The Center for Holocaust Studies at the Institute for Contemporary History: The First Two Years in Review

Abstract

Frank Bajohr The Center for Holocaust Studies at the Institute for Contemporary History The First Two Years in Review Origins and Goals In 2010, a paper titled “Holocaust History in Germany – A History without a Future?” circulated inside the US Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington (USHMM).1 It deplored a “swift erosion of what had never been a sufficiently well-anchored academic infrastructure,” citing the lack of an institution in Germany comparable to the Mandel Center for Advanced Holocaust Studies in Washington or the International Institute for Holocaust Research in Jerusalem. Moreover, the paper noted that there was not a single chair for a professor of Holocaust history in Germany, which was certainly not the case in the USA, Great Britain, or Israel. The major problem in Germany, it concluded, was the lack of institutional support to ensure the permanent anchoring of Holocaust research in academia. Even more so today than in the last twenty years, it continued, scholars who study the Holocaust in the Federal Republic do so in thematic isolation, without permanent ties to the universities, and with rather dismal career perspectives .2 It also charged, correctly, that Holocaust research institutes in the USA, Israel, and many other European countries did not have an institutional partner within Germany and that a fellowship program equivalent to those in the USA and Israel was likewise non-existent. With encouragement from Wendy Lower (Claremont McKenna College, USA), the Director of the Institute for Contemporary History (Institut für Zeitgeschichte, IfZ), Andreas Wirsching, set about establishing a Center for Holocaust Studies (Zentrum für Holocaust-Studien) inside the IfZ in 2013, in cooperation with the chairs of Modern and Contemporary History and Jewish History and Culture at the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität Munich (LMU), 1 A more comprehensive version of the paper was published as Jürgen Matthäus, HolocaustForschung in Deutschland. Eine Geschichte ohne Zukunft?, in: Michael Brenner/Maximilian Strnad (eds.), Der Holocaust in der deutschsprachigen Geschichtswissenschaft. Bilanz und Perspektiven , Göttingen 2012, pp. 27–41. 2 Unpublished manuscript in the possession of the author. 180 Frank Bajohr Margit Szöllösi-Janze and Michael Brenner. During its preliminary phase, scheduled to last until the end of 2016, the step-by-step task of the Center for Holocaust Studies is to lay the foundation for a larger-scale institute with a focus on three key missions. First of all, the Center will strive to develop an internationally attractive research infrastructure with fellowships for visiting scholars in order to provide a space for research and communication among doctoral students, post-docs and experts, while also fostering a strong scholarly exchange between the German and international Holocaust research contexts. Secondly, the Center aims to promote research on the Holocaust in Germany in close cooperation with international research institutions. Although the history of this unprecedented crime of the century will undoubtedly occupy a special place within the history of Germany for the foreseeable future, research in Germany in recent years has overcome classic national orientations and developed perspectives and working contacts that cut across traditional borders in a remarkable way. Over the long run, a PhD fellowship program with an international scope will not only secure an institutional basis for Holocaust research in Germany, but will also help better integrate German research into the global field. Moreover, the cooperation between the Center, the Institute for Contemporary History, and the LMU in Munich will ensure for close links between research and teaching, especially through joint PhD and post-doc programs. Finally, the Center for Holocaust Studies, together with the LMU Munich, intends to foster university-level teaching about the history of the Holocaust and generally encourage instructors to offer relevant courses at German universities. Through publications that summarize the increasingly complex field of scholarship for instructors, students, and the interested public, as well as through events specifically designed for university instructors, the Center will bolster the systematic exchange of experiences among instructors who often have little contact with other university teachers in the field. The primary financial support for the preliminary phase of the Center was provided by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research, but the funding is ultimately supposed to come from...