The Nazi concentration camps: an online resource
Lead Research Organisation:
Birkbeck, University of London
Department Name: History Classics and Archaeology
Abstract
The proposed research will create the first major online resource about the Nazi concentration camps. The historical significance of the camps is beyond doubt. They stood at the heart of Nazi terror, playing a major role in the establishment of the Third Reich, the eradication of resistance, the assault on social outsiders and, most critically, the war against the Jews. And yet, popular understanding of the camps and the Holocaust remains sketchy. These gaps in popular knowledge are caused, in part, by the difficulty of accessing reliable information and documentation. The project will help to address this issue. In collaboration with the UCL Centre for Holocaust Education, it will use new technologies to bring the camps' history to students, educators and the general public.
Planned Impact
Politicians and other public figures agree that the Holocaust holds an important place in public memory and national culture. In January 2015, the Prime Minister's Holocaust Commission proposed measures to improve knowledge of the Holocaust, by teaching young people about the historical facts and the humanity of the victims. The project website about the Nazi camps will contribute to this endeavor, providing an important digital source of information about the Holocaust and the Third Reich. The website is geared, in the first place, to teachers and students in British secondary schools, helping them to expand their knowledge of the Nazi camps and to assist in lesson planning. Secondly, it will benefit lecturers and students at British universities working on the history of the Third Reich and the Holocaust. Finally, the website will benefit members of the general public - both nationally and internationally - interested in the history of the Nazi camps and the Holocaust. Awareness of the website will be raised in different ways, with details of its launch disseminated via schools, universities, museums, libraries and memorial sites, as well as other websites dedicated to teaching and to the history of the Third Reich.
People |
ORCID iD |
| Nikolaus Wachsmann (Principal Investigator) |
| Description | The award has resulted in the creation of a free online educational resource about the Nazi concentration camps (http://www.camps.bbk.ac.uk). The website includes a general introduction about the history of the Nazi camps, in-depth surveys of specific themes (such as daily life, resistance and liberation), and over 120 original documents (each introduced separately). In addition, the site features over two dozen testimonies by survivors, perpetrators and bystanders (mostly video recordings), as well as documentary films, key data on individual Nazi camps, dozens of images and maps (including an interactive map charting the development of the camp system) and an interactive timeline. The website also includes guidance to further reading, archives and memorials, as well as lesson plans (based on the sources on the website) for use in the classroom. This is the first authoritative website about the history of the Nazi camps, bringing together the latest academic research and a vast array of primary source materials. While the camps stood at the centre of Nazi terror, popular understanding remains sketchy. This is true, not least, for young people: Nazi terror is an important topic on the school syllabus, and yet a recent nationwide revealed major gaps in basic student knowledge. This is partly because material on the internet - the primary access point for most seeking information about the camps - is extremely scattered and often unreliable. The new website for the first time offers a reliable resource for students, teachers and members of the general public who want to learn about one of the darkest chapters in modern history. |
| Exploitation Route | The website informs work by pupils, students, educators and scholars, as the material can be used for a wide range of projects on Nazi terror and the Holocaust, from school assignments to academic study and commemoration activities. The website will continue to evolve and expand, with dedicated workshops with school teachers producing additional lesson plans. |
| Sectors | Education,Government, Democracy and Justice,Culture, Heritage, Museums and Collections |
| URL | http://www.camps.bbk.ac.uk |
| Description | The public launch of the website, attended by almost 200 people (mostly teachers, students and educators), contributed to public understanding of the value of researching and teaching the Holocaust (as evidenced by a post-event survey). Since the launch of the website, the PI has given numerous professional development courses to well over 400 secondary school teachers about the website, at courses and workshops run (respectively) by the UCL Centre for Holocaust Education, the Holocaust Education Trust UK, the Holocaust Education Trust Ireland, the University of Texas and the Wiener Library. These seminars have raised awareness of the website and the complex history of the camps among UK teachers (as evidenced by a post-event surveys). Since launch, the website is seeing significant use, both nationally and internationally. As of 14 March 2022, more than 150,000 individual sessions have been logged since the launch in November 2016, with users learning about the history of the camps and downloading documents. Some 30% of users are returning users, which speaks to the utility of the site. The website section with translated documents, introduced and contextualized by the PI, is proving especially popular, with over 30,000 users to date. Analytics show that these users consult the documents for more than 10 minutes on average. Site analytics also show that the teaching resources (including three unique lesson plans) are popular, with well over 4,000 logged sessions, indicating their ongoing use by teachers and educators. The site has developed a truly international following. While the great majority of users initially come from the UK, the site has since gained an international reputation. To date, almost half of all sessions have originated from the US, 26% from the UK and 13% from Australia and Canada. Further usage of the site will continue to deepen popular understanding, dispel misconceptions and highlight the complexities of the camp system. |
