Richard Breitman


Richard David Breitman, born in 1947, is an American historian best known for his study of the Holocaust.

Education and career

Breitman received a B.A. from Yale College, an M.A. from Yale University, and his Ph.D. from Harvard University. He has spent most of his career in the history department at American University in Washington, D.C., joining the faculty in 1976, becoming a Professor in 1985 and a Distinguished Professor in 2011.
He has written extensively about German history, U.S. history, and the Holocaust. Well known books include FDR and the Jews ; The Architect of Genocide: Himmler and the Final Solution; and Official Secrets: What the Nazis Planned, What the British and Americans Knew. He is editor of the scholarly journal Holocaust and Genocide Studies. He served as director of historical research for the Nazi War Criminal Records and Imperial Japanese Records Interagency Working Group.

Publications