100 Holocaust Scholars Urge Obama: Relaase White House Emails on Rwanda
One hundred leading Holocaust and genocide scholars from around the world have sent a letter to President Obama, urging him to release internal White House emails from 1994 concerning the U.S. response to the genocide in Rwanda.
The New York Times reported on June 4 that nine months have passed since Thomas Blanton, director of the National Security Archive at George Washington University, requested access to the approximately 100 emails, but they still remain under lock and key at the Clinton Presidential Library, because "the White House has not signed off on" the request.
The letter of protest by Holocaust scholars was organized by The David S. Wyman Institute for Holocaust Studies, based in Washington, D.C.
"Understanding the factors that shaped America's response to the 1994 genocide in Rwanda is crucial to efforts to prevent genocide in the future," the letter contends. "We respectfully urge you to approve the request to declassify the 100 emails about Rwanda, so that scholars and the public may learn all the facts about what happened."
The 100 signatories on the letter, who come from the United States, Canada, Israel, India, England, Belgium, Poland, Hungary, the Netherlands, South Africa, Australia, and Chile, include many of the most distinguished figures in the field of Holocaust and genocide studies, including:
* Prof. David S. Wyman, author of the best-selling The Abandonment of the Jews: America and the Holocaust 1941-1945.
* Prof. Yehuda Bauer, senior historian at Israel's Yad Vashem’s Holocaust center.
* Prof. Walter Reich, former executive director of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.
* Prof. Henry L. Feingold, author of The Politics of Rescue, one of the earliest books about America's response to the Holocaust.
The complete text of the petition, with all the signatories, follows below.
* * * * *
The David S. Wyman Institute for Holocaust Studies
June 9, 2014
President Barack Obama
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Ave. NW
Washington, DC 20500
Dear Mr. President,
As scholars who have written or taught about the Holocaust or other genocides, we are deeply troubled by the news that your administration has failed to approve the declassification of 100 internal White House emails about the Rwanda genocide that are held at the Clinton Presidential Library.
According to the New York Times (June 4, 2014), the declassification request was made nine months ago by Thomas Blanton, director of the National Security Archive at George Washington University, but the emails still remain under lock and key, because "the White House has not signed off on" the request.
Understanding the factors that shaped America's response to the 1994 genocide in Rwanda is crucial to efforts to prevent genocide in the future. We respectfully urge you to approve the request to declassify the 100 emails about Rwanda, so that scholars and the public may learn all the facts about what happened.
Cordially,
Dr. Navras Jaat Aafreedi
Gautam Buddha University, India
Prof. Irving Abella
York University, Toronto
Dr. Mehnaz M. Afridi
Director - Holocaust, Genocide, and Interfaith Education Center
Manhattan College
Dr. Avril Alba
University of Sydney
Dr. Meir Amor
Concordia University, Canada
Prof. Elizabeth Baer
Gustavus Adolphus College
Prof. Marie Baird
Duquesne University
Prof. Karyn Ball
University of Alberta, Edmonton, Canada
Prof. Paul R. Bartrop
Director, Center for Judaic, Holocaust, and Genocide Studies
Florida Gulf Coast University
Prof. Yehuda Bauer
Yad Vashem and Hebrew University (emer.)
Prof. Alessandra Benedicty
The City College of New York
Prof. Michael Berenbaum
American Jewish University
Prof. Alan L. Berger
Director, Center for the Study of Values and Violence after Auschwitz
Florida Atlantic University
Prof. Paul Bookbinder
University of Massachusetts - Boston
Dr. Harold Brackman
Simon Wiesenthal Center
Rabbi Shalom Bronstein
Jerusalem
Prof. Darcy Buerkle
Smith College
Dr. Daniel Burston
Duquesne University
Prof. Frank Chalk
Director, Montreal Institute for Genocide & Human Rights Studies
Concordia University, Canada
Prof. Israel Charny
Executive Director, Institute on the Holocaust & Genocide, Jerusalem
Eric Cohen
Co-founder and Chairperson, Investors Against Genocide
Dr. Menachem Daum
Documentary Filmmaker, Brooklyn NY
Dr. Gemma Del Duca, S.C.
National Catholic Center for Holocaust Education
Seton Hall University
Prof. Deborah Dwork
Director, Strassler Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies
Clark University
Prof. Marcia Esparza
Director, Historical Memory Project
John Jay College of Criminal Justice
Dr. Helen Fein
Institute for the Study of Genocide/BCSIA
Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University
Prof. Henry L. Feingold
CUNY Graduate Center and Baruch College (emer.)
Prof. Lawrence Frizzell
Seton Hall University
Prof. Allon Gal
Ben-Gurion University (emer.)
