The annual Holocaust Memorial Lecture was inaugurated in 1989 by then-Chancellor William H. Danforth, who, at the request of both students and faculty, appointed a committee to establish a permanent lecture. Held on or near November 9, the anniversary of the Kristallnacht pogroms in Nazi Germany, the lecture aims not only to commemorate the Holocaust but also to address its broader implications for other instances of systematic persecution, mass murder and genocide. The lecture customarily alternates between speakers who concentrate specifically on aspects of the Holocaust and those who speak more generally about modern genocide, international conflict and humanitarian aid or concentrate specifically on particular instances of genocidal violence. Past speakers have included well-known public figures and leading scholars of both the Holocaust and other historical mass traumas.
Each speaker is selected by the Holocaust Memorial Committee, which is composed of faculty, students and staff. The committee includes the following:
- Erin McGlothlin, Chair, Vice Dean of Undergraduate Affairs, Gloria M. Goldstein Professor of Holocaust Studies, and Professor of German and Jewish Studies
- David Cunningham, Professor of Sociology
- Stephanie Kirk, Director of the Center for the Humanities, Professor of Spanish, of Comparative Literature, and of Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies
- Anne Schult, Assistant Professor of History
- Carly Wayne, Assistant Professor of Political Science
- Sophie Hawks, Graduate Student, Germanic Languages and Literatures
- Molly Schneider, Graduate Student, Sociology
- Sylvia Sukop, Graduate Student, Germanic Languages and Literatures
- Gabe Herzlinger, Undergraduate Student, Math and Philosophy
- Baylor McInturff, Undergraduate Student, Anthropology and Art History & Archaeology
- Helen Turner, St. Louis Kaplan Feldman Holocaust Museum (ex officio)
- Jackie Levey, Hillel at WashU (ex officio)
