Can Samantha Power Wage a War on Atrocities in Central African Republic?
12-19-2013
Thursday, December 19, 2013
Wednesday, December 18, 2013
Course: Politics of Reconciliation, Memory, and Justice
Monday/Wednesday 1:00-2:15pm
Spring Semester
Prof. Alejandro Baer (Sociology) and Prof. Catherine Guisan (Political Science)
What is political reconciliation? Are we witnessing efforts to bring final resolution to long-standing conflicts? Should we accept that reconciliation is at best a fragile, temporary equilibrium between opposite political forces that must be reenacted with each passing generation? Is reconciliation an action that rests on religious faith, or does religion threaten reconciliation? Is there a dark side to reconciliation that undermines justice and economic fairness?
For more information on this course go to One Stop.
Spring Semester
Prof. Alejandro Baer (Sociology) and Prof. Catherine Guisan (Political Science)
What is political reconciliation? Are we witnessing efforts to bring final resolution to long-standing conflicts? Should we accept that reconciliation is at best a fragile, temporary equilibrium between opposite political forces that must be reenacted with each passing generation? Is reconciliation an action that rests on religious faith, or does religion threaten reconciliation? Is there a dark side to reconciliation that undermines justice and economic fairness?
For more information on this course go to One Stop.
Violence in Central Africa: Is the Central African Republic on the Road to Genocide?
By Wahutu Siguru
Something insidious, but sadly not unexpected, is happening in the Central African Republic (CAR)-over the past twelve months mass killings have been taking place in the CAR, a former French colony in a very rough neighborhood (it borders the Sudan's to the East, Chad to the North, and DRC to the South). Things came to a head in March when the former president Francois Bozizé was deposed by a group of Muslim militants (Séléka) whom instigated sectarian killings and human rights abuses against the largely Christian populace. This has resulted in the formation of self-defense groups (Anti-balaka meaning 'sword/machete' in the Sango language) formed to protect the victims. This conflict is complicated by the fact that there are claims of the Séléka getting support from mercenaries in Sudan and Chad.
On the 5th of December, the UN voted to allow the French to send 400 troops into the CAR who would augment the already present AU battalion of 3600. The French intend on increasing this number to 1200 troops in the coming days following a sudden outbreak of killings within the last fortnight of women and children by Séléka forces (meaning 'union' in the Sango language) that has resulted in 500 deaths and 189,000 fleeing their homes in Bangui. Fears of retaliatory attacks have become more pronounced leading both Burundi and Rwanda to pledge to send troops to the country. While the number of deaths might seem deceptively low for a nation of about 4.6 million, it only accounts for Bangui since correspondents have not been able to venture outside that area.
In a letter by Medecins Sans Frontieres to the UN humanitarian system, MSF has accused the UN of indifference to the plight of the victims. It states that in the year that this atrocity has unfolded UN aid officials have done nothing but collect data that is related to the fighting and not provided assistance to the displaced people sheltering on the same compound as the officials.
It is important to note that this is not "another Rwanda" as has been suggested by some. This is a power grab by a cabal of rebels that seeks to control the vast minerals that are present in CAR. It is not an attempt to rid CAR of its Christian population but rather an attempt to instill fear and submission by a belligerent group. While there may be what some UN officials have called the seeds of genocide this does not ipso facto mean that "another Rwanda" is at hand. It is however, an atrocity that is fast degenerating and a humanitarian catastrophe that is getting worse. The international community finds itself at a crossroads like it has on several occasions (Syria and Mali being the most recent). The French and the AU have taken a proactive role in trying to mitigate the situation but more is needed. The UN humanitarian system also has to step up and rise to the challenge.
This weekend the first signs of hope appeared. Michel Djotodja, the current president and former leader of the Séléka leader said that he is willing to negotiate with Anti-balaka forces. The only problem is that he barely has control of the capital city and some of his former fighters have gone their own way. This is coupled by the fact that no one is sure how much control the faction of Anti-balaka that is willing to negotiate is representative of the movement itself. All of this is compounded by the fact that Anti-balaka has no recognizable structure further throwing into doubt who the president is actually going to negotiate with. Is it simple? No. Is it hopeless? No. It will require some rolling up of sleeves by the UN, AU, France and possibly the UNSC. This development is, however, a small but positive step that has to be fostered and natured by the international community, the sooner the better
Wahutu Siguru is the 2013 Badzin Fellow in Holocaust and Genocide Studies and PhD candidate in the Sociology department at the University of Minnesota. Siguru's research interests are in the Sociology of Media, Genocide, Mass Violence and Atrocities (specifically on issues of representation of conflicts in Africa such as Darfur and Rwanda), Collective Memory, and perhaps somewhat tangentially Democracy and Development in Africa.
Something insidious, but sadly not unexpected, is happening in the Central African Republic (CAR)-over the past twelve months mass killings have been taking place in the CAR, a former French colony in a very rough neighborhood (it borders the Sudan's to the East, Chad to the North, and DRC to the South). Things came to a head in March when the former president Francois Bozizé was deposed by a group of Muslim militants (Séléka) whom instigated sectarian killings and human rights abuses against the largely Christian populace. This has resulted in the formation of self-defense groups (Anti-balaka meaning 'sword/machete' in the Sango language) formed to protect the victims. This conflict is complicated by the fact that there are claims of the Séléka getting support from mercenaries in Sudan and Chad.
On the 5th of December, the UN voted to allow the French to send 400 troops into the CAR who would augment the already present AU battalion of 3600. The French intend on increasing this number to 1200 troops in the coming days following a sudden outbreak of killings within the last fortnight of women and children by Séléka forces (meaning 'union' in the Sango language) that has resulted in 500 deaths and 189,000 fleeing their homes in Bangui. Fears of retaliatory attacks have become more pronounced leading both Burundi and Rwanda to pledge to send troops to the country. While the number of deaths might seem deceptively low for a nation of about 4.6 million, it only accounts for Bangui since correspondents have not been able to venture outside that area.
In a letter by Medecins Sans Frontieres to the UN humanitarian system, MSF has accused the UN of indifference to the plight of the victims. It states that in the year that this atrocity has unfolded UN aid officials have done nothing but collect data that is related to the fighting and not provided assistance to the displaced people sheltering on the same compound as the officials.
It is important to note that this is not "another Rwanda" as has been suggested by some. This is a power grab by a cabal of rebels that seeks to control the vast minerals that are present in CAR. It is not an attempt to rid CAR of its Christian population but rather an attempt to instill fear and submission by a belligerent group. While there may be what some UN officials have called the seeds of genocide this does not ipso facto mean that "another Rwanda" is at hand. It is however, an atrocity that is fast degenerating and a humanitarian catastrophe that is getting worse. The international community finds itself at a crossroads like it has on several occasions (Syria and Mali being the most recent). The French and the AU have taken a proactive role in trying to mitigate the situation but more is needed. The UN humanitarian system also has to step up and rise to the challenge.
