Peter Kenez (born 1937) is a Hungarian-American historian specializing in Russian and Eastern European history and politics.

Life

Kenez was born and grew up in Pesterzsébet, Budapest, Kingdom of Hungary. His father was arrested in March 1944 after Operation Margarethe and deported to the Auschwitz concentration camp and killed. His mother fled to Budapest with him, where they survived the persecution of the Jews by the Eichmann-Kommando and the Arrow Cross Party. After the Hungarian uprising of 1956 he fled to the US. He received his PhD from Harvard University under the advisor Richard Pipes. He has taught at the University of California, Santa Cruz, since 1966, where he is currently Professor Emeritus. He also teaches courses on Soviet cinema and an interdisciplinary course on the Holocaust with literature professor Murray Baumgarten.

Books