Staff profile

Dr. Helen Roche is Associate Professor in Modern European Cultural History at the University of Durham. Her second book, The Third Reich’s Elite Schools: A History of the Napolas, is published by Oxford University Press. Her work has been featured in the press nationally and internationally, including appearances in The Times, The Guardian, The Daily Telegraph, on the BBC and Sky News.

Her first book, Sparta's German Children: The ideal of ancient Sparta in the Royal Prussian Cadet Corps, 1818-1920, and in National Socialist elite schools (the Napolas), 1933-1945, was published in 2013, and has subsequently received critical acclaim from reviewers in several disciplines, including Classics, intellectual history, and the history of education. Meanwhile, her article 'Surviving Stunde Null: Narrating the fate of Nazi elite-school pupils during the collapse of the Third Reich', was awarded German History journal's "Best Article of 2015" prize.

Previously, she held Research Fellowships at UCL Institute of Advanced Studies and the University of Cambridge, having completed her undergraduate and postgraduate studies at Gonville & Caius College, Cambridge. Her research has been funded by (among others) the AHRC, the Deutscher Akademischer Austausch Dienst (DAAD) and the Stiftung Preußischer Kulturbesitz. She is currently researching the history of everyday life under fascism in interwar Europe.

Helen welcomes enquiries from research students with an interest in modern European social and cultural history, with a particular focus on German, Austrian, and Italian history, the history of childhood and education, fascism studies, classical reception studies, and historical game studies.

MPhil and PhD theses already supervised include:

• 'The Portrayal - in Educational Settings - of the Relationship between Britain and the Holocaust' (PhD, Durham University).
• 'The Role of Foreign Diplomats in Vienna during the 1930s' (PhD, University of Cambridge).
• 'The Impact of the TV Series Holocaust on West German Memory Culture, 1978-83'.
• 'The SS-Kalender and the Dilemmas of Propagandizing the Volksgemeinschaft, 1938-1944'.
• 'The Representation of Female Perpetrators of the Holocaust in British Newspapers, 1945-Present'.
• 'Fascism, National Socialism, and the 1939 New York World's Fair'.

• National Socialism; Italian Fascism; comparative fascism studies
• German history from the nineteenth century onwards; History and memory in post-war Germany
• History of childhood and history of education
• Youth exchange during the twentieth century; Anglo-German relations
• Classical reception in general - particularly German philhellenism and contemporary political appropriations of antiquity
• Historical Game Studies; using games (digital and analogue) as historical sources

• 2024: Fellow of the Royal Historical Society:
• 2019: Fascist Antiquities and Materialities from the Interwar Era to the Present Day: Guest-edited Special Issue of Fascism: Journal of Comparative Fascist Studies (Vol. 8.2), December 2019.
• 2013: German Philhellenism: Guest-edited Special Issue of Publications of the English Goethe Society (Vol. 82.3), October 2013

Authored book

• Roche, H. (2021). The Third Reich's Elite Schools: A History of the Napolas. Oxford University Press
• Roche, H. (2013). Sparta's German Children: The Ideal of Ancient Sparta in the Royal Prussian Cadet-Corps, 1818-1920, and in National-socialist Elite Schools (the Napolas), 1933-1945. Classical Press of Wales

Chapter in book

• Saupe, A., & Roche, H. (2023). Testimonies in Historiography and Oral History. In S. Jones, & R. Woods (Eds.), The Palgrave Handbook of Testimony and Culture (65-90). Palgrave Macmillan. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-13794-5_4
• Roche, H. (2022). Nazi Elite Boarding Schools and the Attempted Creation of a New Class System. In D. Gerster, & F. Jensz (Eds.), Global Perspectives on Boarding Schools in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries (79-100). Palgrave Macmillan. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-99041-1_4
• Roche, H. (2018). Schulische Erziehung und Entbürgerlichung. In N. Frei (Ed.), Wie bürgerlich war der Nationalsozialismus? (154-172). Göttingen: Wallstein
• Roche, H. (2018). Distant Models? Italian Fascism, National Socialism and the Lure of the Classics. In H. Roche, & K. Demetriou (Eds.), Brill's Companion to the Classics, Fascist Italy and Nazi Germany (3-29). Brill Academic Publishers. https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004299061_002
• Roche, H. (2018). Die Klosterschule Ilfeld als Nationalpolitische Erziehungsanstalt. In D. Schmiechen-Ackermann, & et al. (Eds.), Die Klosterkammer Hannover 1931-1955: Eine Mittelbehörde zwischen wirtschaftlicher Rationalität und Politisierung (605-626). Göttingen: Wallstein
• Roche, H. (2018). Classics and Education in the Third Reich: "Die Alten Sprachen" and the Nazification of Latin- and Greek-teaching in secondary schools. In H. Roche, & K. Demetriou (Eds.), Brill's Companion to the Classics, Fascist Italy and Nazi Germany (238-263). Brill Academic Publishers. https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004299061_011
• Roche, H. (2017). Blüte und Zerfall: "Schematic Narrative Templates" of decline and fall in völkisch and National Socialist racial ideology. In L. Day, & O. Haag (Eds.), The Persistence of Race: Continuity and Change in Germany from the Wilhelmine Empire to National Socialism (65-86). Berghahn
• Roche, H. (2016). Wanderer, kommst du nach Sparta oder nach Stalingrad? Ancient ideals of self-sacrifice and German military propaganda. In N. Brooks, & G. Thuswaldner (Eds.), Making Sacrifices: Visions of Sacrifice in Contemporary Culture (66-86). Vienna: New Academic Press
• Roche, H. (2016). Herrschaft durch Schulung: The Nationalpolitische Erziehungsanstalten im Osten and the Third Reich's Germanising mission. In I. Loose, & B. Olschowsky (Eds.), Nationalsozialismus und Regionalbewusstsein im östlichen Europa (127-151). De Gruyter
• Roche, H. (2015). "Spartanische Pädagogik deutscher Art": The influence of Sparta on the Royal Prussian Cadet Schools (1818-1920). In A. Powell, & V. Pothou (Eds.), Das antike Sparta (157-180). Franz Steiner Verlag
• Roche, H. (2014). Kadettengeschichten: Exploring the Prussian cadet-school story. In S. J. James (Ed.), Books for Boys: Literacy, Nation and the First World War (20-25). Durham: IAS
• Roche, H. (2013). "In Sparta fühlte ich mich wie in einer deutschen Stadt" (Goebbels): The leaders of the Third Reich and the Spartan nationalist paradigm. In F. Rash, G. Horan, & D. Wildmann (Eds.), English and German Nationalist and Anti-Semitic Discourse, 1871-1945 (91-115). Peter Lang. https://doi.org/10.3726/978-3-0353-0410-7
• Roche, H. (2013). Spartan Supremacy: A "Possession for Ever"? Early fourth-century expectations of enduring ascendancy. In A. Powell (Ed.), Hindsight in Greek and Roman History (91-112). Swansea: Classical Press of Wales
• Roche, H. (2012). "Spartanische Pimpfe": The importance of Sparta in the educational ideology of the Adolf Hitler Schools. In S. Hodkinson, & I. M. Morris (Eds.), Sparta in Modern Thought: Politics, History and Culture (314-342). Swansea: Classical Press of Wales