This weekend the first signs of hope appeared. Michel Djotodja, the current president and former leader of the Séléka leader said that he is willing to negotiate with Anti-balaka forces. The only problem is that he barely has control of the capital city and some of his former fighters have gone their own way. This is coupled by the fact that no one is sure how much control the faction of Anti-balaka that is willing to negotiate is representative of the movement itself. All of this is compounded by the fact that Anti-balaka has no recognizable structure further throwing into doubt who the president is actually going to negotiate with. Is it simple? No. Is it hopeless? No. It will require some rolling up of sleeves by the UN, AU, France and possibly the UNSC. This development is, however, a small but positive step that has to be fostered and natured by the international community, the sooner the better
Wahutu Siguru is the 2013 Badzin Fellow in Holocaust and Genocide Studies and PhD candidate in the Sociology department at the University of Minnesota. Siguru's research interests are in the Sociology of Media, Genocide, Mass Violence and Atrocities (specifically on issues of representation of conflicts in Africa such as Darfur and Rwanda), Collective Memory, and perhaps somewhat tangentially Democracy and Development in Africa.
The Last of the Unjust, the final words of Benjamin Murmelstein
By Jodi Elowitz
Who was Benjamin Murmelstein? Why would Claude Lanzmann dedicate over 3 hours to him in his latest film The Last of the Unjust? Murmelstein was a rabbi and teacher from Vienna, third Jewish elder of the Thereseinstadt ghetto, and the only surviving Jewish elder of any of the Jewish Councils set up by the Nazis. Condemned by many in the Jewish Community as a traitor and a Nazi collaborator he was tried and acquitted by the Czech authorities after the war settling in exile in Rome where he lived until his death in 1989.
He testified at the trial of Thereseinstadt Commandant Karl Rahm and wrote and published a book of his experiences in Terezin: Il ghetto-modello di Eichmann (Theresienstadt: Eichmann's Model Ghetto), in 1961. He submitted the book to Israeli prosecutors to use at the Eichmann trial (Adolf Eichmann, SS officer in charge of the deportation of the Jews of Europe) a submission that went unused.
Murmelstein had much valuable information to offer, especially on Eichmann So much so that if Murmelstein's testimony had been used it would have dispelled any notion of the dispassionate Nazi bureaucrat who only followed orders as defined by Hannah Arendt's term the "banality of evil." Instead we would have seen Eichmann as a man who loved his job and pursued it with zeal and passion above and beyond what was required by his superiors. We would also have seen a corrupt man who lined his own pockets with Jewish funds for both personal and professional gain, as the extra money afforded him the financial independence to run his department apart of the bureaucratic machine and away from the eyes of his superiors.
So why is Murmelstein's story coming to light now and why did Lanzmann wait nearly 40 years to make this film? Possibly the world was not ready for such a controversial and ambivalent figure. In 1975 Lanzmann interviewed Murmelstein for a project he was working on which later became the critically acclaimed 9-hour documentary Shoah. The interviews show that Murmelstein lived in the center of what Primo Levi referred to as the "grey zone" in his book The Drowned and the Saved. Levi's theory is that those of us who did not experience the lager (camps) and ghettos cannot place ourselves in a position to judge those that were there, nor can we view the Holocaust as something that is black or white, good or evil. We simply cannot know what we would do to survive under the circumstances.
Murmelstein is clear that he was no saint and that he loved power, danger and adventure that went with the job of being a Jewish community leader and later elder. But he also speaks in terms of the expectations that others had in times that were not ordinary. Murmelstein towards the end of the film tells Lanzmann that in Thereisenstadt there were no saints. "There were martyrs, but martyrs are not necessarily saints."
Murmelstein points out that many people tried to conduct life as they had under normal circumstances but there was nothing normal about Thereseinstadt, the model ghetto the Nazis had created to fool the world and the Jews imprisoned there about the "Final Solution." While Murmelstein claims his intentions were to save as many Jews as he could, others viewed him as a tyrant, a collaborator, and a man who only cared about himself. Yet many times in the interviews Murmelstein speaks of the opportunities he had to escape with his family to England and to Palestine, but he remained feeling it was his responsibility.
As the film begins we watch the now 87-year-old Lanzmann read from Murmelstein's book in Prague, Nisko, and Theresienstadt. One might wonder if this is an egotistical ploy by Lanzmann, but as the Murmelstein interviews unfold and the 3 1/2 hours go by we realize that Lanzmann has a real affection for Murmelstein, so much so he has become a surrogate witness. Lanzmann has become Murmelstein's voice, reading passages of his beautifully worded testimony in the places that Murmesltein describes, thus collapsing time, bringing past and present together in the same space, much as he did in Shoah.
Here amidst the past and present we hear Murmelstein in his own words, we are drawn to Murmelstein much like Lanzmann is by his bold storytelling, his intelligence, knowledge of mythology, literature and history. He seems to be telling the truth about his experiences, admitting to his flaws and the perceptions of his decisions.
The Last of the Unjust will not be remembered as a landmark documentary about the Holocaust like Shoah. Still, it is an important work that represents a different approach to Holocaust documentary. Lanzmann acts as a surrogate witness, in this case representing an extraordinary and at the same time flawed character steeped in moral ambivalence. Lanzmann offers the viewer a much more complex and deeper understanding of humanity during the Shoah by giving a voice to a survivor whose testimony was silenced by those who were not yet ready to hear what he had to say.
Jodi Elowitz is the Outreach Coordinator for CHGS and the Program Coordinator for the European Studies Consortium. Elowitz is currently working on Holocaust memory in Poland and artistic representation of the Holocaust in animated short films.
Who was Benjamin Murmelstein? Why would Claude Lanzmann dedicate over 3 hours to him in his latest film The Last of the Unjust? Murmelstein was a rabbi and teacher from Vienna, third Jewish elder of the Thereseinstadt ghetto, and the only surviving Jewish elder of any of the Jewish Councils set up by the Nazis. Condemned by many in the Jewish Community as a traitor and a Nazi collaborator he was tried and acquitted by the Czech authorities after the war settling in exile in Rome where he lived until his death in 1989.
He testified at the trial of Thereseinstadt Commandant Karl Rahm and wrote and published a book of his experiences in Terezin: Il ghetto-modello di Eichmann (Theresienstadt: Eichmann's Model Ghetto), in 1961. He submitted the book to Israeli prosecutors to use at the Eichmann trial (Adolf Eichmann, SS officer in charge of the deportation of the Jews of Europe) a submission that went unused.
Murmelstein had much valuable information to offer, especially on Eichmann So much so that if Murmelstein's testimony had been used it would have dispelled any notion of the dispassionate Nazi bureaucrat who only followed orders as defined by Hannah Arendt's term the "banality of evil." Instead we would have seen Eichmann as a man who loved his job and pursued it with zeal and passion above and beyond what was required by his superiors. We would also have seen a corrupt man who lined his own pockets with Jewish funds for both personal and professional gain, as the extra money afforded him the financial independence to run his department apart of the bureaucratic machine and away from the eyes of his superiors.
So why is Murmelstein's story coming to light now and why did Lanzmann wait nearly 40 years to make this film? Possibly the world was not ready for such a controversial and ambivalent figure. In 1975 Lanzmann interviewed Murmelstein for a project he was working on which later became the critically acclaimed 9-hour documentary Shoah. The interviews show that Murmelstein lived in the center of what Primo Levi referred to as the "grey zone" in his book The Drowned and the Saved. Levi's theory is that those of us who did not experience the lager (camps) and ghettos cannot place ourselves in a position to judge those that were there, nor can we view the Holocaust as something that is black or white, good or evil. We simply cannot know what we would do to survive under the circumstances.