| First Year Of Impact | 2016 |
| Sector | Education,Culture, Heritage, Museums and Collections |
| Impact Types | Cultural,Societal |
| Description | Birkbeck College Impact Seed Fund |
| Amount | £1,500 (GBP) |
| Organisation | Birkbeck, University of London |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 02/2019 |
| End | 06/2019 |
| Description | UCL Centre for Holocaust Education |
| Organisation | University College London |
| Department | Centre for Holocaust Education |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| PI Contribution | I have offered expertise and intellectual input, by developing and reviewing lesson plans about the Nazi camps with the UCL Centre. The lesson plans are free to download for teachers from the project website. I have offered expertise and intellectual input during professional development courses for secondary school teachers, run by the Centre for Holocaust Education and held at the Institute of Education, London. |
| Collaborator Contribution | The UCL Centre is the only institution worldwide to combine research into Holocaust education with teacher training and development. The UCL Centre advised on the design and content of the project website, during frequent meetings and discussions with the PI, and a consultation meeting with the web designers. The UCL Centre facilitated the testing of the prototype website at a school in London, involving teachers and students. Feedback was very valuable for the further development of the website before launch. The UCL Centre co-hosted the public launch of the website in London in November 2016, which included a public lecture and a panel discussion on the challenges and future of Holocaust education. The UCL Centre helped to publicise the event among teachers and educators and participated in the panel discussion. The UCL Centre has publicised the project website among teachers and educators across the country. The UCL Centre and the PI are organising two professional development courses for secondary school teachers (to take place later in 2017) on teaching the Nazi camps, which will be built around the project website. |
| Impact | Project website: the first major online resource about the Nazi concentration camps Public lecture and panel discussion on the challenges and future of Holocaust education, attended by almost 200 people and streamed online. Video recording available on the project website. Professional development courses for secondary school teachers on the history of the Nazi camps |
| Start Year | 2016 |
| Description | CPD course for school teachers (Holocaust Educational Trust) |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Schools |
| Results and Impact | In February 2018, the PI gave a 90 minute training session on "Teaching the Nazi Concentration Camps" to UK school teachers, at a Residential CPD Course "Exploring the Holocaust" (in Leicester) run by the Holocaust Educational Trust. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
| URL | http://www.camps.bbk.ac.uk |
| Description | CPD course for school teachers (Holocaust Educational Trust) |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Schools |
| Results and Impact | In February 2019, the PI gave a 90 minute training session on "Teaching the Nazi Concentration Camps" to UK school teachers, at a Residential CPD Course "Exploring the Holocaust" (in Leicester) run by the Holocaust Educational Trust. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
| URL | http://www.camps.bbk.ac.uk |
| Description | CPD course for school teachers (Institute of Education) |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Schools |
| Results and Impact | Each year, the UCL Centre for Holocaust Education organises a residential course for teachers from 20 secondary schools from across the country, who receive training to improve teaching standards, raise pupil awareness, and strengthen the provision of Holocaust education. As part of the course in 2016, held at the Institute of Education (London), the PI gave a one-hour presentation about the Nazi camps and the new project website, followed by a Q&A. In written feedback, all respondents indicated that they would be likely to use the new website, highlighting the provision of documents, maps and video testimonies as particularly useful resources for changing student perceptions about the Holocaust. Most respondents also asked to be involved in the further development of the website. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2016 |
| URL | http://www.camps.bbk.ac.uk |
| Description | CPD course for school teachers (Institute of Education) |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Schools |
| Results and Impact | Each year, the UCL Centre for Holocaust Education (Institute of Education) organizes a residential course for teachers from some 20 secondary schools from across the country, who receive training to improve teaching standards, raise pupil awareness, and strengthen the provision of Holocaust education. As part of the course in 2017, the PI gave a one-hour presentation about the Nazi camps and the project website, followed by a Q&A. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
| URL | http://www.camps.bbk.ac.uk |