Edited book

• Roche, H., & Demetriou, K. (Eds.). (2018). Brill's Companion to the Classics, Fascist Italy and Nazi Germany. Brill Academic Publishers

Journal Article

• Roche, H. (2024). Nazi Elite-School Pupils as Youth Ambassadors: Between Fascist Italy and the Third Reich. European History Quarterly, 54(2), 258-275. https://doi.org/10.1177/02656914241236618
• Roche, H., & Pasquini, D. (2023). Italiani Cattiva Gente? Anti-Italian stereotypes and the obfuscation of war crimes in German perpetrator narratives from the Italian theatre of war. Ricerche Storiche, 2023, 105-130
• Roche, H., & Pine, L. (2023). The Biopolitics of Education in the Third Reich’s ‘Special Schools’ and ‘Elite Schools’. Historical Journal, 66(2), 413-434. https://doi.org/10.1017/s0018246x22000358
• Roche, H. (2020). Eine Vergangenheit, die lieber vergessen wird? Scholarly Habitus-Forming, Professional Amnesia, and Postwar Engagement with Nazi Classical Scholarship. History of Humanities, 5(1), 165-177. https://doi.org/10.1086/707697
• Roche, H. (2019). Mussolini’s ‘Third Rome’, Hitler’s Third Reich and the Allure of Antiquity: Classicizing Chronopolitics as a Remedy for Unstable National Identity?. Fascism, 8(2), 127-152. https://doi.org/10.1163/22116257-00802004
• Roche, H. (2017). The Peculiarities of German Philhellenism. Historical Journal, 61(2), 541-560. https://doi.org/10.1017/s0018246x17000322
• Roche, H. (2016). Xenophon and the Nazis: A case study in the politicisation of ancient Greek thought through educational propaganda. Classical Receptions Journal, 8(1), 71-89. https://doi.org/10.1093/crj/clv010
• Roche, H. (2016). Sport, Leibeserziehung und vormilitärische Ausbildung in den Nationalpolitischen Erziehungsanstalten: Eine "radikale" Revolution der körperlichen Bildung im Rahmen der NS-"Gesamterziehung"?
• Roche, H. (2015). Surviving "Stunde Null": Narrating the Fate of Nazi Elite-School Pupils during the Collapse of the Third Reich. German History, 33(4), 570-587. https://doi.org/10.1093/gerhis/ghv100
• Roche, H. (2013). "Anti-Enlightenment": National Socialist educators' troubled relationship with humanism and the philhellenist tradition. Publications of the English Goethe Society, 82(3), 193-207. https://doi.org/10.1179/0959368313z.00000000025
• Roche, H. (2013). ‘Wanderer, kommst du nach Pforta …’: the tension between Classical tradition and the demands of a Nazi elite-school education at Schulpforta and Ilfeld, 1934–45. European Review of History, 20(4), 581-609. https://doi.org/10.1080/13507486.2013.764844
• Roche, H. (2013). Zwischen Freundschaft und Feindschaft: Exploring relationships between pupils at the Napolas (Nationalpolitische Erziehungsanstalten) and British public schoolboys. Angermion, 6, 101-126. https://doi.org/10.1515/anger-2013-0006
• Roche, H. (2012). "Go, tell the Prussians…": The Spartan paradigm in Prussian military thought during the long nineteenth century'. New Voices In Classical Reception Studies, 7, 25-39