Murmelstein is clear that he was no saint and that he loved power, danger and adventure that went with the job of being a Jewish community leader and later elder. But he also speaks in terms of the expectations that others had in times that were not ordinary. Murmelstein towards the end of the film tells Lanzmann that in Thereisenstadt there were no saints. "There were martyrs, but martyrs are not necessarily saints."
Murmelstein points out that many people tried to conduct life as they had under normal circumstances but there was nothing normal about Thereseinstadt, the model ghetto the Nazis had created to fool the world and the Jews imprisoned there about the "Final Solution." While Murmelstein claims his intentions were to save as many Jews as he could, others viewed him as a tyrant, a collaborator, and a man who only cared about himself. Yet many times in the interviews Murmelstein speaks of the opportunities he had to escape with his family to England and to Palestine, but he remained feeling it was his responsibility.
As the film begins we watch the now 87-year-old Lanzmann read from Murmelstein's book in Prague, Nisko, and Theresienstadt. One might wonder if this is an egotistical ploy by Lanzmann, but as the Murmelstein interviews unfold and the 3 1/2 hours go by we realize that Lanzmann has a real affection for Murmelstein, so much so he has become a surrogate witness. Lanzmann has become Murmelstein's voice, reading passages of his beautifully worded testimony in the places that Murmesltein describes, thus collapsing time, bringing past and present together in the same space, much as he did in Shoah.
Here amidst the past and present we hear Murmelstein in his own words, we are drawn to Murmelstein much like Lanzmann is by his bold storytelling, his intelligence, knowledge of mythology, literature and history. He seems to be telling the truth about his experiences, admitting to his flaws and the perceptions of his decisions.
The Last of the Unjust will not be remembered as a landmark documentary about the Holocaust like Shoah. Still, it is an important work that represents a different approach to Holocaust documentary. Lanzmann acts as a surrogate witness, in this case representing an extraordinary and at the same time flawed character steeped in moral ambivalence. Lanzmann offers the viewer a much more complex and deeper understanding of humanity during the Shoah by giving a voice to a survivor whose testimony was silenced by those who were not yet ready to hear what he had to say.
Jodi Elowitz is the Outreach Coordinator for CHGS and the Program Coordinator for the European Studies Consortium. Elowitz is currently working on Holocaust memory in Poland and artistic representation of the Holocaust in animated short films.
Monday, December 16, 2013
Reframing Mass Violence: Human Rights and Social Memory in Latin America and Southern Europe
1 Credit Topics Course Spring 2014
ALL sessions and guest-speaker presentations are public
Nolte 235
Thursdays 3:00p.m. to 4:30p.m.
This course will explore the particular developments and transnational entanglements of social memories in societies revisiting their legacies of dictatorship, state terror, and grave human rights violations in Latin America and Southern Europe.
It will be organized in a series of lectures in which distinguished experts from the countries of study will discuss their work and engage in dialogue with local scholars and students on the contemporary processes of re-interpretation and re-framing of the atrocities as well as the transitional justice models adopted in their aftermaths.
Coordinators:
• Barbara Frey (Human Rights Program)
• Alejandro Baer (Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies, Dept. of Sociology)
• Ana Forcinito (Dept. of Spanish and Portuguese)
January 23
Barbara Frey (U of M)
Transitional Justice and Human Rights
February 6
Pamela Yates and Paco de Onís (filmmakers)
Screening and discussion of their film "Granito: How to Nail a Dictator" (Guatemala)
February 20
Alejandro Baer (U of M)
The Collective Memory of Mass Atrocities
March 6
Mariana Achugar (Carnegie Mellon University)
Uruguayan Memories of Dictatorship
March 27
Glenda Mazzarobba (UNDP rep. for the Brazilian Truth Commission)
Reparations, Half Truths and Impunity
April 10
Emilio Crenzel (University of Buenos Aires) (tbc), Ana Forcinito, Leigh Payne (Oxford/U of M) Panel Discusion: The Evolving Memory of Argentina's "Disappeared"
April 24
Anna Forcinito (U of M)
Art, Memory and HHRR
May 8
Francisco Ferrándiz (CSIC, Madrid)
Unearthing Civil War Victims in Spain
Institute for Advanced Studies Research Collaborative Reframing Mass Violence 2013/2014.
ALL sessions and guest-speaker presentations are public
Nolte 235
Thursdays 3:00p.m. to 4:30p.m.
This course will explore the particular developments and transnational entanglements of social memories in societies revisiting their legacies of dictatorship, state terror, and grave human rights violations in Latin America and Southern Europe.
It will be organized in a series of lectures in which distinguished experts from the countries of study will discuss their work and engage in dialogue with local scholars and students on the contemporary processes of re-interpretation and re-framing of the atrocities as well as the transitional justice models adopted in their aftermaths.
Coordinators:
• Barbara Frey (Human Rights Program)
• Alejandro Baer (Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies, Dept. of Sociology)
• Ana Forcinito (Dept. of Spanish and Portuguese)
January 23
Barbara Frey (U of M)
Transitional Justice and Human Rights
February 6
Pamela Yates and Paco de Onís (filmmakers)
Screening and discussion of their film "Granito: How to Nail a Dictator" (Guatemala)
February 20
Alejandro Baer (U of M)
The Collective Memory of Mass Atrocities
March 6
Mariana Achugar (Carnegie Mellon University)
Uruguayan Memories of Dictatorship
March 27
Glenda Mazzarobba (UNDP rep. for the Brazilian Truth Commission)
Reparations, Half Truths and Impunity
April 10
Emilio Crenzel (University of Buenos Aires) (tbc), Ana Forcinito, Leigh Payne (Oxford/U of M) Panel Discusion: The Evolving Memory of Argentina's "Disappeared"
April 24
Anna Forcinito (U of M)
Art, Memory and HHRR
May 8
Francisco Ferrándiz (CSIC, Madrid)
Unearthing Civil War Victims in Spain
Institute for Advanced Studies Research Collaborative Reframing Mass Violence 2013/2014.
Monday, December 2, 2013
Third International Graduate Students' Conference on Genocide Studies to be held at Clark University
The Strassler Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies at Clark University will host the Third International Graduate Students' Conference on Genocide Studies: The State of Research 100 Years after the Armenian Genocide on 9 -11 April 2015, in cooperation with the Danish Institute for International Studies, Department of Holocaust and Genocide Studies, Copenhagen. The conference will provide a forum for doctoral students to present their research projects to peers and established scholars. The keynote speaker will be Professor Eric Weitz, Dean of Humanities and Arts and Professor of History at the City College of New York.
This interdisciplinary conference will reflect the full range of issues, concepts, and methods in current Genocide Studies research. The keynote address and a focus on papers that explore the Armenian Genocide are planned in commemoration of the 100th anniversary of the events of 1915. Papers that put the Armenian Genocide in a broader perspective and examine the concept of Ottoman Genocide carried out against minority ethnic-religious groups, including Assyrians and Greeks, are especially encouraged. Topics may include forceful mass-deportations, expulsions, and massacres during the late Ottoman period. We also invite pertinent applications from students working on the Holocaust as well as those who focus on genocides in Africa, Asia, Australia, and America as well as on the aftermath and collective memorialization of genocides.
