Overview of Holocaust and Genocide Studies
at West Chester University 

In August 2011, students and faculty from the Holocaust and Genocide Studies program traveled to sites of the civil rights movement in Georgia and Alabama. As part of this journey, we visited the Martin Luther King National Historic Site in Atlanta, the Civil Rights Museum and 16^th St. Church in Birmingham, the Voting Rights Museum and Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, and the Rosa Parks Museum in Montgomery. This field study followed on the heels of journeys to New Mexico, Arizona, Berlin, and Thessaloniki.

(WCU Group at Edmund Pettus Bridge, from L to R, Melanie Evans, Maya Rylke-Friedman, Stacy Montgomery, Dr. LaTonya Thames-Taylor, Shirley Schenker, and Geoffrey Quinn.)

Learn more about the history of the Jews of Thessaloniki from this article by Dr. Paul Hagouel, an educator from the Jewish Museum of Thessaloniki.

In May 2012, Dr. Brenda Gaydosh will be leading students to Holocaust sites in Europe through EF tours. Interested students should contact Dr. Gaydosh at bgaydosh@wcupa.edu.

The Spring 2012 schedule in Holocaust and Genocide Studies is now posted:

HIS 332 Holocaust W 7:15-10:00 pm Dr. Friedman

HIS 331 20^th Century Europe TTh 5:45-7:00 pm Dr. Friedman

HIS 544 Final Solution T 7:15-10:00 pm Dr. Friedman

HIS 523 Modern Germany Th 5:45-8:30 pm Dr. Gaydosh

PHI 581 Human Rights W 4:15-7:00 Dr. Udell

For students interested in applying for Spring 2012, please note that Holocaust and Genocide Studies has rolling admissions, and that students can apply for admission in the spring through December 2011.

Students seeking additional information should contact the program director, Dr. Jonathan Friedman at jfriedman@wcupa.edu.

West Chester University has been a pioneer in Holocaust Studies since 1978 when an undergraduate course on the Holocaust was first offered.  The program now includes a Master of Arts in Holocaust and Genocide Studies, a certification program, an undergraduate minor, a regional education center, and a library collection.  The demand for Holocaust and Genocide Studies has grown over the past 20 years. Five states are now mandating that the subject be taught in the schools, and seven states -- including Pennsylvania -- are recommending inclusion in school curricula. It is expected that more states will institute such requirements. Thus, teachers and librarians are seeking more information and instruction. Furthermore, the end of the 20th century saw an explosion of new scholarship and new perspectives on the Holocaust. This scholarship is reinforced by the desire of survivors and those who lived through WWII to educate future generations and to bear witness to the fact that the Holocaust did happen.

Philips Memorial Hall

Subsequent episodes of genocide in the modern world generate a continuing need for education and a demand for teaching resources. As a public, comprehensive university that has been training teachers for more than a century, West Chester University is able to provide excellent scholarly and pedagogical resources to students, teachers, and the community.

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