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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 Europe; ...
. 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 vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...
,
Jewish history Jewish history is the history of the Jews, and their nation, religion, and culture, as it developed and interacted with other peoples, religions, and cultures. Although Judaism as a religion first appears in Greek records during the Hellenisti ...
,
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 supernatural, ...
, Christian-Jewish relations, Holocaust theology,
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 Social responsibility is an ethical framework in which an individual is obligated to work and cooperate with other individuals and organizations for the benefit of the community that will inherit the world that individual leaves behind. Social ...
, 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 Lat ...
on a global scale. Exploring trauma, memories, and testimonies of the experiences of Holocaust survivors,
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,
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 t ...
, and Jewish identity 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 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 hi ...
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 political and economic union of member states that are located primarily in Europe. The union has a total area of and an estimated total population of about 447million. The EU has often been de ...
* Fritz Bauer Institute in
Frankfurt, Germany Frankfurt, officially Frankfurt am Main (; Hessian: , " Frank ford on the Main"), is the most populous city in the German state of Hesse. Its 791,000 inhabitants as of 2022 make it the fifth-most populous city in Germany. Located on its ...
, named after the German judge and prosecutor at the
Frankfurt Auschwitz trials The Frankfurt Auschwitz trials, known in German as ''der Auschwitz-Prozess'', or ''der zweite Auschwitz-Prozess,'' (the "second Auschwitz trial") was a series of trials running from 20 December 1963 to 19 August 1965, charging 22 defendants unde ...
(
Fritz Bauer Fritz Bauer (16 July 1903 – 1 July 1968) was a German Jewish judge and prosecutor. He was instrumental in the post-war capture of former Holocaust planner Adolf Eichmann and played an essential role in beginning the Frankfurt Auschwitz trials ...
)
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 The Polish Center for Holocaust Research ( pl, Centrum Badań nad Zagładą Żydów) is an academic and research center at the Polish Academy of Sciences in Warsaw, Poland. The center's director is historian Barbara Engelking. History The Polish C ...
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 Stockton University is a public university in Galloway Township, New Jersey. It is part of New Jersey's public system of higher education. It is named for Richard Stockton, one of the New Jersey signers of the U.S. Declaration of Independence ...
offered the first Master of Arts in Holocaust and genocide degree in the United States in 1999 *
Uppsala Programme for Holocaust and Genocide Studies The Uppsala Programme for Holocaust and Genocide Studies ( sv, Programmet för studier kring Förintelsen och folkmord) is an academic institute conducting research in Holocaust and genocide studies. It is a part of the Centre for Multiethnic Resear ...
in Uppsala, Sweden * Vienna Wiesenthal Institute for Holocaust Studies


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. * 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 (b. 1960), a Canadian academic and Holocaust historian. *
Michael Berenbaum Michael Berenbaum (born July 31, 1945, in Newark, New Jersey) is an American scholar, professor, rabbi, writer, and filmmaker, who specializes in the study of the Holocaust. He served as deputy director of the President's Commission on the Holo ...
(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
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 hi ...
in 1988–1993. * Alan L. Berger (b. 1939), the Raddock Family Eminent Scholar Chair for Holocaust Studies at Florida Atlantic University, 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 (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 Reserve Police Battalion 101 (german: Reserve-Polizei-Bataillon 101) was in Nazi Germany a paramilitary formation of the uniformed police force known as Order Police (''Ordnungspolizei#Police battalions, Ordnungspolizei'', abbreviated as Orpo), o ...
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 Raul Hilberg (June 2, 1926 – August 4, 2007) was a Jewish Austrian-born American political scientist and historian. He was widely considered to be the preeminent scholar on the Holocaust. Christopher R. Browning has called him the founding fath ...
(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 (1900–1959), a Polish Jewish lawyer who coined the term
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 Lat ...
, 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 harmoniz ...
in the 1948 Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide. * Primo Levi (1919–1987), an Italian Jewish chemist who survived Auschwitz, 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 Peter Longerich (born 1955) is a German professor of history and German historian. He is regarded by fellow historians, including Ian Kershaw, Richard Evans, Timothy Snyder, Mark Roseman and Richard Overy, as one of the leading German authori ...
(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 Léon Poliakov (russian: Лев Поляков; 25 November 1910, Saint Petersburg – 8 December 1997, Orsay) was a French historian who wrote extensively on the Holocaust and antisemitism and wrote ''The Aryan Myth''. Born into a Russian Jewi ...
(1910–1997), a French historian who wrote 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 ...
. * Laurence Rees (b. 1957), a British historian and documentary filmmaker. * Gerald Reitlinger (1900–1978), a British art historian who wrote three works after
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 vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...
about
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 ...
. * Carol Rittner (b. 1943), Distinguished Professor of Holocaust & Genocide Studies at
Stockton University Stockton University is a public university in Galloway Township, New Jersey. It is part of New Jersey's public system of higher education. It is named for Richard Stockton, one of the New Jersey signers of the U.S. Declaration of Independence ...
, 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 (1924–2021), an American scholar who is noted for his contributions to Holocaust theology. * R.J. Rummel (1932–2014), political scientist and Holocaust & Genocide studies expert that coined the term '' Democide''; 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 university, private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the List of Colonial Colleges, third-oldest institution of higher education in the United Sta ...
, and finished his career at the University of Hawaiʻi.


