Robin O ' Neil Doctor Robin O ' Neil is a former police major crimes investigator who worked at the sharp end of major criminal investigations in the United Kingdom and Central Europe . Formerly of Scotland Yard , the Metropolitan and Home Counties Police service , he then took up the challenge of Academia . After obtaining his Masters and Doctorate with the Hebrew and Jewish Department , University College London he now specialises in Nazi war crime s and the destruction of the European Jewish communities ( 1933 – 1945 ) . A Russian speaker , he has pursued his work to the Baltic States and former USSR . He has launched a number of major investigations into the perpetrators of the Holocaust , particularly those individuals who carried out and engineered the destruction of European Jewry in Lithuania and Poland . His past police service and rank enable him to look closely into the characters of the SS and death camp commandants of Belzec , Sobibor and Treblinka . O ' Neil is universally acknowledged as the central research source for the Schindler story . A historical consultant to several TV documentaries and radio broadcasts in the UK and abroad , he is an honoured guest of Schindler ' s home town , Svitavy in the Czech Republic , and is a regular lecturer at universities in the United Kingdom , United States , Israel and Eastern Europe . In his spare time and to counteract the intensity of holocaust research he diversifies his interests into the Habsburg dynasty of nineteenth century Vienna and Shakespeare ’ s England . He is currently engaged in researching The Gustav Mahler Family Under the Third Reich Publications . Product Description Dr . Robin O ' Neil ' s latest study on the Holocaust , " Oskar Schindler : Stepping Stone to Life , " follows thematically from his previous book , " Belzec : Stepping Stone to Genocide , " 2008 , and his PhD thesis , " Belzec : Operation Reinhardt and the Origins of Jewish Genocide in Galicia . " Whereas the previous works focused on the genocidal horrors of World War II , O ' Neil ' s examination of Schindler focuses on life and hope . Dr . O ' Neil ' s work on Schindler has been praised by important personages . In a conversation with Dr . O ' Neil in 1995 , Mrs . Oskar Schindler said , " My husband would have been proud of you . " Professor Michael Berkowitz , of University College London , commented that " Dr . O ' Neil ' s research re . Oskar Schindler is both fascinating and of fine scholarship . " Judge Moshe Bejski wrote in 2002 , " Your research material is exemplary and corrects many of the inaccuracies in film , written and the spoken word about Schindler . " And Sir Martin Gilbert , the eminent Holocaust scholar , wrote : " No one has done more justice to the life and achievements of Oscar Schindler than Dr . Robin O ' Neil , whose archival detective work and zeal for telling the story in all its fascinating detail is of the highest order . " Kevin Roberts Dr . O ' Neil worked on the Schindler story off and on since 1987 . He took on many tasks in the intervening years , meeting people central to the story during his travels in Europe and Israel and the United States , investigating numerous leads , reading published and unpublished materials , questioning , observing , writing , and always taking notes and filing them away . Parts of the story would emerge in his other writings , many of which appeared online on JewishGen . Manuscripts such as " Poland and her Jews 1941 - 1944 , " translation of the " Kovno Ghetto Diary , " and " Rabka Police School : Poland " enhanced his reputation as a foremost Nazi war crimes researcher who writes scholarly works on the destruction of European Jewish communities in an informal and highly readable style . " Oskar Schindler : Stepping Stone to Life " is the definitive work on Oskar Schindler . Dr . O ' Neil examines the enigmatic Schindler , using all published and unpublished research to take the reader through all the evidence to the surprising conclusion . Joyce Field ( JewishGen ) 2006 .