The Holocaust was a horrible and perhaps unparalleled instance of human cruelty, violence, and genocide. Six million Jews and 5 million non-Jews died at the hands of Nazi assault. It must not be forgotten.

Genocide does not arise out of nothing, nor does it occur spontaneously. Rather the path to genocide is marked by increasing levels of violence and early warning indicators. The roots of genocide must be studied. With this knowledge, we can work collaboratively to develop models and policies towards early warning, prevention, peaceful conflict resolution, reconciliation, and reconstruction.

Human rights is the name given to humankind's most universal and fundamental needs and aspirations. Their codification in international law represents this generation's attempt to secure conditions which guarantee security, liberty and dignity. Genocide is the most extreme threat to fulfillment of these needs and aspirations and the Holocaust perhaps the most horrible example of their systematic deprivation.

The Webster University Center for the Study of the Holocaust, Genocide and Human Rights takes as its mission the education of our students, our faculty, our community and ourselves.

To further this mission, the Center will engage in undergraduate and post-graduate education and will sponsor educational programs for the broader community (films, lectures, conferences, exhibits.) The Center will develop resource and curricular libraries/cybraries for use by educators and students both locally and globally. It will sponsor research and curriculum development and will serve as a conduit for student action and involvement. The Center will work collaboratively with other institutions having compatible missions.

Why a Center for the Study of the Holocaust, Genocide and Human Rights?

The slaughter of two million Armenians during World War I was once the world's best known and most abhorred example of genocide. Yet, less than a generation later, Adolph Hitler, preparing for the destruction of Europe's Jews, could say "Who, after all, speaks today of the annihilation of the Armenians?"

If we forget, if we fail to understand the roots of genocide, or if we fail to act, the next century's genocidal toll may be much greater than 170 million.

Yet today's students are surprisingly unaware of the circumstances or events of the Holocaust. A recent survey showed 56% did not know that six million Jews were murdered during the Holocaust. 94% did not know that another five million non-combatants, non-Jews, were murdered by the Nazis.

Hate groups are multiplying rapidly, up 20% in 1997 to 474. By 1998 the number grew to 537. Klan and neo-Nazi groups are rising most rapidly. Hate sites on the internet have grown from 163 in 1997 to 254 at the end of 1998, a rise of nearly 60%.

There is no center even roughly comparable in scope and mission within hundreds of miles of Saint Louis.

Why Webster University?

Webster University's legacy and resources -- the founding spirit of the Sisters of Loretto, the work of Harry James Cargas and Jacqueline Grennan Wexler, and the organic growth of relevant programs -- position it uniquely to support the Center's mission.

With the only organized undergraduate Human Rights curriculum in North America; as the home of the Haiti Project and its unique resource library; with its Refugee Studies curriculum in Geneva and Saint Louis; with a history of teaching and scholarship in the area of genocide and the Holocaust; with an explicitly international outlook and mission and campuses in Europe and Asia; Webster University is the natural, the best, place for such a Center.