Paper proposals from graduate students and recent post-docs (since 2012) across all disciplines are invited. Interested applicants should submit for consideration 1) a short curriculum vitae (one page max.) including name, address, email, and telephone number; 2) the title and an abstract of your paper (approx. 300 words, one page max. in English), addressing its basic arguments, its sources, and its relation to your dissertation project (for instance: summary, proposal, or chapter of the dissertation); and 3) a brief letter from your advisor indicating your enrollment in a doctoral program. We also invite applications for complete panels consisting of three papers. Such submissions should include a panel description of approx. 500 words.
The costs of travel, accommodation, registration, and meals will be covered for applicants whose papers are accepted. We will begin accepting applications on March 15, 2014 and the final deadline is August 15, 2014.
For more information click here.
This interdisciplinary conference will reflect the full range of issues, concepts, and methods in current Genocide Studies research. The keynote address and a focus on papers that explore the Armenian Genocide are planned in commemoration of the 100th anniversary of the events of 1915. Papers that put the Armenian Genocide in a broader perspective and examine the concept of Ottoman Genocide carried out against minority ethnic-religious groups, including Assyrians and Greeks, are especially encouraged. Topics may include forceful mass-deportations, expulsions, and massacres during the late Ottoman period. We also invite pertinent applications from students working on the Holocaust as well as those who focus on genocides in Africa, Asia, Australia, and America as well as on the aftermath and collective memorialization of genocides.
Paper proposals from graduate students and recent post-docs (since 2012) across all disciplines are invited. Interested applicants should submit for consideration 1) a short curriculum vitae (one page max.) including name, address, email, and telephone number; 2) the title and an abstract of your paper (approx. 300 words, one page max. in English), addressing its basic arguments, its sources, and its relation to your dissertation project (for instance: summary, proposal, or chapter of the dissertation); and 3) a brief letter from your advisor indicating your enrollment in a doctoral program. We also invite applications for complete panels consisting of three papers. Such submissions should include a panel description of approx. 500 words.
The costs of travel, accommodation, registration, and meals will be covered for applicants whose papers are accepted. We will begin accepting applications on March 15, 2014 and the final deadline is August 15, 2014.
For more information click here.
Graduate Course: Topics in Law, Crime, and Deviance: Gender, Mass Violence & Crime in International Law
Sociology 8190: Topics in Law, Crime, and Deviance: Gender, Mass Violence &
Crime in International Law
Spring 2014
This course examines crime and criminal justice as gendered phenomena with a
specific emphasis on gender-based violence during conflict. It explores how notions of different types of masculinity and femininity are embedded in and influence criminal behaviors, the operation of the criminal justice system, and the evolution of international criminal law. Course readings draw on historical and contemporary research and various theoretical perspectives, some of which present very different ways to think about how crime and criminal justice are shaped by gender and sex.
Crime in International Law
Spring 2014
This course examines crime and criminal justice as gendered phenomena with a
specific emphasis on gender-based violence during conflict. It explores how notions of different types of masculinity and femininity are embedded in and influence criminal behaviors, the operation of the criminal justice system, and the evolution of international criminal law. Course readings draw on historical and contemporary research and various theoretical perspectives, some of which present very different ways to think about how crime and criminal justice are shaped by gender and sex.
Human Rights Minor Paula Sofía Cuellar Cuellar to Present at the Next HGMV Workshop
Trials and Genocides
Holocaust Genocide & Mass Violence Studies Workshop (HGMV)
Thursday, December 12, 2013
3:00p.m.
Room 710 Social Sciences Building
With the internationalization of human rights in the aftermath of the World War II, a new paradigm emerged within the international community. The Westphalian concept of sovereignty was abandoned and was replaced by the idea that human rights were a matter of global concern. The Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide was among the first international treaties enacted under that new world order. That treaty states that the persons charged with genocide "shall be tried."However, in times of transition to democracy, a question arises: are trials a viable option to prosecute genocidaires?
Paula Sofía Cuellar Cuellar's academic education includes a LL.B. Degree from the Central American University "José Simeón Cañas" and includes a Master´s Degree in Human Rights and Education for Peace from the University of El Salvador and a LL.M. Degree in International Human Rights Law from Notre Dame. She also, has a Postgraduate Diploma on Human Rights and Democratization´s Processes from the University of Chile and several diplomas on constitutional law and transitional justice courses. She is currently working towards a minor in Human Rights and an advanced degree in History at the University of Minnesota.
Holocaust Genocide & Mass Violence Studies Workshop (HGMV)
Thursday, December 12, 2013
3:00p.m.
Room 710 Social Sciences Building
With the internationalization of human rights in the aftermath of the World War II, a new paradigm emerged within the international community. The Westphalian concept of sovereignty was abandoned and was replaced by the idea that human rights were a matter of global concern. The Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide was among the first international treaties enacted under that new world order. That treaty states that the persons charged with genocide "shall be tried."However, in times of transition to democracy, a question arises: are trials a viable option to prosecute genocidaires?
Paula Sofía Cuellar Cuellar's academic education includes a LL.B. Degree from the Central American University "José Simeón Cañas" and includes a Master´s Degree in Human Rights and Education for Peace from the University of El Salvador and a LL.M. Degree in International Human Rights Law from Notre Dame. She also, has a Postgraduate Diploma on Human Rights and Democratization´s Processes from the University of Chile and several diplomas on constitutional law and transitional justice courses. She is currently working towards a minor in Human Rights and an advanced degree in History at the University of Minnesota.
The Recurrence of Genocide since the Holocaust
A Lecture by Phillip Spencer
Friday, December 6, 2013
12:00 p.m.
Room 710 Social Science Building
After the Holocaust, the Genocide Convention was aimed explicitly of ridding mankind of this 'odious scourge.' The Convention was, with the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, one of the founding documents of the post-Holocaust era; but genocide recurs, and with alarming frequency, across almost every continent. Little has been done to prevent or halt the recurrence of this 'crime of crimes' and very few perpetrators have been brought to justice.
In this lecture, Professor Spencer explores some of the reasons that have been put forward to account for these troubling failures, and reflects on what light our current understandings of the Holocaust can throw on the acute problem of genocide today.
Professor Philip Spencer is Director of the Helen Bamber Centre for the Study of Rights, Conflict and Mass Violence, at Kingston University. The Centre, which he founded in 2004, provides a focus for research and teaching in these areas. It is named in honor of the veteran rights campaigner Helen Bamber, who has devoted her life to the victims of conflicts across the world.
Professor Spencer's own research interests include the Holocaust; comparative genocide; nationalism; and anti-Semitism. He is also director of the university's European Research Department, where the central focus is on European political and cultural identity, with an overall concern for the changing forms, boundaries and future of Europe in the modern world.
Friday, December 6, 2013
12:00 p.m.
