About the Hugo Valentin Lecture

Hugo Valentin (1888–1963) was a Swedish historian at Uppsala University. He was active in the field of Jewish history, specifically the history of the Jews in Sweden.

Hugo Valentin’s Judarnas historia i Sverige (History of the Jews in Sweden) from 1924 remains a key study in the field. He also published a shorter version, Judarna i Sverige (The Jews in Sweden), which covered the situation of Jews in Sweden during the interwar period and the Second World War. The most recent abridged version came out in 2013.

Additionally, Hugo Valentin was among the first to bring attention to the Holocaust while it was happening. In 1942, he published an article describing the "war of extermination against Jews" in the influential daily newspaper Göteborgs Handels- och Sjöfartstidning, which was subsequently cited by numerous other newspapers.

Following the war, Hugo Valentin documented the reception of Holocaust survivors in Sweden. In 1953, he published an article in the YIVO Annual (Yidisher visnshaftlekher institut), detailing the Scandinavian countries' responses to the Holocaust.

Hugo Valentin was engaged in the study of minority rights and Swedish immigration policies. He wrote several reports and analyses on the treatment of refugees in Sweden, particularly Jewish refugees fleeing Nazi persecution. He was critical of Sweden’s restrictive immigration policies before and during the war, advocating for a more open and humanitarian approach.

The Uppsala Centre for Holocaust and Genocide Studies honours his legacy by arranging the Annual Lecture in Honour of Hugo Valentin. The Vice-Chancellor of Uppsala University hosts the event, which has brought some of the most distinguished scholars in the field of Holocaust and Genocide Studies to Uppsala University.