Laurence Rees

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Laurence Rees (born 1957) is a British historian. He is a documentary filmmaker and author of several books about atrocities committed by the totalitarian states of the Second World War. He is the former Creative Director of History Programmes for the BBC. His documentaries and books are used as teaching aids in British schools.[1]

Biography[edit]

Rees was educated at Solihull School and Oxford University, and began his career as an editor on the BBC series Timewatch. He wrote, directed and produced the 1997 series The Nazis: A Warning from History, the 2001 series Horror in the East, and the 2005 Auschwitz: The Nazis and the 'Final Solution'. He has won many awards for his television films, including a BAFTA, a Grierson Award, an International Documentary Award, a British Press Guild Award and a BANFF festival award. He also wrote, directed and produced the documentary, World War II Behind Closed Doors.

He also wrote the companion books to his series The Nazis: A Warning from History, Horror in the East: Japan and the Atrocities of World War II, The War of the Century: When Hitler Fought Stalin and Auschwitz: A New History. In 2006 he won History Book of the Year at the British Book Awards for his book on Auschwitz making him the first person to win both a BAFTA for a television series he has written, produced and directed, as well as a British Book Award for a book he has written.

His book, Their Darkest Hour: People Tested to the Extreme in WWII was released in September 2007 by Ebury Press. In 2005 he was awarded an honorary doctorate by Sheffield University for services to history and television. In May 2010 he launched WW2History.com, a subscription multimedia educational resource on World War II. In 2011 he was awarded an honorary doctorate (DUniv) by The Open University.

The Daily Telegraph lauded Rees in a 2007 book review, saying "Laurence Rees has done more for good history on television in this country than anyone else". [2]

Filmography[edit]

Bibliography[edit]

References[edit]

Notes
  1. ^ Cienciala 2010, p. 123.
  2. ^ Beevor, Antony (25 October 2007). "The atrocities of war". The Daily Telegraph. Retrieved 9 October 2015. 
Sources

External links[edit]