After Belsen: Christian Encounters with Holocaust Survivors, Dr Rob Thompson in conversation with Professor Shirli Gilbert

After Belsen: Christian Encounters with Holocaust Survivors reveals the deeply personal ways in which British and American Christians responded to and were affected by meeting survivors of the Holocaust in the years immediately following the liberation of concentration camps. British and American Christians—men and women, army chaplains and relief workers, government officials and interfaith activists—listened to testimony, confronted postwar issues facing Jews, pioneered the fight against antisemitism, and reapproached their Christian faith as they encountered survivors.

At camps like Bergen-Belsen, these encounters forced Christians to confront their long-held beliefs, their complicity, and the meaning of solidarity in the face of atrocity.

Using neglected archives, private correspondence of British and American Christians, and interviews with their families, Dr Robert Thompson pieces together stories that complicate the idea of Christian silence. He highlights the emotional and theological impact of direct witness—moments when Christian and Jewish lives intersected amid the devastation. In doing so, he also reveals the previously unheard voices of women relief workers and chaplains who offered care, challenged antisemitism, and began to reformulate their beliefs from the ground up.

In this event in conversation with Professor Shirli Gilbert, Dr Thompson explores After Belsen’s new perspective on how ordinary people responded to extraordinary horror and how their responses resonate today.

This event will also include a special exhibition of documents and textiles held in the Library’s archived which were utilised by Dr Thompson when researching the book.

About the Speakers

Robert Thompson was awarded a PhD from University College London, where his research was funded by a Wolfson Foundation Postgraduate Scholarship. His book, After Belsen: Christian Encounters with Holocaust Survivors, is published by Cornell University Press. Rob works as Deputy Director for Public Programmes for Westminster Abbey Institute, leading its public-facing work, including its annual events season for public servants. He held the Pearl Resnick Postdoctoral Fellowship at the Jack, Joseph and Morton Mandel Center for Advanced Holocaust Studies at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, and previously worked as Senior Programme Manager for the Council of Christians and Jews.

Shirli Gilbert is Professor of Modern Jewish History at University College London. She obtained her D. Phil in Modern History from the University of Oxford and was a Postdoctoral Fellow in the Society of Fellows at the University of Michigan. Before UCL, Shirli was Karten Professor of Modern History and Director of the Parkes Institute for Jewish/non-Jewish Relations at the University of Southampton. She is Editor-in-Chief of Jewish Historical Studies: A Journal of English-Speaking Jewry, and Director of the Sir Martin Gilbert Learning Centre, which delivers free workshops on Jewish history at secondary schools around the UK.

Description supplied by the event organiser.