Laurence Rees

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.

Laurence Rees was educated at Solihull School and Oxford University. He joined BBC TV in 1978 as a Research Trainee and subsequently worked as a researcher and assistant producer in factual television between 1978 and 1983. He always wanted to make history documentaries and made his first film as a director and producer at the age of 25 in 1983 – a film portrait of Noël Coward for BBC1.

He started specializing in history films that related to the Nazis and the Second World War with his controversial programme ‘A British Betrayal’ in 1991, followed by ‘Goebbels - Master of Propaganda’ in 1992.

Rees was appointed Editor of Timewatch, the BBC’s historical documentary series, in 1992 and over the next ten years commissioned and editorially oversaw more than a hundred different history films. In 1994 he was also the founder editor of the BBC’s biographical TV strand ‘Reputations’. He was subsequently appointed Head of BBC History and Creative Director, BBC History.

Unusually for a senior executive in BBC Television, Rees carried on writing and producing his own programmes alongside his executive producer responsibilities. The series he himself wrote and produced (and also directed the great majority of the films) during this time include the BBC television series: 'Nazis: a Warning from History' (1997); 'War of the Century' (1999); 'Horror in the East' (2001); 'Auschwitz, the Nazis and the 'Final Solution (2005); and 'World War Two: Behind Closed Doors' (2008). Rees also writes history books, and wrote books to accompany each of these series. His book on Auschwitz is the world’s best selling history of the camp.

Rees left the BBC in 2008 and created the multimedia educational Website WW2History.com in 2009. The website subsequently won 'Best in Class' awards in both the Education and Reference categories at the Interactive Media Awards.

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