HMDT’s Dr Rachel Century launches her new book
Holocaust Memorial Day Development Manager, Dr Rachel Century, launched her first book, Female Administrators of the Third Reich, at the Wiener Library in partnership with HMDT on 31 October 2017.
Rachel’s book compares female administrators who specifically chose to serve the Nazi cause in voluntary roles with those who took on such work as a progression of established careers. Under the Nazi regime, secretaries, SS-Helferinnen (female auxiliaries for the SS) and Nachrichtenhelferinnen des Heeres (female auxiliaries for the army) held similar jobs: taking dictation, answering telephones, sending telegrams. Yet their backgrounds and degree of commitment to Nazi ideology differed markedly. In her book Rachel explores their motivations and what they knew about the true nature of their work.
The launch event was a great success, and saw speeches from Ben Barkow (Director of the Wiener Library), Laura Marks OBE (Chair of HMDT), Professor Dan Stone (Director of the Holocaust Research Institute, Royal Holloway) and Dr Rachel Century (HMD Development Manager at HMDT).
Around 100 guests were in attendance, including survivors of the Holocaust, academics and friends and family.
Olivia Marks-Woldman, Chief Executive of HMDT said:
‘We are delighted to have supported the launch of Rachel’s first book, which offers a fascinating study of the roles of women working as administrators in the Third Reich.
‘Rachel has worked with HMDT for more than four years, bringing her knowledge of the Holocaust to inform HMDT’s resources. She combines academic expertise with an engaging and accessible approach, enabling us to deepen what people learn each year on HMD.
‘We are grateful to the Wiener Library for hosting the reception.’
Rachel’s book is published by Palgrave Macmillan and is available now. Find out more here.