Outreach in 2017-2018

In 2017-18, Helen gave a number of public-facing talks, including a guest lecture on ‘Fascism and the Classics’ given to students at Cranleigh School, and a talk on Schulpforta’s transformation into a Napola, presented in Berlin at the annual reunion of the Pförtner Bund, the Schulpforta old boys’ association, followed by a ‘podium discussion’ with three former Napola-pupils.

The text of the lecture was subsequently reprinted in the alumni newsletter Die Pforte: Schulpforta-Nachrichten. Zeitschrift des Pförtner Bundes e.V. Nr. 70 (2017), pp. 10-19.

Helen also contributed an article in German on ‘Antisemitism and Elite Education at the Napolas’ to the 2017 annual report published by the Stiftung Niedersächsische Gedenkstätten, aimed at a general audience.

In addition, from September 2018 onwards, Helen collaborated with 72 Films as a consultant to two TV series on Nazi Germany, commissioned by the BBC (the first series, Rise of the Nazis, was screened on BBC 2 in 2019; the second, Dictators at War, was screened in February 2022).

Finally, Helen’s work was featured in two newspapers, Italian broadsheet Il Manifesto, which featured a full-page spread on the Brill Companion to the Classics, Fascist Italy and Nazi Germany on 11 February 2018 (pictured), and the Indian Sunday Guardian, which published an article on 2 June 2018 entitled ‘Childhood was Given a New Meaning in European Schools’, featuring Sparta’s German Children.