Room 710 Social Science Building
After the Holocaust, the Genocide Convention was aimed explicitly of ridding mankind of this 'odious scourge.' The Convention was, with the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, one of the founding documents of the post-Holocaust era; but genocide recurs, and with alarming frequency, across almost every continent. Little has been done to prevent or halt the recurrence of this 'crime of crimes' and very few perpetrators have been brought to justice.
In this lecture, Professor Spencer explores some of the reasons that have been put forward to account for these troubling failures, and reflects on what light our current understandings of the Holocaust can throw on the acute problem of genocide today.
Professor Philip Spencer is Director of the Helen Bamber Centre for the Study of Rights, Conflict and Mass Violence, at Kingston University. The Centre, which he founded in 2004, provides a focus for research and teaching in these areas. It is named in honor of the veteran rights campaigner Helen Bamber, who has devoted her life to the victims of conflicts across the world.
Professor Spencer's own research interests include the Holocaust; comparative genocide; nationalism; and anti-Semitism. He is also director of the university's European Research Department, where the central focus is on European political and cultural identity, with an overall concern for the changing forms, boundaries and future of Europe in the modern world.
Monday, November 25, 2013
Antisemitism Then and Now
Commemorating the 75th Anniversary of Kristallnacht
Panel Discussion
December 5, 2013
4:00 p.m.
President's Room Coffman Memorial Union
University of Minnesota
Is there a new antisemitism? A growing body of reports and research centers claim that a new strain of antisemitism is sweeping the globe. Five renowned scholars in the field of antisemitism studies will discuss historic antisemitism, its long term after effects and contemporary manifestations in Europe and the US.
Convened by Alejandro Baer, Director, Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies (CHGS) and Klaas van der Sanden, Interim Director, Center of Austrian Studies (CAS)
Panel:
• Philip Spencer (Kingston University, UK, Historian).
• Chad Allan Goldberg (University of Wisconsin Madison, Sociologist)
• Zsolt Nagy (University of St. Thomas, Political Scientist,)
• Gary Cohen (University of Minnesota, Historian)
• Bruno Chaouat (University of Minnesota, French Literature & Thought, former Director, CHGS)
Sponsored by: The Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies, Center for Austrian Studies, The institute for Global Studies, The European Studies Consortium, Center for Jewish Studies, Center for German and European Studies, and the Jewish Community Relations Council
Panel Discussion
December 5, 2013
4:00 p.m.
President's Room Coffman Memorial Union
University of Minnesota
Is there a new antisemitism? A growing body of reports and research centers claim that a new strain of antisemitism is sweeping the globe. Five renowned scholars in the field of antisemitism studies will discuss historic antisemitism, its long term after effects and contemporary manifestations in Europe and the US.
Convened by Alejandro Baer, Director, Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies (CHGS) and Klaas van der Sanden, Interim Director, Center of Austrian Studies (CAS)
Panel:
• Philip Spencer (Kingston University, UK, Historian).
• Chad Allan Goldberg (University of Wisconsin Madison, Sociologist)
• Zsolt Nagy (University of St. Thomas, Political Scientist,)
• Gary Cohen (University of Minnesota, Historian)
• Bruno Chaouat (University of Minnesota, French Literature & Thought, former Director, CHGS)
Sponsored by: The Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies, Center for Austrian Studies, The institute for Global Studies, The European Studies Consortium, Center for Jewish Studies, Center for German and European Studies, and the Jewish Community Relations Council
Friday, November 22, 2013
An Argentine Genocide? Individual Accountability and Collective Guilt during 1976-83 Dictatorship
A talk by Antonius Robben, Anthropology,
Utrecht University
Monday, November 25
4:00p.m.
125 Nolte Center
The sentencing of Argentine officers for carrying out genocide by disappearing tens of thousands of citizens has opened a public debate about agency and accountability during the 1976-83 military dictatorship. This presentation analyzes how this shift from gross human rights violations to genocide is having extensive implications for national memory, political responsibility, international law, and the concept of genocide.
Antonius Robben (PhD, Berkeley, 1986) is Professor of Anthropology at Utrecht University and past President of the Netherlands Society of Anthropology. He has been a research fellow at the Michigan Society of Fellows, Ann Arbor, the Harry Frank Guggenheim Foundation, New York, and the David Rockefeller Center, Harvard University. His most recent books include Political Violence and Trauma in Argentina (2005) that won the Textor Prize from the American Anthropological Association in 2006, and the edited volume Iraq at a Distance: What Anthropologists Can Teach Us About the War (2010).
Organized by the IAS Reframing Mass Violence: Human Rights and Social Memory in Latin America and Southern Europe Collaborative. Cosponsored by the Human Rights Program, and the Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies.
Utrecht University
Monday, November 25
4:00p.m.
125 Nolte Center
The sentencing of Argentine officers for carrying out genocide by disappearing tens of thousands of citizens has opened a public debate about agency and accountability during the 1976-83 military dictatorship. This presentation analyzes how this shift from gross human rights violations to genocide is having extensive implications for national memory, political responsibility, international law, and the concept of genocide.
Antonius Robben (PhD, Berkeley, 1986) is Professor of Anthropology at Utrecht University and past President of the Netherlands Society of Anthropology. He has been a research fellow at the Michigan Society of Fellows, Ann Arbor, the Harry Frank Guggenheim Foundation, New York, and the David Rockefeller Center, Harvard University. His most recent books include Political Violence and Trauma in Argentina (2005) that won the Textor Prize from the American Anthropological Association in 2006, and the edited volume Iraq at a Distance: What Anthropologists Can Teach Us About the War (2010).
Organized by the IAS Reframing Mass Violence: Human Rights and Social Memory in Latin America and Southern Europe Collaborative. Cosponsored by the Human Rights Program, and the Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies.
Monday, November 18, 2013
Thursday, November 14, 2013
Local Holocaust Survivor to Speak on Campus
Dora Zaidenweber will speak on Thursday, November 21 at 2:15p.m.
Room 155 Blegen Hall.
-thumb-200x112-159713.jpg)
Zaidenweber will be sharing her story with students in History of the Holocaust course taught by visiting scholar Falko Schmieder. The talk will be open to the public to allow students, scholars, staff and interested individuals the opportunity to hear her speak about her experiences.
Zaidenweber was born Dora Eiger on January 24, 1924 in Radom, Poland. Dora and her family were sent to the Radom ghetto in 1941. She was transported to Auschwitz in July 1944 where she remained until January of 1945 when she was evacuated on a forced march to Betgen Belsen where she was liberated in April of 1945. She and her husband Jules settled in Minnesota in 1950.
Recently Dora and her family published her father's memoir Sky Tinged Red which is Isaia Eiger's chronicle of his two-and-a-half years as a prisoner in the Auschwitz-Birkenau death camp during World War II.
More information about Dora and her family can be found by clicking here.
Room 155 Blegen Hall.
Zaidenweber will be sharing her story with students in History of the Holocaust course taught by visiting scholar Falko Schmieder. The talk will be open to the public to allow students, scholars, staff and interested individuals the opportunity to hear her speak about her experiences.
Zaidenweber was born Dora Eiger on January 24, 1924 in Radom, Poland. Dora and her family were sent to the Radom ghetto in 1941. She was transported to Auschwitz in July 1944 where she remained until January of 1945 when she was evacuated on a forced march to Betgen Belsen where she was liberated in April of 1945. She and her husband Jules settled in Minnesota in 1950.
