Mr. Robert Hutchinson

Professional Background

Mr. Robert Hutchinson is a PhD Candidate in History, University of Maryland, College Park (USA). He expects to receive his degree in April 2015. His doctoral dissertation is entitled “Knowing the Enemy: Nazi Foreign Intelligence, 1933-1957.”  Mr. Hutchinson earned his Bachelor’s Degree in History from the University of Delaware in 2008. While in residence at the Center for Advanced Holocaust Studies, Mr. Hutchinson worked on his project, “Nazi Intelligence and the War Against the Jews, 1939-1945.”

Mr. Hutchinson has presented lectures at academic conferences, including “Agents of Radicalization: German Intelligence during the Holocaust,” for the 2012 New York State Association of European Historians Conference at SUNY Oswego in Oswego, New York; “Objective Ideologues: The ‘Rehabilitation’ of Nazi Intelligence Agents in West Germany,” for the Annual History Graduate Student Conference at Texas State University in San Marcos, Texas in 2012; and “Friendly Advice: The German General Staff and the Foreign Military Studies Program, 1945-1954,” for the James A. Barnes Graduate Student History Conference, Temple University in 2013.  Mr. Hutchinson has earned other grants prior to his time at the Center for Advance Holocaust Studies: the Gordon Prange Fellowship in European History in 2008, the University of Maryland History Department Prospectus Development Grant in 2011, a 2013 Cosmos Club Foundation Research Grant, and the Army Heritage Center Foundation 2013 Professor Russell F. Weigley Award in Military History.

Fellowship Research

For his Norman Raab Foundation Fellowship, Mr. Hutchinson examined the Museum’s archives for materials related to Nazi intelligence gathering specifically those relating to the communications, operations, and personnel of the Security Service (SD) and the Reich Security Main Office (RSHA) in the East. Mr. Hutchinson’s objective was to see how intelligence reports influenced and altered German policy during the Nazi regime. These agencies gathered intelligence on the nations with which Nazi Germany was preparing to go to war. However, they did not merely gather intelligence on tactical matters but also reported information that furthered the Nazi agenda (i.e. “Jewish Partisan Activities”) and seemed to provide evidence of a “World Jewish Conspiracy.” Mr. Hutchinson provided insight on how these reports on “Jewish Influence” affected Nazi policy and changed the fate of many in Europe.

Mr. Hutchinson was in residence at the Mandel Center from September 1 to November 30, 2013.