Nikolaus Wachsmann  Nikolaus Daniel Wachsmann (born 1971) is a professor of modern European history in the Department of History, Classics and Archaeology at Birkbeck College, University of London. Wachsmann was born in Munich. He graduated from the London School of Economics with a Bachelor of Science (BSc) degree, from the University of Cambridge with a taught Master of Philosophy (MPhil) degree, and from the University of London with a Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) degree. His doctoral thesis, which he completed in 2001, was titled "Reform and Repression: Prisons and Penal Policy in Germany, 1918–1939". In October 1998, Wachsmann began his academic career as a research fellow at Downing College, Cambridge. He was then a lecturer at the University of Sheffield. In 2005, he joined the Department of History, Classics and Archaeology of Birkbeck, University of London. He is the author of the 2015 book KL: A History of the Nazi Concentration Camps. Wachsmann resides in Liverpool.