Holocaust studies, or sometimes Holocaust research, is a scholarly discipline that encompasses the historical research and study of

the Holocaust The Holocaust, also known as the Shoah, was the genocide of European Jews during World War II. Between 1941 and 1945, Nazi Germany and its collaborators systematically murdered some six million Jews across German-occupied Europ ...

. Institutions dedicated to Holocaust research investigate the multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary aspects of Holocaust methodology, demography, sociology, and psychology. It also covers the study of

Nazi Germany Nazi Germany (lit. "National Socialist State"), ' (lit. "Nazi State") for short; also ' (lit. "National Socialist Germany") (officially known as the German Reich from 1933 until 1943, and the Greater German Reich from 1943 to 1945) was ...

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

, Jewish history,

religion Religion is usually defined as a social- cultural system of designated behaviors and practices, morals, beliefs, worldviews, texts, sanctified places, prophecies, ethics, or organizations, that generally relates humanity to supernatur ...

, Christian-Jewish relations,

Holocaust theology Holocaust theology is a body of theological and philosophical debate concerning the role of God in the universe in light of the Holocaust of the late 1930s and early 1940s. It is primarily found in Judaism. Jews were killed in higher proportions ...

ethics Ethics or moral philosophy is a branch of philosophy that "involves systematizing, defending, and recommending concepts of right and wrong behavior".''Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy'' The field of ethics, along with aesthetics, concer ...

, social responsibility, and

genocide Genocide is the intentional destruction of a people—usually defined as an ethnic, national, racial, or religious group—in whole or in part. Raphael Lemkin coined the term in 1944, combining the Greek word (, "race, people") with the ...

on a global scale. Exploring trauma, memories, and testimonies of the experiences of

Holocaust survivors Holocaust survivors are people who survived the Holocaust, defined as the persecution and attempted annihilation of the Jews by Nazi Germany and its allies before and during World War II in Europe and North Africa. There is no universally acce ...

human rights Human rights are moral principles or normsJames Nickel, with assistance from Thomas Pogge, M.B.E. Smith, and Leif Wenar, 13 December 2013, Stanford Encyclopedia of PhilosophyHuman Rights Retrieved 14 August 2014 for certain standards of hu ...

international relations International relations (IR), sometimes referred to as international studies and international affairs, is the scientific study of interactions between sovereign states. In a broader sense, it concerns all activities between states—such ...

Jewish Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...

life,

Judaism Judaism ( he, ''Yahăḏūṯ'') is an Abrahamic, monotheistic, and ethnic religion comprising the collective religious, cultural, and legal tradition and civilization of the Jewish people. It has its roots as an organized religion in th ...

, and

Jewish identity Jewish identity is the objective or subjective state of perceiving oneself as a Jew and as relating to being Jewish. Under a broader definition, Jewish identity does not depend on whether a person is regarded as a Jew by others, or by an exte ...

in the post-Holocaust world are also covered in this type of research.

Academic research

Among the research institutions and academic programs specializing in Holocaust research are: *

Center for Advanced Holocaust Studies The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum (USHMM) is the United States' official memorial to the Holocaust. Adjacent to the National Mall in Washington, D.C., the USHMM provides for the documentation, study, and interpretation of Holocaust hist ...

at the

United States Holocaust Memorial Museum The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum (USHMM) is the United States' official memorial to the Holocaust. Adjacent to the National Mall in Washington, D.C., the USHMM provides for the documentation, study, and interpretation of Holocaust h ...

in Washington, D.C.
Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies

University of Minnesota The University of Minnesota, formally the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, (UMN Twin Cities, the U of M, or Minnesota) is a public land-grant research university in the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and Saint Paul, Minnesota, United States. ...

* European Holocaust Research Infrastructure – it is financed by the 7th Framework Programme for Research and Technological Development of the

European Union The European Union (EU) is a supranational union, supranational political union, political and economic union of Member state of the European Union, member states that are located primarily in Europe, Europe. The union has a total area of ...

