While the "Final Solution" - the destruction of European Jewry - was effected in the name of Hitler, its overall management was primarily in the hands of Heinrich Himmler, head of the S.S. More than just a manager, however, Himmler was an ideologue who set the tone for the S.S., an organization that he committed to eliminating all of those that he regarded as a danger to Germany and to the Aryan race that he glorified.
As author of The Architect of Genocide: Himmler and The Final Solution, Richard Breitman is particularly well qualified to discuss Himmler's motivation and his role in the Holocaust. Breitman, a Professor of History at American University, has published highly acclaimed works on several Holocaust-related topics, including German Socialism and Weimar Democracy; Breaking the Silence: American Refugee Policy and European Jewry, 1933-1945 (with Alan Kraut); and Official Secrets: What the Nazis Planned, What the British and Americans Knew. He works with the U.S. Holocaust Museum as editor-in-chief of Holocaust and Genocide Studies and is currently Director of Historical Research for the Nazi War Criminal Records Interagency Working Group, a federal government agency.
Prior to Dr. Breitman's talk, Corvallis mayor Helen Berg gave the official welcome and city proclamation.
At Oregon State University, we have observed Holocaust Memorial Week every year since 1987. The breadth and the duration of our effort are unmatched in the Pacific Northwest. This program grows from the belief that educational institutions can do much to combat prejudice of all kinds, and to foster respect for the diversity that is America, by promoting an awareness of the Holocaust, perhaps the most horrific historical indicator of the high cost of prejudice. It is particularly important to teach young people about the Holocaust, so that coming generations will not forget the lessons that a preceding one learned at such cost. This emphasis recalls the motto of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum: "For the dead and the living, we must bear witness."
To learn more about the Holocaust Memorial Program at Oregon State University, please visit oregonstate.edu/holocaust/