Prof. Zev Garber
Los Angeles Valley College (emer.); Editor, Shofar
Dr. Edyta Gawron
Jagiellonian University - Krakow, Poland
Prof. Jay Geller
Vanderbilt Divinity School
Dr. Myrna Goldenberg
Bethesda, MD
Rabbi Prof. David Golinkin
Schechter Institute of Jewish Studies
Prof. Gershon Greenberg
American University
Prof. Bernard Harrison
University of Utah (emer.) & University of Sussex, UK (emer.)
Naama Haviv
Assistant Director, Jewish World Watch
Prof. Michael Hayse
Director, M.A. Program in Holocaust & Genocide Studies
Richard Stockton College of New Jersey
Prof. Robert K. Hitchcock
University of New Mexico
Dr. Steven Leonard Jacobs
The University of Alabama
Prof. Aristotle Kallis
Lancaster University, UK
Prof. Katharina von Kellenbach
St. Mary's College of Maryland
Prof. Ben Kiernan
Yale University
Dr. Rebecca Kook
Ben-Gurion University
Dr. Neil J. Kressel
William Patterson University
Prof. Konrad Kwiet
University of Sydney
Prof. Fred Lazin
Ben Gurion University (emer.) / New York University
Prof. Laurel Leff
Northeastern University
Prof. Marcia Sachs Littell
Richard Stockton College of New Jersey (emer.)
Dr. Rafael Medoff
The David S. Wyman Institute for Holocaust Studies
Prof. Rochelle L. Millen
Wittenberg University
Prof. A. Dirk Moses
European University Institute, Florence, Italy
Tali Nates
Director, Johannesburg Holocaust & Genocide Centre
Prof. Stephen H. Norwood
University of Oklahoma
Prof. Michael Novak
Ave Maria University
Prof. David Patterson
University of Texas at Dallas
Natalie Pavlik
Director, Foundation Nunca Olvidar
Dr. John T. Pawlikowski, OSM
Catholic Theological Union, Chicago
Prof. Anton Pelinka
Central European University, Budapest
Prof. Monty Noam Penkower
Machon Lander Graduate School of Jewish Studies (emer.)
Prof. Allen Podet
SUNY Buffalo State
Prof. Eunice G. Pollack
University of North Texas
Dr. Elena Procario-Foley
Iona College
Prof. Ronald Radosh
CUNY (emer.); Adjunct Fellow, The Hudson Institute
Prof. Walter Reich
George Washington University
Former executive director, U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum
Dr. Carol Rittner, RSM
Richard Stockton College of New Jersey
Prof. Paul Rose
Pennsylvania State University
Prof. Thane Rosenbaum
New York University School of Law
Prof. John K. Roth
Claremont McKenna College (emer.)
Prof. Michael Rothberg
Director, Initiative in Holocaust, Genocide, and Memory STudies
University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign
Dr. Per Anders Rudling
Lund University, Sweden
Prof. Richard L. Rubenstein
President (emer.), University of Bridgeport
Prof. Suzanne D. Rutland, OAM
University of Sydney
Prof. Victoria Sanford
Director, Center for Human Rights & Peace Studies
Lehman College of the City University of New York
Prof. Robert Moses Shapiro
Brooklyn College of the City University of New York
Prof. Baila R. Shargel
Manhattanville College
Dr. Karen Shawn
Yeshiva University
Caroline Slifkin
Holocaust educator, UK
Prof. Melvin Small
Wayne State University
Prof. Roger W. Smith
College of William and Mary (emer.)
Prof. Kevin P. Spicer, C.S.C.
Stonehill College
Dr. Katerina Stefatos
Columbia University
Dr. Oren Baruch Stier
Director, Holocaust Studies Initiative
Florida International University
Prof. Abram de Swaan
University of Amsterdam
Prof. Norton Taichman
University of Pennsylvania (emer.)
Prof. Ana Maria Tapia-Adler
Director, Centro de Estudios Judaicos
Universidad de Chile
Prof. Peter Tarjan
University of Miami (emer.)
Prof. Henry Theriault
Worcester State University
Prof. Gil Troy
McGill University, Montreal, Canada
Prof. Dirk Verhofstadt
University Ghent, Belgium
Prof. Kenneth Waltzer
Director, Jewish Studies
Michigan State University
Dr. Racelle Weiman
Director, Dialogue Institute - Temple University
Prof. Robert G. Weisbord
University of Rhode Island
Laurie Weisman
Executive Director, The Memory Project Productions
Dr. Ann Weiss
Executive Director, Eyes from the Ashes Educational Foundation
Prof. Sonja Schoepf Wentling
Concordia College
Prof. Thierry De Win
College du Sacre-Coeur de Ganshoren, Belgium
Prof. Linda M. Woolf
Webster University
Prof. David S. Wyman
University of Massachusetts - Amherst (emer.)
Prof. Randall C. Zachman
University of Notre Dame
Prof. John C. Zimmerman
University of Nevada - Las Vegas
Prof. Bat-Ami Zucker
Bar Ilan University
Dr. Efraim Zuroff
Simon Wiesenthal Center, Jerusalem
(Institutions listed for identification purposes only.)