Recently Dora and her family published her father's memoir Sky Tinged Red which is Isaia Eiger's chronicle of his two-and-a-half years as a prisoner in the Auschwitz-Birkenau death camp during World War II.
More information about Dora and her family can be found by clicking here.
Monday, November 11, 2013
Lawyers Without Rights: Jewish Lawyers in Germany Under the Third Reich Exhibition comes to Minnesota
October 21-November 21
Minneapolis Federal Courthouse
"Lawyers Without Rights" tells the story of the fate of German Jewish lawyers, judges and prosecutors after Hitler came to power. The Exhibit explores Hitler's systematic and calculated strategy to disable the legal system and the constitutional framework of the Weimar Republic, setting the stage for the commission of unthinkable crimes against humanity.
Exhibition Schedule:
Oct. 21 - Nov. 4 Minneapolis Federal Courthouse
Nov. 4 - Nov. 9 Minnesota Judicial Center
Nov. 9 - Nov. 14 Duluth Federal Courthouse
Nov. 14 - Nov. 16 University of Minnesota School of Law
Nov. 17 - Nov. 20 IDS Center, Crystal Court
Nov. 21 Minneapolis Marriott, City Center
The exhibition is sponsored by the U.S. District Court, the Federal Bar Association Minnesota Chapter, the Jewish Community Relations Council of Minnesota and the Dakotas (JCRC), ), Justice David Stras of the Minnesota Supreme Court, the Cardozo Society, the Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies, The Law School and the Center for Austrian Studies, the University of Minnesota.
Minneapolis Federal Courthouse
"Lawyers Without Rights" tells the story of the fate of German Jewish lawyers, judges and prosecutors after Hitler came to power. The Exhibit explores Hitler's systematic and calculated strategy to disable the legal system and the constitutional framework of the Weimar Republic, setting the stage for the commission of unthinkable crimes against humanity.
Exhibition Schedule:
Oct. 21 - Nov. 4 Minneapolis Federal Courthouse
Nov. 4 - Nov. 9 Minnesota Judicial Center
Nov. 9 - Nov. 14 Duluth Federal Courthouse
Nov. 14 - Nov. 16 University of Minnesota School of Law
Nov. 17 - Nov. 20 IDS Center, Crystal Court
Nov. 21 Minneapolis Marriott, City Center
The exhibition is sponsored by the U.S. District Court, the Federal Bar Association Minnesota Chapter, the Jewish Community Relations Council of Minnesota and the Dakotas (JCRC), ), Justice David Stras of the Minnesota Supreme Court, the Cardozo Society, the Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies, The Law School and the Center for Austrian Studies, the University of Minnesota.
November 14 is Give to the Max Day!
On November 14, every donation you make gives your favorite nonprofits and schools the chance to win even more money. Hundreds of organizations will offer the opportunity to double your dollars with matching grants throughout the 24 hours. And, today through November 13, you can schedule your donation.
Be a light for the U's Center for Holocaust & Genocide Studies on Give to the Max Day.
Make a gift by clicking here.
"The Concept of Survival" a lecture by Visiting Scholar Falko Schmieder
Wednesday, November 20
TIME CHANGE
1:00 p.m.
Room 710 Social Sciences Building
One aspect of the emergence of bio politics around 1800 is the formation of a temporalized meaning of, Survival', indicating a profound change in the understanding of being and its relation to time and politics. A well known linguistic expression of this change is the metaphor "survival of the fittest" which was a key element of Social Darwinist worldview.
The Anthropologist and Ethnographer E.B.Tylor introduced another important concept: that of, "Survivals." As an important methodological tool of the new science of cultural anthropology this concept identifies and explores such elements of culture, which have their origins in pre-modern times and have a second life as inharmonious misfits in modernity, creating conditions of the synchronicity of the nonsynchronous.
In his presentation Schmieder examine the significance of the temporalization of survival for different fields of knowledge, and, in a further step, will discuss some turning points of the subsequent history of this concept, which is still relevant for contemporary discourses.
Falko Schmieder is a DAAD visiting professor at the University of Minnesota and is currently teaching the course "History of the Holocaust." He has studied Communications, Political Science and Sociology at various German Universities. Since 2005 he has worked as a researcher at the Center for Literary and Cultural Research Berlin.
Co sponsored by the Center for German and European Studies.
TIME CHANGE
1:00 p.m.
Room 710 Social Sciences Building
One aspect of the emergence of bio politics around 1800 is the formation of a temporalized meaning of, Survival', indicating a profound change in the understanding of being and its relation to time and politics. A well known linguistic expression of this change is the metaphor "survival of the fittest" which was a key element of Social Darwinist worldview.
The Anthropologist and Ethnographer E.B.Tylor introduced another important concept: that of, "Survivals." As an important methodological tool of the new science of cultural anthropology this concept identifies and explores such elements of culture, which have their origins in pre-modern times and have a second life as inharmonious misfits in modernity, creating conditions of the synchronicity of the nonsynchronous.
In his presentation Schmieder examine the significance of the temporalization of survival for different fields of knowledge, and, in a further step, will discuss some turning points of the subsequent history of this concept, which is still relevant for contemporary discourses.
Falko Schmieder is a DAAD visiting professor at the University of Minnesota and is currently teaching the course "History of the Holocaust." He has studied Communications, Political Science and Sociology at various German Universities. Since 2005 he has worked as a researcher at the Center for Literary and Cultural Research Berlin.
Co sponsored by the Center for German and European Studies.
Thursday, October 31, 2013
The Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies is grieved by the loss of Myron Kunin
It was Myron's passion for art that brought him together with Stephen Feinstein. Together they curated Witness and Legacy, a major commemorative art exhibition to mark the 50th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz that debuted in St. Paul in 1995 and traveled until 2002. That collaboration began the friendship and vision that lead to the founding of our Center in 1997.
We will honor Myron's his legacy as we strive to fulfill our mission of educating all sectors of society about the Holocaust and other genocides.
May his memory be a blessing on us all.
We will honor Myron's his legacy as we strive to fulfill our mission of educating all sectors of society about the Holocaust and other genocides.
May his memory be a blessing on us all.
Wednesday, October 30, 2013
Special Screening: A Film Unfinished with Producer Noemi Schory
Tuesday, November 12, 2013
7:00 p.m.
St. Anthony Main Theatre
Tickets: $5.00
A FILM UNFINISHED is a film of enormous import, documenting some of the worst horrors of our time and exposing the efforts of its perpetrators to propel their agenda and cast it in a favorable light.
At the end of WWII, 60 minutes of raw film, having sat undisturbed in an East German archive, was discovered. Shot by the Nazis in Warsaw in May 1942, and labeled simply "Ghetto," this footage quickly became a resource for historians seeking an authentic record of the Warsaw Ghetto. However, the later discovery of a long-missing reel, inclusive of multiple takes and cameraman staging scenes, complicated earlier readings of the footage.
The documentary presents the raw footage in its entirety, carefully noting fictionalized sequences (including a staged dinner party) falsely showing "the good life" enjoyed by Jewish urbanites, and probes deep into the making of a now-infamous Nazi propaganda film.
