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About Me

I joined King’s College London in 2018 as part of the European Holocaust Research Infrastructure (EHRI). Prior to this, I was at the University of Exeter, working on an interdisciplinary ESRC project using data analysis, databases, and OCR software. I completed my BA, MA, and PhD at Royal Holloway, University of London under the supervision of the late Professor David Cesarani OBE. Whilst studying for my doctorate I lectured in History at Royal Holloway, winning the College Postgraduate Teaching Prize in 2016 for my innovative teaching methods. I also held a lectureship at Kingston University in Business Information Systems and Quantitative Methods. I am an Honorary Research Fellow at the University of Exeter.

I have spoken and published widely on immigration history and Second World internment in the UK and the USA. I am particularly interested in the individual experiences and the memory of internment. I am currently researching the memory and memorialisation of internment camps, refugee trajectories, and the use of currency in internment camps with particular reference to money created by the Dunera Boys in Australia.

Recent Publications

‘Remembering the Internment of ‘enemy aliens’ during the Second World War on the Isle of Man, Australia, and Canada’ in The Jews, the Holocaust, and the Public: The Legacies of David Cesarani, eds. Rachel Pistol and Larissa Allwork (London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2019)

‘Preface’ in The Jews, the Holocaust, and the Public: The Legacies of David Cesarani, eds. Rachel Pistol and Larissa Allwork (London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2019)

‘Introduction’ in The Jews, the Holocaust, and the Public: The Legacies of David Cesarani, eds. Rachel Pistol and Larissa Allwork (London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2019)

‘I can’t remember a more depressing time but I don’t blame anyone for that’: Remembering and commemorating the internment of enemy aliens in Britain during the Second World War, Patterns of Prejudice, 53, 1 (2019), 37-48

‘From World War II ‘enemy’ internment to Windrush: Britain quickly forgets its gratitude to economic migrants’, The Conversation, 22 June 2018, https://theconversation.com/from-world-war-ii-enemy-internment-to-windrush-britain-quickly-forgets-its-gratitude-to-economic-migrants-98331

‘”Heavy is the responsibility for all the lives that might have been saved in the pre-war years”: British perceptions of refugees 1933-1940’, European Judaism 50, 2 (2017), 42-49

Internment during the Second World War: A Comparative Study of Great Britain and the USA (London: Bloomsbury, 2017)

‘World War II internment camps still have much to teach us’, Imperial and Global History Forum, 15 September 2017, https://imperialglobalexeter.com/2017/09/15/world-war-ii-internment-camps-still-have-much-to-teach-us/

Newsweek, 26 December 2016 http://europe.newsweek.com/why-shinzo-abes-pearl-harbor-visit-comes-threat-internment-returns-536364

Media Coverage

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@PistolRachel

Country Focus

Expertise by Geography

United Kingdom, United States

Expertise by Chronology

20th century

Expertise by Topic

Economic History, Family, Holocaust & Nazi Persecution, Migration & Immigration, Public History, Race, World War II