History & Background

A combination of factors led to the establishment of the Center on the Sonoma State University campus. Dr. John Steiner, currently Emeritus Professor of Sociology at SSU, a Holocaust scholar and a survivor of the death camps of Auschwitz and Dachau, assumed a leading role in the development of the Center. In addition, fifteen permanent faculty from disciplines throughout the University have been involved on a regular basis in the Center’s efforts to provide an interdisciplinary education on the Holocaust and genocide to both the SSU campus and to the larger community.

The activity of the community-based Alliance for the Study of the Holocaust was another important factor in the development of the Center for the Study of the Holocaust at SSU. Made up of representatives from various local organizations, synagogues and churches, the Alliance grew out of an ad hoc committee responsible for organizing annual Holocaust Commemorative Services at Sonoma State, beginning in 1980. Two years later, the ad hoc committee formed an “alliance” of various community organizations to cooperate with University faculty in the creation of the highly successful Holocaust Lectures. The cooperation between the Alliance for the Study of the Holocaust and the Center for the Study of the Holocaust represents a highly successful University-Community partnership.

For more information on the Center for the Study of the Holocaust and Genocide
or the Holocaust Lecture Series, please contact us at centerh@sonoma.edu.