Author: Helen Roche

Invited presentation, presented at the Durham University Game Studies Mindgames Workshop, University of Durham, 6 March 2025.Read more...

Review of Mary Fulbrook's Bystander Society: Conformity and Complicity in Nazi Germany and the Holocaust (Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2023), The English Historical Review 140, Issue 602, February 2025, pp. 266–268.

In a political landscape where the stability of democracy seems once again to be embattled by the rise of far-right parties, Mary Fulbrook’s exploration of how quickly the general population might condone the ultimately genocidal persecution of minorities under an authoritarian regime is both salutary and sobering.Read more...

in Miniatures: A Reader in the History of Everyday Life, ed. Kate Ferris, Huw Halstead, Exeter (University of Exeter Press), 2025, pp. 54-65.

In spring 1936, teenage schoolboy Dick Hargreaves was given the chance to go on an all-expenses-paid exchange trip to Germany. But this was no ordinary school exchange – Hargreaves’ destination was Oranienstein, one of a system of new elite boarding schools known as Napolas. An accompanying essay demonstrates the ways in which this ego-document can help us understand the nature of dictatorship.Read more...

On 7 May 2025, the exhibition on which Helen has been collaborating with Brandenburg's State Centre for Civic Education (Brandenburgische Landeszentrale für politische Bildung) officially opened. The exhibition, which runs until 8 October, explores the history of the Napola in Potsdam, current site of the Brandenburg State Government, and draws extensively on Helen's research.Read more...

Helen has recently published a chapter in Miniatures: A Reader in the History of Everyday Life, entitled 'Diary of a Schoolboy in Nazi Germany', as well as publishing a review in the English Historical Review of Mary Fulbrook's monograph Bystander Society.Read more...

Helen has just been appointed as co-Editor-in-Chief of Fascism: Journal of Comparative Fascist Studies. Having moved from Brill, the journal is being relaunched by Central European University Press, an imprint of Amsterdam University Press.Read more...

In 2024-5, Helen collaborated with Brandenburg's State Centre for Civic Education on an exhibition featuring the history of the Napola in Potsdam. The current site of the Centre, and the current State Government of Brandenburg, used to be the site of the Nazi elite-school in Potsdam. The Centre welcomed this opportunity to explore the contested history of the location. The exhibition will run until 8 October 2025 and is free to all members of the public.Read more...

Helen recently contributed to the latest series of the podcast 'Real Dictators', featuring the life and times of Fascist leader Benito Mussolini. You can listen to the series on BBC Sounds here.Read more...

Despite the global importance of the gaming industry, and the centrality of video-games and contemporary boardgames as cultural artefacts in the modern world, historians beyond the sub-discipline of Historical Game Studies have often failed to consider games seriously as historical sources, while game-industry professionals do not necessarily consider explicit historical methodologies when designing games set in the past.Read more...

Helen and Dr. Ladan Cockshut have just been awarded Research Development funding from Durham University's Institute of Advanced Study for a project which will bring together academic historians and game developers to see what each group can learn from the other.Read more...