* Fritz Bauer Institute in Frankfurt, Germany, named after the German judge and prosecutor at the Frankfurt Auschwitz trials ( Fritz Bauer)
Holocaust and Genocide Studies
(journal), Oxford Academic. * International Institute for Holocaust Research at

Yad Vashem Yad Vashem ( he, יָד וַשֵׁם; literally, "a memorial and a name") is Israel's official memorial to the victims of the Holocaust. It is dedicated to preserving the memory of the Jews who were murdered; honoring Jews who fought against th ...

in Jerusalem, Israel * Polish Center for Holocaust Research at the

Polish Academy of Sciences The Polish Academy of Sciences ( pl, Polska Akademia Nauk, PAN) is a Polish state-sponsored institution of higher learning. Headquartered in Warsaw, it is responsible for spearheading the development of science across the country by a society o ...

in Warsaw, Poland * Stockton University offered the first Master of Arts in Holocaust and genocide degree in the United States in 1999 * Uppsala Programme for Holocaust and Genocide Studies in Uppsala, Sweden *

Vienna Wiesenthal Institute for Holocaust Studies The Vienna Wiesenthal Institute for Holocaust Studies (VWI) is a research centre dedicated to the research and documentation of and education on all aspects of antisemitism, racism and the Holocaust, including its emergence and aftermath. It was d ...

Scholars

Prominent Holocaust scholars include: * H. G. Adler (1910–1988), a Czechoslovakian Jew who survived the Holocaust and became one of the early scholars of the Holocaust. * Hannah Arendt (1906–1975), a German-American political theorist who is known for the term "banality of evil", used to describe

Adolf Eichmann Otto Adolf Eichmann ( ,"Eichmann"
'' Yehuda Bauer (b. 1926), a Czechoslovak-born Israeli historian and scholar on the Holocaust and

antisemitism Antisemitism (also spelled anti-semitism or anti-Semitism) is hostility to, prejudice towards, or discrimination against Jews. A person who holds such positions is called an antisemite. Antisemitism is considered to be a form of racism. Antis ...

. *

Doris Bergen Doris Leanna Bergen (born October 19, 1960) is a Canadian academic and Holocaust historian. She is the Chancellor Rose and Ray Wolfe Professor of Holocaust Studies at the University of Toronto, the only endowed chair in Canada in Holocaust hist ...

(b. 1960), a Canadian academic and Holocaust historian. * Michael Berenbaum (b. 1945), an American scholar and rabbi who specializes in the study of the memorialization of the Holocaust. He served as Project Director of the

in 1988–1993. * Alan L. Berger (b. 1939), the Raddock Family Eminent Scholar Chair for Holocaust Studies at

Florida Atlantic University Florida Atlantic University (Florida Atlantic or FAU) is a public research university with its main campus in Boca Raton, Florida, and satellite campuses in Dania Beach, Davie, Fort Lauderdale, Jupiter, and Fort Pierce. FAU belongs to the 12-c ...

, Professor of Jewish Studies at Florida Atlantic University, Director of the Center for the Study of Values and Violence after Auschwitz, Editor and Author of Interdisciplinary Holocaust Scholarship, Co-Editor of ''Second Generation Voices: Reflections by Children of Holocaust Survivors and Perpetrators'', and Member of the Florida Department of Education Holocaust Education Task Force. *

Christopher Browning Christopher Robert Browning (born May 22, 1944) is an American historian who is the professor emeritus of history at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC). A specialist on the Holocaust, Browning is known for his work documenting ...

(b. 1944), an American historian of the Holocaust who is best known for his work ''Ordinary Men: Reserve Police Battalion 101 and the Final Solution in Poland'', a study of German Reserve Police Battalion 101 that massacred Jews in Poland. * Lucy Dawidowicz (1915–1990), among the earliest American historians of the Holocaust, whose work, including her book ''The War Against the Jews: 1933–1945'' (1975), investigated the political and social context of the events.Butler, Deidre (1 March 2009).
Holocaust Studies in the United States
. ''Jewish Women: A Comprehensive Historical Encyclopedia''. Jewish Women's Archive. jwa.org. Retrieved 4 October 2017. * Martin Gilbert (1936–2015), a British historian who has published many historical volumes about the Holocaust. * Alena Hájková (1924–2012), Czech Communist resistance fighter who became a chief historian on Jews in the Czechoslovak resistance. * Raul Hilberg (1926–2007), an

Austria Austria, , bar, Östareich officially the Republic of Austria, is a country in the southern part of Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine states, one of which is the capital, Vienna, the most populous ...

n-born American political scientist and historian who is widely considered to be the world's preeminent Holocaust scholar. *

Raphael Lemkin Raphael Lemkin ( pl, Rafał Lemkin; 24 June 1900 – 28 August 1959) was a Polish lawyer who is best known for coining the term ''genocide'' and initiating the Genocide Convention, an interest spurred on after learning about the Armenian genocid ...