| Description | CPD course for school teachers (Institute of Education) |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Schools |
| Results and Impact | Each year, the UCL Centre for Holocaust Education (Institute of Education) organises a residential course for teachers from some 20 secondary schools from across the country, who receive training to improve teaching standards, raise pupil awareness, and strengthen the provision of Holocaust education. As part of the course in 2018, the PI gave a one-hour presentation about the Nazi camps and the new project website, followed by a Q&A. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
| URL | http://www.camps.bbk.ac.uk |
| Description | CPD course for school teachers (Wiener Library) |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Schools |
| Results and Impact | At an all-day CPD for History Teachers at The Wiener Library (the worlds' oldest archive of material on the Holocaust and the Nazi era) on "Sources, Archives, Evidence and the Teaching of the Holocaust", the PI gave a session on the Nazi camps and the educational website. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
| URL | http://www.camps.bbk.ac.uk |
| Description | CPD for teachers in Ireland, Holocaust Education Trust Ireland |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Schools |
| Results and Impact | In August 2019, the PI delivered a 90 mins session about the history of the Nazi camps, using the AHRC-funded website, for the Holocaust Education Trust Ireland, as part of their summer school "Teaching the Holocaust" (at Trinity College Dublin). Most participants were Irish secondary school teachers (and one American teacher) of history, religion, English and civics. There are also two PhD students, two members of the Irish police service (Gardai), a youth theatre worker, a behavioural psychologist working with youth groups and a pastor. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
| URL | http://www.camps.bbk.ac.uk |
| Description | CPD teacher traning (University of Texas) |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Schools |
| Results and Impact | In June 2019, the PI gave a 90-minute workshop on the history of the Nazi camps, using the AHRC-website, to secondary school teachers and educators in the USA, as part of the CPD course Teaching the Holocaust in the 21st Century, at the University of Texas. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
| URL | http://www.camps.bbk.ac.uk |
| Description | Free educational website: the first major online resource about the Nazi concentration camps |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Engagement focused website, blog or social media channel |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Schools |
| Results and Impact | The activity involved the creation of the first major authoritative online educational resource about the Nazi concentration camps. The site is free to access, and is directed at teachers and students in British secondary schools, students and lecturers in British and foreign universities, and members of the general public. Developed in collaboration with teachers, pupils and educators, the website contains over 120 translated documents that shed light on key themes such as perpetrators, prisoner relations and resistance. Drawing on the latest academic scholarship, the site also includes historical surveys, maps, timelines and teaching aids (including lesson plans). Providing personal and direct insights, the site features some two dozen film and audio testimonies by survivors, including rare early post-war accounts. User testing of the website, carried out in November 2016 in the Bishop Challoner Catholic Federation of Schools (London), generated an extremely positive response, with pupils agreeing that the new site would help them better understand the Nazi camps. Since the website went live, we have received similarly positive feedback from university students, teachers (Open University: "a fantastic resource that will be so useful for students"), memorials (US Holocaust Memorial Museum: "deserves the widest possible exposure") as well as educators (Holocaust Educational Trust: "an excellent resource"). Interest from school teachers in the website is high, as evidence by feedback from CPD course and teacher conferences, where the PI regularly presents the website. Teachers are also using the detailed lesson plans provided on the website, with more than 4,000 lesson plan downloads so far. Internet usage analytics of the website demonstrate the website's significant reach. In all, there have been over 150,000-page views since launch (21 Nov 2016 - 14 March 2022). Some 30% of users are returning users, which speaks to the perceived utility of the site. The website section with translated documents, introduced and contextualised by the PI, is proving especially popular, with well over 30,000 individual users consulting them to date. Analytics show that these users consult the documents for more than 10 minutes on average. While the great majority of users initially come from the UK, the site has since gained a real international reputation. To date, almost half of all sessions have originated from the US, 26% from the UK and 13% from Australia and Canada. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2016 |
| URL | http://www.camps.bbk.ac.uk |
| Description | Lecture at Holocaust Education Trust Annual Ambassador Conference |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Schools |
| Results and Impact | Every year, hundreds of secondary school students attend the Holocaust Education Trust Ambassador Conference to deepen their knowledge about the Holocaust. At the 2019 conference, the PI gave a workshop about the Nazi camps, using documents and maps from the project website. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
| URL | http://www.camps.bbk.ac.uk |