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 and
textbooks A textbook is a book containing a comprehensive compilation of content in a branch of study with the intention of explaining it. Textbooks are produced to meet the needs of educators, usually at educational institutions. Schoolbooks are textbook ...
studies. The expression "Teaching and Learning about the Holocaust" is used by the
International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance The International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) (until January 2013 known as the Task Force for International Cooperation on Holocaust Education, Remembrance, and Research or ITF) is an intergovernmental organization founded in 1998 which ...
.


See also

*
Aftermath of the Holocaust The Holocaust had a deep effect on society both in Europe and the rest of the world, and today its consequences are still being felt, both by children and adults whose ancestors were victims of this genocide. Evidence in Germany German socie ...
* Double genocide theory * Genocide education *
Gratz College Gratz College is a private Jewish college in Melrose Park, Pennsylvania. The college traces its origins to 1856 when banker, philanthropist, and communal leader Hyman Gratz and the Hebrew Education Society of Philadelphia (established in 1849 ...
– a college which is best known for its Holocaust and Genocide studies programs offering both
M.A. A Master of Arts ( la, Magister Artium or ''Artium Magister''; abbreviated MA, M.A., AM, or A.M.) is the holder of a master's degree awarded by universities in many countries. The degree is usually contrasted with that of Master of Science. Tho ...
degrees and PhD's in the subject * Holocaust Memorial Days * Holocaust Museum Houston * '' Holocaust Studies and Materials'' *
Holocaust trivialization Holocaust trivialization is any comparison or analogy that diminishes the impact of the Holocaust, the Nazi genocide of six million European Jews during World War II. The Wiesel Commission defined trivialization as the abusive use of compariso ...
* '' How Holocausts Happen'' – a book dealing with the genocidal policies of Nicaraguan counterrevolutionary forces and the reaction of the general public to 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 Europe; ...
in
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 ...
* Elie Wiesel * Rudolph Rummel *
Yom HaShoah Yom HaZikaron laShoah ve-laG'vurah ( he, יום הזיכרון לשואה ולגבורה, , lit=Holocaust and Heroism Remembrance Day), known colloquially in Israel and abroad as Yom HaShoah (יום השואה) and in English as Holocaust Rem ...


Sources


References


Further reading

* Engel, D. (2021). ''The Holocaust: The Third Reich and the Jews''. Routledge. * Feierstein, D., & Town, D. A. (2014)
Discourse and Politics in Holocaust Studies: Uniqueness, Comparability, and Narration
In ''Genocide as Social Practice: Reorganizing Society under the Nazis and Argentina’s Military Juntas'' (pp. 71–86). Rutgers University Press. * Friedman, J. C. (Ed.). (2010). ''The Routledge History of the Holocaust''. Routledge. * Gutwein, D. (2009)
The Privatization of the Holocaust: Memory, Historiography, and Politics
''Israel Studies'', ''14''(1), 36–64. * Hayes, P., & Roth, J. K. (2011). ''The Oxford Handbook of Holocaust Studies''. Oxford University Press. * Hirsch, M., & Spitzer, L. (2010)
The Witness in the Archive: Holocaust Studies/Memory Studies
In S. Radstone & B. Schwarz (Eds.), ''Memory: Histories, Theories, Debates'' (pp. 390–405). Fordham University Press. * Hudzik, J. P. (2020)
Reflections on German and Polish Historical Policies of Holocaust Memory
''The Polish Review'', ''65''(4), 36–59. * LaCapra, D. (1994). ''Representing the Holocaust: History, Theory, Trauma''. Cornell University Press. * Libowitz, R. (1990)
Holocaust Studies
''Modern Judaism'', ''10''(3), 271–281. * Littell, F. H. (1980)
Fundamentals in Holocaust Studies
''The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science'', ''450'', 213–217. * Rittner, C., & Roth, J. K. (2020). ''Advancing Holocaust Studies''. Routledge.


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