds of thousands of visitors since it opened in 2007, and has improved the reputation of the Gedenkstätte, allowing it to secure a donation from the Berlin Bundesregierung of €1million and to incr ease its permanent staff number. In the UK, Schulze's work has had effects on the teaching of Holocaust history in the UK, achieved through his participation in the annual University of Essex Holocaust Awareness week, his Key Stage 3 and 4 and A-Level workshops, and the establishment of the Dora Love Prize for schools in 2012.
Professor Gilbert Achcar's book The Arabs and the Holocaust: The Arab-Israeli War of Narratives has produced considerable impact outside of academia, greatly informing public understanding and debate around the Arab-Israeli conflict, particularly concerning Holocaust denial in the Arab world and the charge that Israel uses the tragedy to its own advantage yet ignores the on-going displacement of Palestinians. The impact of his work is evidenced by substantial book sales, numerous reviews and interviews in the popular press, online debate in the Jewish press and blog postings, and invitations to Achcar to discuss his work on TV and radio, and to advise on documentaries and films exploring this issue.
Speaking in 2012, David Cameron declared proudly that the Great War is `a fundamental part of our national consciousness'. But what is acknowledged far less is the role of minority groups in the conflict. Jews, national minorities and colonial troops all fought and died at the front. Tim Grady has helped to push this knowledge to the centre of the public's understanding. His talks, magazine articles, podcasts and consultancy work have raised awareness of the diverse range of voices involved in the First World War, highlighting the impact of other combatants, as well as the involvement of the Jewish community.
Research on Nazi Germany and specifically its appropriation of Jewish-owned art led to Professor Sir Richard Evans's appointment to the Spoliation Advisory Panel of the Department for Culture, Media and Sport, which resolves claims for cultural objects lost during the Nazi era. As the only historian on the Panel, Professor Evans has used his research to provide expert advice that has played a significant role in shaping the five reports and recommendations published by the Panel since 2008. This has resulted in the resolution of a number of disputes and played a role in the ongoing process of reconciliation following the Second World War. In 2012 Professor Evans was appointed Deputy Chairman of the Panel. He played a significant part in the deliberations of the Panel that led to the drafting of the Holocaust (Return of Cultural Objects) Act 2009.
David Robb's research into folk and protest song has an impact on a wider public through its promotion at music clubs and festivals and in its use in political education in schools. The context for the impact is the general political climate in Germany since the Second World War where protest song has been supported at a national level as `democratic' heritage. Questionnaires from a recent workshop revealed how teachers have made use of Robb's recent on-line research project to promote a democratic consciousness amongst pupils. His research has also influenced the song repertoires of folk groups and performers.
Academic work carried out at the University of Southampton's Parkes Institute has greatly raised public awareness and understanding of the Holocaust. The research has challenged audiences to reflect on the individual consequences of discrimination and urges them to recognise and respond to the continuing contemporary dangers of genocide. Through various projects, the research has impacted upon international audiences: with a website averaging 24,000 hits per month; with museum exhibitions, for close to three million visitors; and with research-based study-days for school and adult learners. Throughout, the work emphasises the devastation wrought by the Holocaust on `ordinary' people, and reflects upon the `ordinariness' of genocide in the twentieth century.
Bill Niven is a public history practitioner, and an acknowledged expert on war and post-war Germany. The Buchenwald Child was a particularly well-known national story. It was based on wartime events but written up in the post 1945 period, where it was used by the socialist Deutsche Demokratische Republik (GDR) to demonstrate its antifascist roots and prove its sympathy towards Holocaust victims. Niven's study revealed that this much lauded story was largely founded on myth shaped by the exigencies of the Cold War (i.e. the need to prove that the GDR was the `better' Germany). His work started a major re-evaluation that stretched, as was always intended, beyond the boundaries of academia into the public domains of national identity formation within the context of reconciling the present with Germany's National Socialist and post 1945 divided pasts. This reassessment has taken the form of public discussion in the German media (newspapers, radio, TV), including a one-hour TV documentary film based largely on the book and including interviews with the Buchenwald Child himself, Niven and the director of Buchenwald Memorial Site. A paperback version of Niven's book was produced and distributed by Germany's Federal Centre for Political Education. It has since triggered discussion within organisations representing veteran survivors of the camp.