Center for Holocaust Studies - Villa Grande

The Center for Holocaust and Religious Minority Studies is a research, documentation and dissemination center focused on the Holocaust and other genocides and the plight of minorities in modern society. 

The HL Center's teaching department has great digital capability for school classes.

The Center for Holocaust and Religious Minority Studies is organized as an independent foundation and is an affiliated institution of the University of Oslo.

The center was established in 2001. In 2006 it moved from the Oslo University campus to Villa Grande, the former residence of Vidkun Quisling.

The endowment of the center was donated by the Norwegian government at the behest of the Norwegian Jewish community as part of the restitution made to Norwegian Jews for the confiscation of their property while Norway was occupied during World War II.

The center was established under the auspices of the University of Oslo and has a dual mission:

Educating the public about the Holocaust, especially in relation to the Norwegian experience, namely, deprivation of the right to vote, persecution, arrests, imprisonment, confiscation and deportation to extermination camps outside Norway, especially Auschwitz. This extends to anti-Semitic studies inside and outside Norway, in the past, present and future.
Studying ethnic and religious minorities, especially in Norway.

To this end, the center offers educational materials, programs, exhibitions, a museum and library collections. Although it is an independent entity, it has established formal relationships with the University of Oslo, Yad Vashem and the Jewish Museum of Trondheim.

On January 23, 2008, the center announced that a major object had been stolen from the center museum by November 23, 2007. The museum was subsequently temporarily closed to improve security.

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Map: Center for Holocaust Studies - Villa Grande