American University's Jewish Studies Program works closely with the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum (USHMM), located in downtown Washington, DC, to offer AU students opportunities to deepen their knowledge of the Holocaust. AU students intern and volunteer at the USHMM, and the Jewish Studies Program, Department of History, and the USHMM collaborate on a jointly sponsored Holocaust Studies Forum.

Internships & Volunteering

American University students may intern or volunteer at the USHMM, where they work with museum staff, scholars, and the public. Internships are assigned as needed, but in the past AU students have interned in the USHMM's Archives Division, Collections Division, Survivors Registry Commission, Committee on Conscience, Education Division, and Film and Video Archives. The USHMM also welcomes volunteers dedicated to educating the public about the Holocaust. Volunteers at the museum may work in the many divisions of the museum, including Visitors Services, the Learning Center, Educational Programs and Tour Guides, Genocide Prevention, and Behind-the-Scenes. 

Holocaust Studies Forum

The Holocaust Studies Forum is jointly sponsored by the AU Department of History, the AU Jewish Studies Program and the Center for Advanced Holocaust Studies of the US Holocaust Memorial Museum. Inaugurated in the fall of 2009, the Forum brings leading scholars in Holocaust Studies, including the Center's fellows and staff historians, to American University for public lectures and discussions.

The 2013-2014 lecture series included:

• "Final Solutions in Yugoslavia: The Holocaust and Other Genocidal Murder, 1941-1942," Emil Kerenji, Center for Advanced Holocaust Studies

• "'The Last Great Nazi War Crimes Trial': Demjanjuk in Munich," Lawrence Douglas, Ina Levine Invitational Scholar Fellow at the Center for Advanced Holocaust Studies and James J. Grosfeld Professor of Law, Jurisprudence and Social Thought at Amherst College