European Association for Holocaust Studies

European Association for Holocaust Studies
Name	European Association for Holocaust Studies
Formation	1989
Type	Non-profit organization
Headquarters	Amsterdam
Region served	Europe
Leader title	President

European Association for Holocaust Studies

The European Association for Holocaust Studies brings together scholars, educators, curators, and legal specialists dedicated to the study of the Holocaust and related genocides. The Association links researchers across institutions such as Yad Vashem, United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum, Imperial War Museums, and Benjamin Franklin Institute, fostering comparative work on cases including the Holocaust, Armenian Genocide, Rwandan genocide, Bosnian Genocide, and legal responses such as the Nuremberg Trials and the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia. Its membership draws from universities like University of Oxford, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, University of Warsaw, University of Vienna, University of Amsterdam, and museums such as the Jewish Museum Berlin and the Polin Museum of the History of Polish Jews.

History

Founded in the late 20th century amid renewed scholarly attention to wartime atrocities and transitional justice, the Association emerged alongside institutions including Institute for Contemporary History (Munich), Centre for European Studies (Harvard), Center for Advanced Holocaust Studies (USHMM), and the European Shoah Legacy Institute. Early convenings featured scholars from Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne, University College London, Tel Aviv University, University of Toronto, and Sorbona University (Paris). The Association engaged leading historians such as Ian Kershaw, Saul Friedländer, Raul Hilberg, Deborah Lipstadt, Christopher Browning, Timothy Snyder, Omer Bartov, Daniel Jonah Goldhagen, Lucy Dawidowicz, Efraim Zuroff, and legal scholars influenced by the Eichmann trial and jurists linked to the European Court of Human Rights, International Court of Justice, and advocates from Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch. Over time it developed relations with national memorials including Yad Vashem, Sachsenhausen Memorial, Mauthausen Memorial, Wannsee Conference House, and the Holocaust Memorial in Berlin.

Mission and Objectives

The Association aims to advance rigorous historical analysis, pedagogical development, and public remembrance through networks connecting centers such as Fondation pour la Mémoire de la Shoah, Arolsen Archives, Shoah Memorial (Paris), and academic departments like Department of History, University of Cambridge, Department of Jewish Studies, University College London, Department of History, University of Chicago, Department of History, Columbia University. Objectives include promoting research into events such as the Kristallnacht, Operation Reinhard, Wannsee Conference, Final Solution, and responses like the Nuremberg Trials; fostering curricula influenced by textbooks from Oxford University Press, Cambridge University Press, and scholars like Jean-Claude Pressac and Péter Földi; and supporting outreach involving institutions such as UNESCO, Council of Europe, and European Commission.

Membership and Governance

Membership comprises academics, museum professionals, archivists from Holocaust Educational Trust, Stichting Auschwitz-Birkenau, Anne Frank House, and legal experts from tribunals like the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR). Governance includes an elected board with presidents drawn from universities including Central European University, Jagiellonian University, University of Leipzig, KU Leuven, Trinity College Dublin, and advisory councils featuring representatives from YIVO Institute for Jewish Research, Leo Baeck Institute, German Historical Institute, Polish Center for Holocaust Research, and national archives such as the Bundesarchiv and State Archive of Lithuania. Committees collaborate with funding bodies like the European Research Council, Alexander von Humboldt Foundation, DAAD, and philanthropic organizations such as the Claims Conference and Stiftung Erinnerung Verantwortung Zukunft.

Activities and Programs

Programs include fellowships hosted at centers such as Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies (University of Minnesota), archival projects with the Arolsen Archives, oral history initiatives linked to the Fortunoff Video Archive for Holocaust Testimonies, digital humanities collaborations with EHRI (European Holocaust Research Infrastructure), and teacher-training workshops run with the Holocaust Educational Trust, Anne Frank Fonds, and Federation of Jewish Communities. The Association sponsors summer schools partnering with Villa Palmieri (Florence), Klagenfurt University Summer School, and institutes like DHI Warsaw. It also supports exhibitions curated with Jewish Museum London, Museo della Shoah (Rome), National Holocaust Memorial Centre (Moldova), and preservation efforts connected to Auschwitz-Birkenau Foundation.

Publications and Research

The Association publishes peer-reviewed series and occasional papers featuring contributors from Journal of Holocaust Research, Holocaust and Genocide Studies, East European Jewish Affairs, Yad Vashem Studies, and presses such as Brill, Routledge, Palgrave Macmillan, Manchester University Press. Research topics cover perpetrators linked to SS, Wehrmacht, and Ordnungspolizei; victim communities including Roma Holocaust, Polish Jews, Soviet Jews, Greek Jews of Salonika; and comparative studies of mass violence in contexts like Cambodia (Khmer Rouge), Guatemala (Maya Genocide), and Darfur conflict. Collaborative projects have produced source editions utilizing collections from US Holocaust Memorial Museum Library, Bundesarchiv, Russian State Military Archive, Central Archives for the History of the Jewish People, and Central Zionist Archives.

Conferences and Events

Annual and biennial conferences convene scholars who have affiliations with Princeton University, Yale University, University of Michigan, McGill University, Hebrew University, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, and museums such as the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum and Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum. Thematic panels address topics like the Kindertransport, Jewish resistance in the Warsaw Ghetto, Balkan collaboration during WWII, Vichy regime, and wartime diplomacy involving Vatican City and Neutral Sweden. Workshops often feature archival tours of Arolsen Archives, Imperial War Museums, Museum of Jewish Heritage (New York), and training sessions with curators from Anne Frank House and Polin Museum.

Partnerships and Collaborations

The Association collaborates with international bodies including UNESCO, Council of Europe, International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA), European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights, and research infrastructures like EHRI and the European Holocaust Research Infrastructure. It partners with memory institutions such as Yad Vashem, Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum, Holocaust Memorial Museum (Washington, D.C.), Jewish Museum Berlin, and academic centers including Center for Advanced Holocaust Studies (USHMM), Wiener Library, Leo Baeck Institute, Arolsen Archives, and Fondation pour la Mémoire de la Shoah to support joint grants with the European Research Council, Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions, and funders like the Claims Conference.

Category:Holocaust studies organizations