The Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies

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Mission

The mission of the Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies is to instill within current and future military leaders a sophisticated understanding of the Holocaust and other instances of genocide, and to inspire them to prevent future atrocities in their roles as military leaders. The Center provides a critical space for research, teaching, and collaboration in interdisciplinary studies of the past and present.   

Vision 

The Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies is internationally recognized as the hub of teaching, research and practice for military education and training about mass atrocity and its prevention.  Its unique work insures that the U.S. Military Academy, the Army, and the Department of Defense are permanently innovating, expanding the toolbox available for detection and prevention, and educating cohorts of officers equipped with the knowledge and skills necessary to wrestle with humanity’s worst conflicts.   

This will be achieved by: 

• Assuring that the CHGS remains a world-class, interdisciplinary center which serves all of the service academies; 
• Employing a Center Director and support staff, including a Deputy Director and Post-doctoral Fellows in History and Atrocity Studies, to teach courses on genocide and the Holocaust, to develop curricular materials for use in other disciplines, to produce cutting edge research, and to work with US government agencies on atrocity detection and prevention issues; 
• Funding of regular workshops for students and faculty from all the service academies focused on mass atrocity; 
• Facilitating annual research internships for cadets and faculty, periodic study abroad for groups of cadets and faculty, as well as cooperative research projects with other universities/think tanks/agencies; 
• Supporting a distinguished lecture and film series which bring scholars, policymakers, advocates, filmmakers or victims of mass atrocities to West Point annually; 
• Recognizing service academy students and international scholars and activists for contributions to atrocity studies.