Holocaust Research and Study Opportunities

Thousands of study and academic opportunities in the Holocaust are available internationally. Conferences and summer schools in Holocaust are organized regularly in the best academic centers of the world. The majority of universities and many foundations also offer BA, MA, and Ph.D. programs in Holocaust as wells as postdoctoral research grants, awards, and fellowships. Below you will find the updated list of international opportunities available in the Holocaust.

Holocaust Scholarships

Holocaust Fellowships

Holocaust Conferences

Holocaust relevant accounts on Twitter

Holocaust

The term comes from the Greek language, meaning sacrificed by fire. 

Initially, the mass killings of Jews were called “Hurban,” which means destruction. This word was used by the survivors of the Nazi’s persecutions. Later, they started to use the word Holocaust, which described the happening with Jewish people the most precisely: the victims’ bodies were burnt in open fires. And though the word Holocaust is a Hebrew word, its widespread use by Jewish people made it international with time. As a result, when referring to the Jewish Genocide in any part of the world, people would not use the word Genocide, but Holocaust instead. 

The same Genocide terminology is applied to the other terrible mass killings of the 20th century, the Armenian Genocide. Armenians refer to that part of their history as “Meds Yeghern,” which translated from Armenian means Great Calamity or Great Crime. The term transferred from purely Armenian communities to international ones. As a recent example, see the fragment of the US President Joe Biden’s statement on Armenian Remembrance Day.

“We honor the victims of the Meds Yeghern so that the horrors of what happened are never lost to history.”, said Biden on April 24, 2021. Before that, the US presidents mainly used Meds Yeghern. Joe Biden was the first who called the 1915 events Genocide, in fact giving the start for the official recognition process of the Armenian Genocide.

The Holocaust refers to the massive murders of Jews by Nazi Germany, who came to power in 1933. Nazists followed “The Final Solution” policy and killed 2 out of every 3 Jewish people by 1945. The number of Holocaust victims is calculated to be 6 million people. 

The reason for the systematic killing and torture of Jews lied in Nazi Germany’s decision to eliminate racial and biological inferiority. Germans thought of themselves as superior to all the other nations and ethnic groups who lived under their conquered territories. 

Are Holocaust studies popular only among Jews?

No. 

It’s hard even to imagine how such situations could happen with people, no matter their nationality. Holocaust and Genocide studies have a crucial role in avoiding similar scenarios for future generations. You will even meet most education and research programs under the titles of “prevention” rather than purely “Holocaust studies”. 

Besides, though Holocaust is predominantly used concerning Jews, the German’s activities were not only meant to kill them. The same concept of racial inferiority was also assigned to Roma, people with disabilities, Slavic peoples, Black people, Soviet prisoners of war. 

Therefore, along with the Armenian Genocide in Ottoman Turkey in 1915, Holocaust is one of the crimes against humanity that should be studied and remembered in detail never again to allow something similar to happen.

What do students explore in Holocaust and related majors?

Holocaust academic programs do not focus purely on Jewish killing events. They are mostly oriented to the process and prevention methods of massive killings. Holocaust and Genocide of Armenians are the two examples of history which help explore the topics in practice. 

The Holocaust majors are usually included in the faculty of Arts, Education, and humanities. It’s the study of Genocides, their consequences, recognition procedures, and after-events, psychological influence on survivors and their adaptation, etc. 

The major prepares professionals who have an in-depth understanding of the phenomena of genocide throughout history. However, the academic curricula usually cover the genocides of the 20th century. That’s why Holocaust and the Armenian Genocide are the two most covered topics in the majors. 

Most often, Holocaust majors prepare professionals for the historians’ careers. According to different estimations, the most popular degree of Holocaust majors is the Master’s degree. A probable explanation for this might be that genocides are narrower direction within the context of global historical events. Students might explore history, humanity, behavioral and social sciences in the undergraduate degree to have a strong base for exploring narrower topics later. 

Main courses you will study for Holocaust studies programs

  • Introduction to Holocaust 
  • Introduction to Genocide Studies
  • Comparative Genocide
  • Literature of the Holocaust
  • Women in the Holocaust
  • Film and the Holocaust
  • Nazi Germany and the Holocaust
  • The Holocaust and the Christian world
  • Peace Studies
  • Judaism
  • Christianity
  • Islam
  • Jewish History
  • Religion and Violence, etc. 

There are disciplines like Jewish Studies and Peace Studies that might also interest you in this context.   

Research opportunities in Holocaust studies

You might often meet research opportunities in Holocaust studies under the term “Shoah.” Shoah is the Hebrew word, which is translated to English as a catastrophe. In the academic and scholarly communities, Shoah is used to describe Holocaust events. That short clarification might help you for better navigation among academic and research projects in the field. 

There are two common ways to commit to the knowledge enrichment of the Holocaust events. 

Firstly, as in any other discipline, you might continue to the Ph.D. degree of Holocaust studies after completing relevant undergraduate degrees or participating in the university’s dedicated faculty’s research activities. 

There are common thesis topics you can choose from the discipline:

  • The Nazi Official’s Duties and Contributions to the Holocaust
  • The Decimation of Mentally Handicapped in the Holocaust
  • The Countries Who Took in War Criminals
  • The War Crimes in the Context of Holocaust
  • Punishments Suitable for Countries Harboring Nazi Criminals
  • Post-Conflict Justice After the Holocaust
  • Israel’s Hunt for Nazis
  • Scientific Contributions during the Holocaust
  • Invasion of Jewish Ghettos

Research Institutions Focusing on Holocaust Studies

Holocaust is still a controversial topic, and many international organizations and research institutions focus on it. If you want to pursue a research career in Holocaust studies, some of the links below will be extremely useful to save. You might benefit from research projects, grants, and awards organized by those institutions. Also, as those institutions have already established a research base, methods, and approaches, you will have a significant contribution to your own research activities. 

The Holocaust Research institution of Royal Holloway is one of the central European research centers which studies Holocaust events. The center contributed to forming a solid knowledge base about the Holocaust and its consequences aftermath. 

Jack, Joseph, and Morton Mandel Center for Advanced Holocaust Studies commit to res Holocaust studies. It also carries the role of network organizer and promoter among many Holocaust scholars around the world. 

The Strochlitz Institute of Holocaust Studies operates under the University of Haifa and highly contributes to Holocaust and Second World War research. 

Other than mentioned above, ARMACAD has also collected several studies and research opportunities of Holocaust studies in this section. Double-check them to unite your efforts with the scholars and researchers of the field. They have a unique empathy for the genocide victims and the responsibility to prevent future similar tragedies.