Karl Albert Schleunes (April 21, 1937 – May 15, 2021) was an American historian of

the Holocaust The Holocaust (), known in Hebrew language, Hebrew as the (), was the genocide of History of the Jews in Europe, European Jews during World War II. From 1941 to 1945, Nazi Germany and Collaboration with Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy ...

and the German Empire. He was a professor at the

University of North Carolina at Greensboro The University of North Carolina at Greensboro (UNCG or UNC Greensboro) is a public research university in Greensboro, North Carolina. It is part of the University of North Carolina, University of North Carolina system. It is accredited by the S ...

(UNCG). Schleunes obtained his Bachelor in 1959 at Lakeland College (Wisconsin), and his

Master's A master's degree (from Latin ) is a postgraduate academic degree awarded by universities or colleges upon completion of a course of study demonstrating mastery or a high-order overview of a specific field of study or area of professional prac ...

at the

University of Minnesota The University of Minnesota Twin Cities (historically known as University of Minnesota) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in the Minneapolis–Saint Paul, Twin Cities of Minneapolis and Saint ...

in 1961, where he also received his Ph.D. in 1966. From 1965 to 1971 he taught at the

University of Illinois at Chicago The University of Illinois Chicago (UIC) is a public research university in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Its campus is in the Near West Side community area, adjacent to the Chicago Loop. The second campus established under the Universi ...

. Since then he was at the UNCG. In 1999 he was a guest lecturer at the Kaplan Centre of the

University of Cape Town The University of Cape Town (UCT) (, ) is a public university, public research university in Cape Town, South Africa. Established in 1829 as the South African College, it was granted full university status in 1918, making it the oldest univer ...

.University of Cape Town
Kaplan Newsletter, June 2012, No. 18; PDF direct download.
/ref> Karl Schleunes was born in Kiel, Wisconsin, the son of Henry Schleunes and Adelia Eickoff of

Schleswig The Duchy of Schleswig (; ; ; ; ; ) was a duchy in Southern Jutland () covering the area between about 60 km (35 miles) north and 70 km (45 mi) south of the current border between Germany and Denmark. The territory has been di ...

. In August 1964, he married Brenda Jean Pursel, founder and artistic director of the Touring Theatre of North Carolina.Touring Theatre of North Carolina
Brenda P. Schleunes, Founder and Producing Artistic Director.
2016. In the 1960s, along with a handful of European and American scholars, Karl helped establish a new field in modern historical studies. His ground-breaking research in the

Berlin Document Center The Berlin Document Center (BDC) was created in Berlin, Germany, after the end of World War II. Its task was to centralize the collection of documents from the time of Nazism, which were needed for the preparation of the Nuremberg Trials against wa ...

which holds materials captured from the Germans, provided him with evidence to produce an exhaustive analysis of the policies which led to the murders of six million Jews. Schleunes worked on a book project that looks at the same problems as ''The Twisted Road to Auschwitz'' but is drawn from the fifty years of information garnered since the launching of his book published a half century ago and, in fact, still in print. As Karl said, "I learned a lot in fifty years; the book didn't learn anything." Karl will be remembered for his many years of workshops sponsored by the NC Council on the Holocaust Teacher Workshops teachers across the state and as the honoree of the Schleunes Lectures which annually bring a well-known Holocaust scholar to speak at Greensboro College, an event sponsored by Richard and Jane Levy.

Publications

* ''The Twisted Road to Auschwitz, Nazi Policy Toward German Jews, 1933-1939''; UIP 1970. * ''Schooling and Society; The Politics of Education in Prussia and Bavaria, 1750-1900''; 1989. * ''Legislating the Holocaust; The Bernhard Loesener Memoirs''.

Notes

{{DEFAULTSORT:Schleunes, Karl 1937 births Historians of Nazism American historians of the Holocaust 21st-century American historians 21st-century American male writers 20th-century American historians American male non-fiction writers 2021 deaths People from Kiel, Wisconsin Historians from Wisconsin University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign faculty Lakeland College (Wisconsin) alumni University of Minnesota alumni 20th-century American male writers