What Can You Do With a Master’s in Holocaust Studies?

Explore Careers in Research, Education, Museums, Archives, Communication and Holocaust Remembrance

Choosing a highly specialized graduate degree naturally raises an important question: What can you do with a Master’s in Holocaust Studies? The answer extends considerably beyond one profession.

Holocaust research exists within universities, museums, memorials, archives, schools, foundations, cultural organizations and other institutions responsible for researching history and communicating it to the public. The analytical, research and communication skills developed through graduate study can also be relevant to work in nonprofit organizations, documentary production, writing, public communication and other fields where historical understanding and evidence-based analysis matter.

At Touro Berlin, the MA in Holocaust Studies combines historical research with the study of memory, representation, education, perpetration, collaboration and the ways the Holocaust continues to be understood today. The result is a specialized academic foundation that can support several professional and research directions.

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What Skills Do You Develop in Holocaust Studies?

A Master’s degree should provide more than knowledge about a particular subject. Graduate education also develops methods for finding, evaluating, interpreting and communicating information.

Within Holocaust Studies, those skills carry particular importance because students work with complex historical evidence and subjects that demand accuracy and context.

Students learn to approach archival materials critically, evaluate historical arguments, understand different academic frameworks and communicate research through writing and discussion.

They also examine how the Holocaust has been represented through museums, memorials, literature and film and how different countries approach Holocaust education. These abilities can be relevant to several professional environments because museums, archives, universities, educational organizations and cultural institutions all require people capable of researching information and communicating it responsibly.

Become a Holocaust Educator

Education is one of the clearest professional directions connected with Holocaust Studies.

A Holocaust educator may work within museums, memorial institutions, educational organizations or other environments where Holocaust history is communicated to students and the wider public.

Effective Holocaust education requires more than knowing historical dates and events. Educators must understand how to provide context, work responsibly with testimony and historical sources and adapt complex material to different audiences without sacrificing accuracy.

Touro Berlin’s program examines the teaching of the Holocaust and compares approaches to Holocaust education across different countries. This allows students to consider not only what should be taught but how historical knowledge is transmitted and how educational practices change according to cultural and institutional contexts.

Build a Career in Historical Research

Students who are particularly interested in archival work, historiography and producing new scholarship may pursue historical research. Researchers investigate documents, testimonies, photographs, institutional records and other primary and secondary sources to reconstruct events and develop better understandings of historical processes.

Graduate education can also provide a foundation for students who later decide to pursue doctoral research and an academic career. Touro Berlin graduate Niels Pohl describes his experience in the program as a collaboration with professors based on mutual appreciation and a shared interest in researching Holocaust history. He subsequently became a researcher and doctoral candidate at the Centre for Holocaust Studies of the Institute for Contemporary History (IfZ) in Munich.

His path illustrates one of the possibilities available to students who want to move from a specialized Master’s program toward advanced academic research.

Work in Museums, Memorials and Archives

Museums and memorial institutions play an essential role in connecting historical research with public understanding.

Behind an exhibition are decisions about research, artifacts, documents, interpretation, educational materials and how information should be presented to visitors. A Holocaust Studies graduate may therefore be interested in professional directions such as museum work, curating, archival work or memorial education.

Touro Berlin integrates museums and memorials directly into its academic approach. Students examine the representation of the Holocaust in these institutions and can participate in funded excursions and engagement with memorial sites.

Graduate Svea Hammerle has described gaining practical experience in curating exhibitions and developing educational materials during her studies, as well as working with Berlin memorial sites. She later continued into doctoral research at the Leibniz Centre for Contemporary History. This connection between scholarship and public history is one of the reasons Berlin provides such a meaningful environment for the field.

Continue Into Academic Research and a PhD

For some graduates, an MA in Holocaust Studies is not the end of their academic education but preparation for the next stage. Students interested in becoming scholars may continue toward doctoral research, developing specialized projects within Holocaust history, Jewish history, memory studies, education or related disciplines.

A Master’s program provides opportunities to strengthen academic writing, develop research questions, engage with scholarly debates and work more closely with professors.

