The Palgrave Handbook of Britain and the Holocaust

This handbook is the most comprehensive and up-to-date single volume on the history and memory of the Holocaust in Britain. It traces the complex relationship between Britain and the destruction of Europe’s Jews, from societal and political responses to persecution in the 1930s, through formal reactions to war and genocide, to works of representation and remembrance in post-war Britain. Through this process the handbook not only updates existing historiography of Britain and the Holocaust; it also adds new dimensions to our understanding by exploring the constant interface and interplay of history and memory. The chapters bring together internationally renowned academics and talented younger scholars. Collectively, they examine a raft of themes and issues concerning the actions of contemporaries to the Holocaust, and the responses of those who came ‘after’. At a time when the Holocaust-related activity in Britain proceeds apace, the contributors to this handbook highlight the importance of rooting what we know and understand about Britain and the Holocaust in historical actuality. This, the volume suggests, is the only way to respond meaningfully to the challenges posed by the Holocaust and ensure that the memory of it has purpose.

Table of Contents:
1. Britain and the Holocaust: An introduction- Tom Lawson and Andy Lawson.- Part I: Political Contexts.- 2. British Interwar Fascism and anti-Fascism- Daniel Tilles.- 3. The Agenda of British Refugee Policy 1933-48- Louise London.- Part II: Refugees in Britain: 1933-39.- 4. The Immigration and Reception of Jewish Refugees from the Third Reich- Anthony Grenville.- 5. 'I remember the labels around their necks': Britain and the Kindertransport- Andrea Hammel.- Part III: War and Holocaust.- 6. Knowledge in Britain of the Holocaust during the Second World War- Michael Fleming.- 7. The Unlikely Tale of a Hero Named Coward : Uncomfortable Truths and the Necessary War- Russel Wallis.- 8. Belsen and the British- Dan Stone.- Part IV: Punishment and Memory.- 9. ‘Where, exactly is Auschwitz?’ British confrontation with the Holocaust through the medium of the 1945 Belsen Trial- Caroline Sharples.- 10. Campaigning for Justice: Anti-Fascist Campaigners, Nazi Era Collaborator War Criminals and Britain’s Failure to Prosecute, 1945-99- Siobhan Hyland and Paul Jackson.- 11. Selective Histories: Britain, the Empire and the Holocaust- Michelle Gordon.- Part V: Cultural Representations.- 12. Beyond the Cesspit Beneath: The BBC and the Holocaust- James Jordan.- 13. British cinema and the Holocaust- Barry Langford.- 14. British Holocaust Literature- Sue Vice.- Part VI: The Holocaust in British Society.- 15. A defining decade? Swastikas, Eichmann, and arson in 1960s Britain- Nigel Copsey.- 16. The legacy of the Holocaust, Jewish history and British antisemitism: The "Jew Murderer" and the murder of the Jews- Tony Kushner.- 17. "I belong here. I know I ought never to have come back, because I've never been away": Kitty Hart-Moxon's documentaries of return'- Isabel Wollaston.- Part VII: Public Pedagogy.- 18. Holocaust education in England: Concerns, controversies and challenges- Stuart Foster.- 19. Holocaust representation in the Imperial War Museum- K. Hannah Holtschneider.- 20. Negotiating memory and legacy: David Cesarani and the IWM's Holocaust exhibition- Chad McDonald.- 21. From celebrating diversity to British values: The changing face of Holocaust memorial day in Britain- Kara Critchell.- 22. Visions of permanence, realities of instability: The Prime Minister's Holocaust Commission and the United Kingdom Holocaust Memorial Foundation- David Tollerton.- 23. Britishness, Brexit and the Holocaust- Andy Pearce.

About the Author :
Tom Lawson is Professor of History at Northumbria University, UK. He is the author and editor of several books including The Church of England and the Holocaust (2006), Debates on the Holocaust (2010) and The Last Man: A British Genocide in Tasmania (2014). He is the co-editor of the journal Holocaust Studies: A Journal of Culture and History, and co-edits the Palgrave Studies in the History of Genocide series.  Andy Pearce is Associate Professor in Holocaust and History Education at University College London, UK. He is the author of Holocaust Consciousness in Contemporary Britain (2014), editor of Remembering the Holocaust in Educational Settings (2018), and co-editor of Holocaust Education 25 Years On (2018) and Holocaust Education: Contemporary Challenges & Controversies (2020). He works in teacher education, conducts educational research and is a historian of Britain and the Holocaust.