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.

* * * * *

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.)