Robin O'Neil
Encyclopedia
Doctor Robin O'Neil is a former police major crimes investigator who worked at the sharp end of major criminal investigations in the United Kingdom
and Central Europe
. Formerly of Scotland Yard
, the Metropolitan
and Home Counties
Police service
, he then took up the challenge of Academia. After obtaining his Masters and Doctorate with the Hebrew and Jewish Department, University College London
he now specialises in Nazi war crime
s and the destruction of the European Jewish communities (1933–1945).
A Russian speaker, he has pursued his work to the Baltic States
and former USSR
. He has launched a number of major investigations into the perpetrators of the Holocaust
, particularly those individuals who carried out and engineered the destruction of European Jewry in Lithuania
and Poland
. His past police service and rank enable him to look closely into the characters of the SS
and death camp
commandants of Belzec
, Sobibor
and Treblinka
.
O'Neil is universally acknowledged as the central research source for the Schindler
story. A historical consultant to several TV documentaries and radio broadcasts in the UK and abroad, he is an honoured guest of Schindler's home town, Svitavy
in the Czech Republic
, and is a regular lecturer at universities in the United Kingdom, United States, Israel and Eastern Europe
. In his spare time and to counteract the intensity of holocaust research he diversifies his interests into the Habsburg dynasty
of nineteenth century Vienna
and Shakespeare
’s England. He is currently engaged in researching the Paston family correspondence
from Norfolk
1420-1510 and associated English texts of that time.
E-Book
Publications
Lectures on Holocaust Related Subjects:
2006.
Consultant and participant on documentary film
projects – Israel, Germany, US and UK television. 1998-2000: Archaeology. Seconded to the Torun University
(Poland) archaeological survey on the site of the former Belzec Death Camp, Poland.
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
and Central Europe
Central Europe
Central Europe or alternatively Middle Europe is a region of the European continent lying between the variously defined areas of Eastern and Western Europe...
. Formerly of Scotland Yard
Scotland Yard
Scotland Yard is a metonym for the headquarters of the Metropolitan Police Service of London, UK. It derives from the location of the original Metropolitan Police headquarters at 4 Whitehall Place, which had a rear entrance on a street called Great Scotland Yard. The Scotland Yard entrance became...
, the Metropolitan
Metropolitan Police Service
The Metropolitan Police Service is the territorial police force responsible for Greater London, excluding the "square mile" of the City of London which is the responsibility of the City of London Police...
and Home Counties
Home Counties
The home counties is a term which refers to the counties of South East England and the East of England which border London, but do not include the capital city itself...
Police service
Police
The police is a personification of the state designated to put in practice the enforced law, protect property and reduce civil disorder in civilian matters. Their powers include the legitimized use of force...
, he then took up the challenge of Academia. After obtaining his Masters and Doctorate with the Hebrew and Jewish Department, University College London
University College London
University College London is a public research university located in London, United Kingdom and the oldest and largest constituent college of the federal University of London...
he now specialises in Nazi war crime
War crime
War crimes are serious violations of the laws applicable in armed conflict giving rise to individual criminal responsibility...
s and the destruction of the European Jewish communities (1933–1945).
A Russian speaker, he has pursued his work to the Baltic States
Baltic countries
The term Baltic states refers to the Baltic territories which gained independence from the Russian Empire in the wake of World War I: primarily the contiguous trio of Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania ; Finland also fell within the scope of the term after initially gaining independence in the 1920s.The...
and former USSR
Post-Soviet states
The post-Soviet states, also commonly known as the Former Soviet Union or former Soviet republics, are the 15 independent states that split off from the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics in its dissolution in December 1991...
. He has launched a number of major investigations into the perpetrators of the Holocaust
The Holocaust
The Holocaust , also known as the Shoah , was the genocide of approximately six million European Jews and millions of others during World War II, a programme of systematic state-sponsored murder by Nazi...
, particularly those individuals who carried out and engineered the destruction of European Jewry in Lithuania
Lithuania
Lithuania , officially the Republic of Lithuania is a country in Northern Europe, the biggest of the three Baltic states. It is situated along the southeastern shore of the Baltic Sea, whereby to the west lie Sweden and Denmark...
and Poland
Poland
Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...
. His past police service and rank enable him to look closely into the characters of the SS
Schutzstaffel
The Schutzstaffel |Sig runes]]) was a major paramilitary organization under Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party. Built upon the Nazi ideology, the SS under Heinrich Himmler's command was responsible for many of the crimes against humanity during World War II...
and death camp
Extermination camps in the Holocaust
Extermination camps were camps built by Nazi Germany during the Second World War to systematically kill millions by gassing and extreme work under starvation conditions. While there were victims from many groups, Jews were the main targets. This genocide of the Jewish people was the Third...
commandants of Belzec
Belzec extermination camp
Belzec, Polish spelling Bełżec , was the first of the Nazi German extermination camps created for implementing Operation Reinhard during the Holocaust...
, Sobibor
Sobibór extermination camp
Sobibor was a Nazi German extermination camp located on the outskirts of the town of Sobibór, Lublin Voivodeship of occupied Poland as part of Operation Reinhard; the official German name was SS-Sonderkommando Sobibor...
and Treblinka
Treblinka extermination camp
Treblinka was a Nazi extermination camp in occupied Poland during World War II near the village of Treblinka in the modern-day Masovian Voivodeship of Poland. The camp, which was constructed as part of Operation Reinhard, operated between and ,. During this time, approximately 850,000 men, women...
