Richard Breitman – 50th Reunion Essay

Richard Breitman

9013 Grant St

Bethesda, Maryland 20817

rbreit@american.edu

301-564-5146

Spouse(s): Carol Rose Breitman (1982)

Child(ren): David (1983), Marc (1988)

Education: MA Harvard 1971 PhD Harvard 1975

Career: professor of history for 39 years; editor of historical journal for 21 years: historical consultant and author

Avocations: tennis, bridge, basketball (spectator only)

College: Morse

I hoped for a career with opportunities to pursue my intellectual interests. I also liked the idea of working with students. A one-year teaching fellowship at Yale offered me the chance to try it all out. By the time I entered the doctoral program in modern European history at Harvard, a high draft lottery number eased my immediate future.

When I started graduate work, students were getting teaching positions well before they had finished their dissertations. By the time I finished, there were very few academic jobs in history nationally. I succeeded with the last job opening I really wanted—at American University.

The Washington, D.C., area offered attractive living options. It was a good choice in another respect: I met my wife there. We have two sons.

Washington offered better archives and libraries than almost anywhere else, even for a specialist in European history. Somewhat by accident, somewhat by inclination, I narrowed my focus in German history to Nazi Germany, the US, and the Holocaust. After the US Holocaust Museum was established in 1993, I developed a close relationship with it, becoming editor of its scholarly journal. I learned how to use the US National Archives, which increased my scholarly output. I could travel abroad occasionally, but I could go to the National Archives any day I was not teaching.

Perhaps that harrowing job search had something to do with the fact that I stayed at American University for my entire teaching career. I retired from teaching in 2015. I still love to do research and to write. Next year, I will have a new book published about an American consul and diplomat who gave a visa to Einstein, got Freud out of Nazi Vienna, and predicted the Holocaust.

I worked for years on a government program that resulted in the declassification of more than eight million pages of US records. I have also served as an expert witness in war crimes proceedings.

I played tennis at Yale, and I still play. I passionately followed the Boston Celtics then and now. I read a lot and wrote a lot at Yale, and I still do both. I know that I have changed a great deal in 50 years, but somehow, I think the continuities are quite significant.

The list of people who generously helped me along the way would far exceed the word limit here. But my professors at Yale, particularly Henry Turner, would be prominent on it. Yale prepared me well.