About the National Catholic Center for Holocaust Education

The National Catholic Center for Holocaust Education (NCCHE) makes scholarship on the Holocaust and other acts of genocide accessible to educators at every level. Seton Hill established this Center on its campus in 1987. The university initiated this national Catholic movement toward Holocaust studies in response to the urging of Pope John Paul II to recognize the significance of the SHOAH, the Holocaust, and to “promote the necessary historical and religious studies on this event which concerns the whole of humanity today” (Letter to Archbishop John L. May, 1987).

Statement on the Death of George Floyd and the Present Turmoil

We at the National Catholic Center for Holocaust Education are deeply saddened and troubled by the recent death of George Floyd while in police custody. We recognize that this tragedy is part of a long series of similar incidents that together reveal a disturbing pattern of systemic racism in American society.

Our Center was founded to teach the facts of the Holocaust and to apply its lessons to the contemporary world. The racism of the Nazi regime led its leaders to mercilessly persecute and murder Jews, Roma, and others deemed to be "racially inferior." Today, we recognize and confront the prejudice, discrimination and hate-fueled violence that continue to do enormous damage to innocent lives.

In this time of turmoil, it essential that we seek guidance from our religious traditions, at the heart of which are the beliefs in the sanctity of all human life and the inherent equality of all. And we urge that all of us sincerely pledge to build a society that is free of racism and injustice, where the dignity of each of our lives is affirmed.

Statement on shooting at Tree of Life Synagogue

The National Catholic Center for Holocaust Education and Seton Hill University strongly condemns the October, 2018 mass shooting at the Tree of Life synagogue . We offer our deepest sympathy to the family and friends of the victims whose lives were lost in this senseless tragedy.

Recently antisemitism and bigotry have been on a steady rise in the United States. The escalation of hateful rhetoric needs to be addressed and condemned in the strongest terms possible in order to avoid such tragedies in the future.

Seton Hill is an affirmative action, equal opportunity institution. 

Photo Copyright: Hamburg Institute for Social Research, Germany. Lubny, Ukraine, German soldiers standing next to Jewish women and children at the assembly point, 16/10/1941.