This workshop is based on Security Service and Foreign Office files for Germany in 1933, which contain reports, correspondence and newspaper articles sent from British diplomats and other officials who visited Germany during this period.
The workshop begins with an overview of the events of 1933 to establish a context for the first document we will examine: a speech delivered by Goebbels to the international press in September 1933. The speech has been divided up into sections, and students will work in groups on one section each. They will analyse their section of the speech in detail, particularly focussing on Goebbels' use of language, different forms of speech, how they would have responded to this speech as a journalist from the UK listening to it in 1933, and how useful and reliable they think it is as a piece of evidence for understanding National Socialism and its rise to power. The education officer leading the workshop will bring together each group's findings to help them analyse the speech as whole and discuss their opinions of the usefulness and reliability of such a document as a piece of evidence.
Students will then work in groups on different sections of a Security Service file containing a report on a visit by a British Army Officer to Berlin shortly after the Reichstag fire. The report gives an interesting insight into the tactics and methods employed by the Nazi party to establish power, and what the British perspective on this was.
If you wish to stay on and make a day of your research, we can provide you with references for additional documents on National Socialism that you can order up and continue to research in the reading rooms. We will also explain how to search the catalogue, order documents and give you a tour of the reading rooms.
Session options
This session can be delivered as a
Workshop
Videoconference