.
O'Neil is universally acknowledged as the central research source for the Schindler
Oskar Schindler
Oskar Schindler was an ethnic German industrialist born in Moravia. He is credited with saving over 1,100 Jews during the Holocaust by employing them in his enamelware and ammunitions factories, which were located in what is now Poland and the Czech Republic respectively.He is the subject of the...
story. A historical consultant to several TV documentaries and radio broadcasts in the UK and abroad, he is an honoured guest of Schindler's home town, Svitavy
Svitavy
Svitavy is a town in the Svitavy District in the Pardubice Region of the Czech Republic. The town has a population of 18,000 and is also the district administrative centre...
in the Czech Republic
Czech Republic
The Czech Republic is a landlocked country in Central Europe. The country is bordered by Poland to the northeast, Slovakia to the east, Austria to the south, and Germany to the west and northwest....
, and is a regular lecturer at universities in the United Kingdom, United States, Israel and Eastern Europe
Eastern Europe
Eastern Europe is the eastern part of Europe. The term has widely disparate geopolitical, geographical, cultural and socioeconomic readings, which makes it highly context-dependent and even volatile, and there are "almost as many definitions of Eastern Europe as there are scholars of the region"...
. In his spare time and to counteract the intensity of holocaust research he diversifies his interests into the Habsburg dynasty
Habsburg
The House of Habsburg , also found as Hapsburg, and also known as House of Austria is one of the most important royal houses of Europe and is best known for being an origin of all of the formally elected Holy Roman Emperors between 1438 and 1740, as well as rulers of the Austrian Empire and...
of nineteenth century Vienna
Vienna
Vienna is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Austria and one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primary city, with a population of about 1.723 million , and is by far the largest city in Austria, as well as its cultural, economic, and political centre...
and Shakespeare
William Shakespeare
William Shakespeare was an English poet and playwright, widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's national poet and the "Bard of Avon"...
’s England. He is currently engaged in researching the Paston family correspondence
Paston Letters
The Paston Letters are a collection of letters and papers from England, consisting of the correspondence of members of the gentry Paston family, and others connected with them, between the years 1422 and 1509, and also including some state papers and other important documents.- History of the...
from Norfolk
Norfolk
Norfolk is a low-lying county in the East of England. It has borders with Lincolnshire to the west, Cambridgeshire to the west and southwest and Suffolk to the south. Its northern and eastern boundaries are the North Sea coast and to the north-west the county is bordered by The Wash. The county...
1420-1510 and associated English texts of that time.
Publications
- 1998: EAST EUROPEAN JEWISH AFFAIRS VOL. 28, 49: BELZEC – THE ‘FORGOTTEN’ DEATH CAMP
- 1999: EAST EUROPEAN JEWISH AFFAIRS, V 29, 85: A REASSESSMENT OF THE NUMBER OF VICTIMS BELZEC:
- 2008 OSKAR SCHINDLER: STEPPING STONE TO LIFE: JEWISH HERITAGE COMMITTEE, NY, (Amazon)
- 2009 Belzec: Stepping Stone to Genocide (Museum of Jewish Heritage), NY
- 2020 The Rabka Four (Amason)
E-Book
E-book
An electronic book is a book-length publication in digital form, consisting of text, images, or both, and produced on, published through, and readable on computers or other electronic devices. Sometimes the equivalent of a conventional printed book, e-books can also be born digital...
Publications
- BELZEC—THE DESTRUCTION OF THE JEWS IN THE DISTRICT OF GALICIA
- GALICIA, POLAND
- SCHINDLER' STEPPING STONE TO LIFE
- KAUNAS, LITHUANIA: THE KOVNO GHETTO DIARY (KOVNO GHETTOKaunas GhettoThe Kovno ghetto was a ghetto established by Nazi Germany to hold the Lithuanian Jews of Kaunas during the Holocaust. At its peak, the Ghetto held 40,000 people, most of whom were later sent to concentration and extermination camps, or were shot at the Ninth Fort...
) - POLAND AND HER JEWS 1941 - 1944
- BELZEC: PROTOTYPE FOR THE FINAL SOLUTION
- RABKA POLICE SCHOOL, POLAND
Lectures on Holocaust Related Subjects:
- Educational establishments and Synagogues, UK. Other Aspects 2000.
- Belzec Archaeology lecture: Leicester UniversityUniversity of LeicesterThe University of Leicester is a research-led university based in Leicester, England. The main campus is a mile south of the city centre, adjacent to Victoria Park and Wyggeston and Queen Elizabeth I College....
2006.
- The Elchanan and Miriam Elkes Memorial Lecture ‘Stepping Stones to Genocide - Aktion Reinhardt and the Holocaust’
- Holocaust Education: Co-founder, Historical Consultant and contributor to: www.holocaustresearchproject.org
Consultant and participant on documentary film
Documentary film
Documentary films constitute a broad category of nonfictional motion pictures intended to document some aspect of reality, primarily for the purposes of instruction or maintaining a historical record...
projects – Israel, Germany, US and UK television. 1998-2000: Archaeology. Seconded to the Torun University
Nicolaus Copernicus University in Torun
Nicolaus Copernicus University in Toruń is located in Toruń, Poland. It was named after Nicolaus Copernicus who was born in this town in 1473.-The beginnings of higher education in Toruń:...
(Poland) archaeological survey on the site of the former Belzec Death Camp, Poland.