At Touro Berlin, students study with faculty who bring extensive academic research and publication experience to the program. The faculty includes specialists dedicated to Holocaust Studies, while small classes provide an environment for closer academic interaction.

These relationships can be particularly valuable for students considering further research because graduate education is also about becoming part of an academic field and understanding how scholarly work is developed.

Explore Documentary, Writing and Communication Careers

Historical research reaches the public through more than universities and museums.

Documentaries, books, journalism, digital projects, exhibitions and other forms of communication all influence how societies encounter the past.

A graduate who combines historical knowledge with strong research and communication skills may therefore explore work in documentary filmmaking, writing, publishing, public relations or communications, particularly within cultural, educational or historical organizations.

Holocaust Studies can provide an important foundation for this work because students examine not only historical events but also questions of representation.

How does a film communicate Holocaust history? How should personal testimony be used? What happens when complex historical events are simplified for a wider audience? How can communication remain accessible while still being accurate? These questions are highly relevant wherever historical knowledge is transformed into public-facing content.

Work With Nonprofits, Advocacy and International Organizations

Touro Berlin also identifies nonprofit and NGO work, advocacy, human rights, international relations and diplomacy among the professional directions that graduates may consider.

The connection should be understood carefully. A Holocaust Studies degree does not automatically qualify someone for every position in these fields, and different organizations may require additional professional experience, language skills or specialized qualifications.

However, graduate study develops abilities that can be valuable in organizations working with history, education, remembrance, discrimination and related social questions.

Students learn to construct arguments from evidence, distinguish between historical documentation and unsupported claims, work with complex perspectives and communicate sensitive material responsibly. Those are transferable intellectual skills, even when graduates ultimately work beyond Holocaust-specific institutions.

Why Berlin Matters for a Career in Holocaust Studies

Location can be especially significant when studying a field connected with history and memory. Berlin contains an extraordinary concentration of memorials, museums, archives and historical sites connected with National Socialism, Jewish life, persecution, deportation and Holocaust remembrance.

Touro Berlin students can engage with memorial institutions and examine how sites have developed over time and how they continue to influence public memory.

This creates opportunities to understand the professional work surrounding Holocaust remembrance rather than encountering museums and memorials only as visitors.

Networking also matters in specialized fields. Connections with researchers, professors, memorial institutions and other students can become valuable as graduates begin considering doctoral programs, internships, research projects or professional opportunities.

An Online Master’s With International Connections

Not every student interested in Holocaust Studies is able to relocate permanently or leave an existing career. Touro Berlin’s MA is designed as an online program with some hybrid elements, allowing greater flexibility for students and working professionals.

The program is taught entirely in English, with no German-language certificate required, and includes shared online courses with students in Israel as well as access to international archives and virtual engagement with memorial sites. Touro Berlin also offers a scholarship covering more than 75% of tuition fees, helping make this specialized graduate education more accessible.

Touro Berlin describes the program as the only Master’s degree of its kind in Germany and the European Union, giving students an opportunity to pursue a highly specialized field within an American university environment connected to Berlin.

Where Can a Master’s in Holocaust Studies Take You?

There is no single career that every Holocaust Studies graduate is expected to pursue.

Some students may become Holocaust educators or historical researchers. Others may work in museums, memorials or archives, continue toward a PhD and academic research, or apply their research and communication skills within documentary filmmaking, writing, nonprofit organizations, communications, international relations, advocacy or public policy.

The appropriate direction depends on each graduate’s interests, previous experience and any additional professional qualifications required for a particular role.

What connects these different pathways is the ability to work carefully with evidence, history and communication.

At Touro Berlin, the MA in Holocaust Studies is designed to provide that foundation through interdisciplinary scholarship, close academic engagement, international perspectives and connections with the institutions responsible for preserving Holocaust history and memory.

For students considering what they can do with a Master’s in Holocaust Studies, the answer begins with research and education but can extend into many different ways of preserving, interpreting and communicating history.

The work is specialized, but its responsibility is broad: ensuring that historical knowledge remains researched, documented and communicated with accuracy for generations to come.

Note: This blog provides educational and editorial content on a variety of topics. The views and interpretations expressed in individual articles do not necessarily reflect the official position of Touro University Berlin or Touro University.