Peter Fritzsche, Ph.D.

Peter Fritzsche, Ph.D. has taught history at the University of Illinois since 1987. He has lived in Berlin and Tel Aviv and is the author of twelve books on the rise of National Socialism, World War II, and the Holocaust including prize-winning Life and Death in Nazi Germany and An Iron Wind. A leader in his field, Fritzsche is a veteran of the archives: across Germany, and in Israel, New York, and Washington DC. In his work, Fritzsche has analyzed Jewish diaries, ghetto reportage, and, notably, endangered Jews’ relationships to God. He has also examined how publics responded to Hitler and the Holocaust. The recovery of voices especially of victims but also perpetrators is a keynote of his work. At University of Illinois, he teaches the university’s main Holocaust course in addition to seminars on war, ethnic cleansing, genocide, and refugees and exiles. Fritzsche writes for the New York Times and Wall Street Journal and serves as a primary consultant for the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum and its effort to revamp the permanent exhibit.