Noemi Schory is currently the Schusterman Visiting Artist-in-Residence at the University of Minnesota throughout Fall Semester 2013. A renowned documentary film director and producer, she is active in Israeli and many international co-productions, primarily in the documentary field.
A Film Unfinished, which she produced, has received numerous awards worldwide and was an nominated for an Emmy after it aired on PBS in 2010. In 2005, Schory was elected president of Input, the international public television conference. She also serves as a museum film director and producer for Yad Vashem, Israel's official memorial for the Jewish victims of the Holocaust.
To view the trailer click here.
Sponsored by the Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies, The Center for Austrian Studies, European Studies Consortium, Center for Jewish Studies, The Film Society of Minneapolis/St. Paul, Jewish Community Relations Council
7:00 p.m.
St. Anthony Main Theatre
Tickets: $5.00
A FILM UNFINISHED is a film of enormous import, documenting some of the worst horrors of our time and exposing the efforts of its perpetrators to propel their agenda and cast it in a favorable light.
At the end of WWII, 60 minutes of raw film, having sat undisturbed in an East German archive, was discovered. Shot by the Nazis in Warsaw in May 1942, and labeled simply "Ghetto," this footage quickly became a resource for historians seeking an authentic record of the Warsaw Ghetto. However, the later discovery of a long-missing reel, inclusive of multiple takes and cameraman staging scenes, complicated earlier readings of the footage.
The documentary presents the raw footage in its entirety, carefully noting fictionalized sequences (including a staged dinner party) falsely showing "the good life" enjoyed by Jewish urbanites, and probes deep into the making of a now-infamous Nazi propaganda film.
Noemi Schory is currently the Schusterman Visiting Artist-in-Residence at the University of Minnesota throughout Fall Semester 2013. A renowned documentary film director and producer, she is active in Israeli and many international co-productions, primarily in the documentary field.
A Film Unfinished, which she produced, has received numerous awards worldwide and was an nominated for an Emmy after it aired on PBS in 2010. In 2005, Schory was elected president of Input, the international public television conference. She also serves as a museum film director and producer for Yad Vashem, Israel's official memorial for the Jewish victims of the Holocaust.
To view the trailer click here.
Sponsored by the Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies, The Center for Austrian Studies, European Studies Consortium, Center for Jewish Studies, The Film Society of Minneapolis/St. Paul, Jewish Community Relations Council
Tuesday, October 29, 2013
Vespers in Remembrance
The Elm Ensemble
Gary Wolfman, guest conductor
Bach's Cantata 106 and Schütz's Aus der Tiefe on the occasion of the 75th anniversary of Kristallnacht
Sunday, November 10
4:30 p.m.
Christ Church Lutheran
Gary Wolfman, guest conductor
Bach's Cantata 106 and Schütz's Aus der Tiefe on the occasion of the 75th anniversary of Kristallnacht
Sunday, November 10
4:30 p.m.
Christ Church Lutheran
Exclusive Twin Cities Premiere: BESA:The Promise
Muslims who saved Jews in World War II
Introduction by Dr. Daniel Schroeter, University of Minnesota
Saturday, November 9, 2013
7:00 p.m.
St. Anthony Main Theatre
Tickets: $5.00
BESA:The Promise weaves Albania's heroism in WWII through the vérité journeys of two men. One is Norman Gershman, a renowned Jewish-American photographer determined to document first-person accounts of the Albanian Muslims who rescued Jews during the Holocaust. The other is Rexhep Hoxha, a Muslim-Albanian. Rexhep must fulfill the promise made to a Jewish family his father rescued during the Holocaust and return to them a set of Hebrew books they left behind. And Rexhep's promise is more than words - it's part of his besa - an honor code that, among other things, pledges all Albanians to offer safe harbor to refugees.
More than seven years in the making, Besa: The Promise presents a powerful human drama compounded by a devastating twist. It is a story that that bridges generations and religions ... uniting fathers and sons ... Muslims and Jews.
To view the trailer click here.
Sponsored by: The Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies, Center for Austrian Studies, European Studies Consortium, Center for Jewish Studies, The Film Society of Minneapolis/St. Paul, Jewish Community Relations Council.
Introduction by Dr. Daniel Schroeter, University of Minnesota
Saturday, November 9, 2013
7:00 p.m.
St. Anthony Main Theatre
Tickets: $5.00
BESA:The Promise weaves Albania's heroism in WWII through the vérité journeys of two men. One is Norman Gershman, a renowned Jewish-American photographer determined to document first-person accounts of the Albanian Muslims who rescued Jews during the Holocaust. The other is Rexhep Hoxha, a Muslim-Albanian. Rexhep must fulfill the promise made to a Jewish family his father rescued during the Holocaust and return to them a set of Hebrew books they left behind. And Rexhep's promise is more than words - it's part of his besa - an honor code that, among other things, pledges all Albanians to offer safe harbor to refugees.
More than seven years in the making, Besa: The Promise presents a powerful human drama compounded by a devastating twist. It is a story that that bridges generations and religions ... uniting fathers and sons ... Muslims and Jews.
To view the trailer click here.
Sponsored by: The Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies, Center for Austrian Studies, European Studies Consortium, Center for Jewish Studies, The Film Society of Minneapolis/St. Paul, Jewish Community Relations Council.
Monday, October 28, 2013
History, Memory and Pedagogy
An Educator Workshop on the Occasion of the 75th Anniversary of Kristallnacht
November 9, 2013
9:00 a.m. - 2:00 p.m.
115 Blegen Hall
Free and open to educators K-16
Registration required by clicking here.
This one-day professional development workshop is a follow-up to the Holocaust in European Memory Summer Institute that took place on July 8-11, 2013 at the University of Minnesota. That workshop examined questions such as how the Nazi murder of European Jews became "The Holocaust." How the story is conveyed through public memorials, school curricula, art, literature and film. How the Holocaust has been contextualized and rendered meaningful within the diversity of European nations and in the distant US.
We will continue the discussions we started this summer by exploring the specific connections between history, memory and education in the contemporary world. We will examine history and memory as it deals with the genocide of the Roma, communal gatherings and ceremonies dedicated to commemorate the Holocaust and reflections on the 75th anniversary of Kristallnacht, which is considered the official catalyst for the Holocaust. ( Attendance at the July institute is not required for the November 9, workshop.)
Introduction
Kristallnacht and the Duties of Memory: Remarks Alejandro Baer
Alejandro Baer is the director and Stephen C. Feinstein Chair of the Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies at the University of Minnesota. He has authored numerous articles addressing issues of genocide, memory, and antisemitism
Lecture
The Roma Genocide and Memory: Lecture by William Duna
William A. Duna is an American Gypsy descended from Hungarian musicians who emigrated to the U. S. in 1893. Duna has taught music, written and performed, and has served as an entertainment consultant. He has written and lectured about the Roma people and was appointed by Ronald Reagan as the first Roma to serve on the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Council in 1987.
Presentation
"Holocaust Commemorations for the Broader Community"
Presentation by Deborah Petersen-Perlman
Deborah Petersen Perlman Associate Professor Communications, University of Minnesota Duluth and coordinates the Baeumler-Kaplan Holocaust Commemoration.
