Robin O'Neil

He is a former policeman, having served with the Metropolitan Police Service and a Home Counties police force for 30 years until 1994. His experience as a policeman and of major enquiries has enabled him to find and assess evidence and "get under the skin" of certain Nazi commandants. A Russian speaker, he translated the Yiddish/Russian diary of Dimitre Gelpernus, a Jewish partisan during the occupation, thus shining a light on the destruction of the Kovno Ghetto.

O'Neil obtained his Masters degree at the University of London under Sir Martin Gilbert, another well-known writer and researcher into the Holocaust. His academic work continues with a Doctoral thesis on Belzec extermination camp, he has been researching this site for over 30 years. He has been used as a research resource or consultant for films (Schindler's List) and radio and television broadcasts. He is an honoured guest of Oskar Schindler's home town, Svitavy, Czech Republic. O'Neil has been a regular lecturer in the United Kingdom and abroad.

When asked about his investigations at Belzec, O'Neil has said: "It does not matter how big the crime is as such - it could have been 800,000 people or one person - the detection or forensic investigation, is exactly the same as long as the correct procedures are adopted.

"The main thing at the scene of the crime is to stop other people contaminating the evidence. Fortunately, for the examination at this site, the Nazis stopped that happening. Not only did they dig up all the bodies, burn them and ground the bones up, but they then put them all back and grassed the graves over. So they have been intact there for the last 60 odd years.

"The importance of recording the truth is vital to refute the lies of revisionists who say that these things never happened. For those who died the key thing is to show that these terrible crimes were committed. You are really answering their prayers. That is why it really should be written down."

As a counter-balance to the horrors of the Holocaust, O'Neil has researched other subjects, such as music in 19th century Vienna and Shakespeare's England. He is researching the correspondence of a Norfolk family, the Pastons, during the 15th century.

External links

• Extermination of the Jews of Galicia