| Description | Lecture at Holocaust Education Trust Annual Ambassador Conference |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Schools |
| Results and Impact | Every year, hundreds of secondary school students attend the Holocaust Education Trust Ambassador Conference to deepen their knowledge about the Holocaust. At the 2018 conference, the PI gave a lecture about the Nazi camps, using documents and maps from the project website. The lecture was also attended by Prof Deborah Lipstadt (who fought an important libel case against Holocaust denier David Irving), whom will use the website with her students at the University of Atlanta. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
| URL | http://www.camps.bbk.ac.uk |
| Description | Lecture at national teacher conference |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Schools |
| Results and Impact | On 7 July 2017, the PI gave a one-hour lecture entitled "Teaching the Nazi Concentration Camps" at the Annual Conference of the Schools History Project (sponsored by OCR), at Leeds Trinity University. The lecture introduced teachers to the history of the camps and the educational website. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
| URL | http://www.camps.bbk.ac.uk |
| Description | Public lecture and panel discussion: Understanding the Nazi camps and the Holocaust |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Schools |
| Results and Impact | The new educational website on the Nazi camps was launched at a public event in Senate House, London, in November 2017. Following an introductory lecture by the PI about the Nazi camps and the new website, a panel of historians and educators discussed the challenges and future of Holocaust education. The panel included: Prof. Sir Richard J. Evans, President of Wolfson College, Cambridge, and former Regius Professor of History; Prof. David Feldman, Director of the Pears Institute for the study of Antisemitism; Tom Haward, Lecturer in History and Holocaust Education, UCL Centre for Holocaust Education, London; Yiftach Meiri, European Department, International School for Holocaust Studies, Yad Vashem, Jerusalem; Prof. Nikolaus Wachsmann, Professor in Modern European History at Birkbeck; Dr. Kim Wünschmann, DAAD Lecturer in Modern European History at Sussex University. The panel discussion was followed by questions from the audience, about the website, Holocaust education and the history of the Nazi camps. The audience for the event numbered almost 200 in Senate House, including about 30% teachers and 30% students. Another 100 or more members of the public followed the event via the internet streaming platform Periscope. A professional recording of the panel discussion has been placed on the project website, and can be downloaded by users. The event was part of the Being Human Festival, the UK's only national festival of the humanities, which aims to demonstrate the societal impact of humanities research to non-academic audiences. A detailed survey of audience members after the event (carried out via survey monkey) revealed that the great majority of respondents agreed that the event had contributed to their understanding of the value of researching and teaching the Holocaust, with 73.3% of respondents intending to use the new website, and more than 80% recommending it to others. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2016 |
| URL | http://www.camps.bbk.ac.uk |
| Description | Raising awareness of new educational website |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A magazine, newsletter or online publication |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Schools |
| Results and Impact | Dissemination is key to impact and the project website on the Nazi camps has been promoted energetically to a wide range of audiences. A half-page ad was placed in "Teaching History", the leading magazine for UK school teachers, published by the Historical Association. Information about the website was circulated via newsletters and Twitter, by the UCL Centre for Holocaust Education, Birkbeck College, the Wiener Library, the Pears Institute for the Study of Anti-Semitism, the German History Seminar (Institute of Historical Research), the German History Society, H-Net German, Active History (over 20,000 Twitter followers) and School History. Links to the website have been added on the following sites: Times Educational Supplement Resources, the Wiener Library (Digital Holocaust Resources), the Holocaust Educational Trust, the Gathering the Voices project. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2016 |
| URL | http://www.camps.bbk.ac.uk |
| Description | Twitter and Instagram accounts to promote the Nazi camps website |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Engagement focused website, blog or social media channel |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | To further promote awareness of the educational website on the Nazi camps, a RA is promoting the social media presence of the website. This includes setting up new Twitter (https://twitter.com/NaziCamps) and Instagram feeds, as well as scheduling regular messages. The RA is funded through an Impact Seed Grant from Birkbeck College. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
| URL | http://www.camps.bbk.ac.uk |
| Description | Workshop for teachers on the Nazi camps |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Schools |
| Results and Impact | In June 2017, the PI and his collaborative partner (UCL Centre for Holocaust Education) ran a half-day workshop (for school teachers) on the Nazi camps and the educational website, at the Institute for Education. This included detailed discussions of the resources on the website and workshoping ideas for lesson plans. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
| URL | http://www.camps.bbk.ac.uk |