In 2011, a partnership agreement between SNCF and the Institut d’études politiques (IEP) of Bordeaux led to the creation and funding of the Chaire Joseph Benzacar, dedicated to university teaching on the history of the Holocaust and the genocides of the 20th century. This initiative, unprecedented in France at the time, aimed to deepen understanding of these events and raise students’ awareness of the historical and memorial issues associated with them.
The Chaire Joseph Benzacar: teaching the history of the Holocaust and genocides
The choice of Joseph Benzacar’s name pays tribute to a founding figure of the Bordeaux institution. In 1921, he created the Institut d’études et de documentation économiques et sociales, which later became the Institut d’études politiques de Bordeaux. Deported in 1944 with his wife, at the age of 82, he was murdered at Auschwitz.
From the very first academic year, in 2011-2012, this optional course attracted keen interest: 130 third-year students, out of a cohort of 250, chose to take it. The programme notably covers the history of the Holocaust from a comparative perspective alongside the other genocides of the 20th century.
The Mémorial de la Shoah, a partner in this initiative, contributed to the teaching. Alban Perrin, coordinator of training at the Mémorial de la Shoah, notably lectures on the comparative history of the genocides of the 20th century.
The Chaire Joseph Benzacar is thus evidence of SNCF’s commitment, in the early 2010s, to research and university teaching dedicated to the history of the Holocaust and genocides.
