Bill Edmonds

I am a PhD student in the Department of History at Royal Holloway, University of London, supervised by Professor Dan Stone. My AHRC Technē-funded project explores the Quaker response to the Holocaust, asking how Quaker ethics took shape in the face of Nazi crimes. I am particularly interested in the question of pacifism. How Quakers reconciled their peace testimony with the Nazi atrocities they witnessed is the central question that drives my thesis.

To uncover this challenging past, I adopt an intellectual history approach, examining individual Quakers’ experiences as they sought to aid persecuted Jews in Germany, France, and Portugal. I combine this with analysis of the more popular Quaker response to Nazism through the submissions made to the Society of Friends’ leading journals. In doing so, I aim to uncover the complex heterogeneity of the Quaker response to the Holocaust, showing that Nazism’s unprecedented challenges to pacifism led individuals to react in different ways across different contexts. I am always keen to connect with other researchers, especially those with interests including Christian responses to the Holocaust, Quaker history, pacifism, and humanitarianism.