(1900–1959), a Polish Jewish lawyer who coined the term

, which was later adopted by the

United Nations The United Nations (UN) is an intergovernmental organization whose stated purposes are to maintain international peace and security, develop friendly relations among nations, achieve international cooperation, and be a centre for harmoni ...

in the 1948

Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide The Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide (CPPCG), or the Genocide Convention, is an international treaty that criminalizes genocide and obligates state parties to pursue the enforcement of its prohibition. It was ...

. *

Primo Levi Primo Michele Levi (; 31 July 1919 – 11 April 1987) was an Italian chemist, partisan, writer, and Jewish Holocaust survivor. He was the author of several books, collections of short stories, essays, poems and one novel. His best-known works ...

(1919–1987), an Italian Jewish chemist who survived

Auschwitz Auschwitz concentration camp ( (); also or ) was a complex of over 40 Nazi concentration camps, concentration and extermination camps operated by Nazi Germany in Polish areas annexed by Nazi Germany, occupied Poland (in a portion annexed int ...

, and later published over a dozen works. He committed suicide on April 11, 1987. * Franklin Littell (1917–2009), a Protestant scholar who is regarded by some as the founder of the field of Holocaust studies. * Peter Longerich (b. 1955), a German professor of history, author and director of the Research Centre for the Holocaust and Twentieth-Century History at Royal Holloway, University of London. * Léon Poliakov (1910–1997), a French historian who wrote on the Holocaust and

. *

Laurence Rees Laurence Rees (born 1957) is an English historian. He is a BAFTA winning historical documentary filmmaker and a British Book Award winning author of several books about Adolf Hitler, the Nazis and the atrocities committed, especially by them, ...

(b. 1957), a British historian and documentary filmmaker. * Gerald Reitlinger (1900–1978), a British art historian who wrote three works after

about

. *

Carol Rittner Carol Rittner (born 1943) is an American nun and Holocaust historian. She is a Distinguished Emerita Professor of Holocaust and Genocide Studies and Dr. Marsha Raticoff Grossman Professor of Holocaust Studies at Stockton University. Early life R ...

(b. 1943), Distinguished Professor of Holocaust & Genocide Studies at Stockton University, who co-produced the Academy Award nominated documentary '' The Courage to Care'', and has written a number of important works about the Holocaust and various genocides. *

Richard L. Rubenstein Richard Lowell Rubenstein (January 8, 1924 – May 16, 2021) was a theologian, educator, and writer, noted particularly for his path-breaking contributions to post-Holocaust theology and his socio-political analyses of surplus populations an ...

(1924–2021), an American scholar who is noted for his contributions to

. *

R.J. Rummel Rudolph Joseph Rummel (October 21, 1932 – March 2, 2014) was an American political scientist and professor at the Indiana University, Yale University, and University of Hawaiʻi. He spent his career studying data on collective violence and war w ...

(1932–2014), political scientist and Holocaust & Genocide studies expert that coined the term ''

Democide Democide is a term coined by American political scientist Rudolph Rummel to describe "the intentional killing of an unarmed or disarmed person by government agents acting in their authoritative capacity and pursuant to government policy or hig ...

''; professor at the

Indiana University Indiana University (IU) is a system of public universities in the U.S. state of Indiana. Campuses Indiana University has two core campuses, five regional campuses, and two regional centers under the administration of IUPUI. *Indiana Universi ...

Yale University Yale University is a private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and among the most prestigious in the w ...

, and finished his career at the

University of Hawaiʻi The University of Hawaiʻi System, formally the University of Hawaiʻi and popularly known as UH, is a public college and university system that confers associate, bachelor's, master's, and doctoral degrees through three universities, seven com ...

Education about the Holocaust

Education about the Holocaust or Holocaust education refers to efforts, in formal and non-formal settings, to teach about the Holocaust. Teaching and Learning about the Holocaust (TLH) addresses didactics and learning, under the larger umbrella of education about the Holocaust, which also comprises

curricula In education, a curriculum (; : curricula or curriculums) is broadly defined as the totality of student experiences that occur in the educational process. The term often refers specifically to a planned sequence of instruction, or to a view ...

and textbooks studies. The expression "Teaching and Learning about the Holocaust" is used by the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance.

Sources

References

External links

Center for Holocaust and Human Rights Education
at Florida Atlantic University, Encouraging the Next Generation of Holocaust Researchers
Elie Wiesel Foundation for Humanity

European Holocaust Research Infrastructure

Florida State Commissioner of Education's Task Force on Holocaust Education

Resources for Academics and Research
at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
Yad Vashem
{{DEFAULTSORT:Holocaust Research The Holocaust