Sponsored by The Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies, Institute for Global Studies, European Studies Consortium
November 9, 2013
9:00 a.m. - 2:00 p.m.
115 Blegen Hall
Free and open to educators K-16
Registration required by clicking here.
This one-day professional development workshop is a follow-up to the Holocaust in European Memory Summer Institute that took place on July 8-11, 2013 at the University of Minnesota. That workshop examined questions such as how the Nazi murder of European Jews became "The Holocaust." How the story is conveyed through public memorials, school curricula, art, literature and film. How the Holocaust has been contextualized and rendered meaningful within the diversity of European nations and in the distant US.
We will continue the discussions we started this summer by exploring the specific connections between history, memory and education in the contemporary world. We will examine history and memory as it deals with the genocide of the Roma, communal gatherings and ceremonies dedicated to commemorate the Holocaust and reflections on the 75th anniversary of Kristallnacht, which is considered the official catalyst for the Holocaust. ( Attendance at the July institute is not required for the November 9, workshop.)
Introduction
Kristallnacht and the Duties of Memory: Remarks Alejandro Baer
Alejandro Baer is the director and Stephen C. Feinstein Chair of the Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies at the University of Minnesota. He has authored numerous articles addressing issues of genocide, memory, and antisemitism
Lecture
The Roma Genocide and Memory: Lecture by William Duna
William A. Duna is an American Gypsy descended from Hungarian musicians who emigrated to the U. S. in 1893. Duna has taught music, written and performed, and has served as an entertainment consultant. He has written and lectured about the Roma people and was appointed by Ronald Reagan as the first Roma to serve on the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Council in 1987.
Presentation
"Holocaust Commemorations for the Broader Community"
Presentation by Deborah Petersen-Perlman
Deborah Petersen Perlman Associate Professor Communications, University of Minnesota Duluth and coordinates the Baeumler-Kaplan Holocaust Commemoration.
Sponsored by The Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies, Institute for Global Studies, European Studies Consortium
Wednesday, October 23, 2013
A Lens on History: An Afternoon with Documentary Filmmaker Noemi Schory
Rimon:The Minnesota Jewish Arts Council
Sunday, November 3
3:00 p.m.
Sabes Jewish Community Center
Israeli director and producer Noemi Schory has built a remarkable body of work centered on stories that have emerged from the time period of the Holocaust. In lively discussion with independent filmmaker Emily Goldberg, Schory will reflect on documentary film's fundamental questions - how do you choose to tell a story and construct a point of view? What is the artist's responsibility to her subject, when the story is the Holocaust? The conversation will feature excerpts from Schory's recent films.
Noemi Schory, is currently an artist-in-residence at the University of Minnesota throughout Fall Semester 2013. A renowned documentary film director and producer, Noemi Schory is active in Israeli and many international co-productions, primarily in the documentary field. She produced A Film Unfinished about the Warsaw Ghetto, which received numerous awards worldwide and was an Emmy nominee after being screened on PBS in 2010. In 2005, Schory was elected president of Input, the international public television conference. She also serves as a museum film director and producer for Yad Vashem, Israel's official memorial for the Jewish victims of the Holocaust.
Cost: $12, $10 JCC members, $6 students and seniors
Click here to purchase tickets on-line
Co-Sponsors: Israel Center of the Minneapolis Jewish Federation, Sabes JCC, Rimon, Department of Jewish Studies at the University of MN, and the JCRC of Minnesota & the Dakotas.
Sunday, November 3
3:00 p.m.
Sabes Jewish Community Center
Israeli director and producer Noemi Schory has built a remarkable body of work centered on stories that have emerged from the time period of the Holocaust. In lively discussion with independent filmmaker Emily Goldberg, Schory will reflect on documentary film's fundamental questions - how do you choose to tell a story and construct a point of view? What is the artist's responsibility to her subject, when the story is the Holocaust? The conversation will feature excerpts from Schory's recent films.
Noemi Schory, is currently an artist-in-residence at the University of Minnesota throughout Fall Semester 2013. A renowned documentary film director and producer, Noemi Schory is active in Israeli and many international co-productions, primarily in the documentary field. She produced A Film Unfinished about the Warsaw Ghetto, which received numerous awards worldwide and was an Emmy nominee after being screened on PBS in 2010. In 2005, Schory was elected president of Input, the international public television conference. She also serves as a museum film director and producer for Yad Vashem, Israel's official memorial for the Jewish victims of the Holocaust.
Cost: $12, $10 JCC members, $6 students and seniors
Click here to purchase tickets on-line
Co-Sponsors: Israel Center of the Minneapolis Jewish Federation, Sabes JCC, Rimon, Department of Jewish Studies at the University of MN, and the JCRC of Minnesota & the Dakotas.
Monday, October 21, 2013
2013 Badzin Fellowship winner and PhD Sociology candidate Wahutu Siguru to present at the next HGMV workshop
"The Politics of Representation: Genocide, Mass Violence and Atrocities in the Media."
Wahutu Siguru
Holocaust Genocide & Mass Violence Studies Workshop (HGMV)
Thursday, October 31
3:00 p.m.
Room 710 Social Sciences Building
Wahutu Siguru's project takes a constructivist perspective on knowledge production in an attempt to explicate how knowledge about instances of mass violence, atrocities and genocide is produced and disseminated by the media. It begins from the understanding that representations are based on particular memory, social and knowledge structures leveraging multiple theories to investigate the effects of these on representations. This particular project is the first step towards a larger project that investigates differences and similarities in narratives about Rwanda and Darfur by the media in multiple countries within and outside of Africa.
Siguru's research interests are in the Sociology of Media, Genocide, Mass Violence and Atrocities (specifically on issues of representation of conflicts in Africa such as Darfur and Rwanda), Collective Memory, and perhaps somewhat tangentially Democracy and Development in Africa.
The workshop was founded in 2012 to foster interdisciplinary conversations on the subject areas of Holocaust studies, genocide and memory, peace and conflict studies, human rights, nationalism and ethnic violence, representations of violence and trauma, conflict resolution, transitional justice, historical consciousness and collective memory.
For more information about participation in the workshop please email Wahutau Siguru at siguru@umn.edu.
Wahutu Siguru
Holocaust Genocide & Mass Violence Studies Workshop (HGMV)
Thursday, October 31
3:00 p.m.
Room 710 Social Sciences Building
Wahutu Siguru's project takes a constructivist perspective on knowledge production in an attempt to explicate how knowledge about instances of mass violence, atrocities and genocide is produced and disseminated by the media. It begins from the understanding that representations are based on particular memory, social and knowledge structures leveraging multiple theories to investigate the effects of these on representations. This particular project is the first step towards a larger project that investigates differences and similarities in narratives about Rwanda and Darfur by the media in multiple countries within and outside of Africa.
Siguru's research interests are in the Sociology of Media, Genocide, Mass Violence and Atrocities (specifically on issues of representation of conflicts in Africa such as Darfur and Rwanda), Collective Memory, and perhaps somewhat tangentially Democracy and Development in Africa.
The workshop was founded in 2012 to foster interdisciplinary conversations on the subject areas of Holocaust studies, genocide and memory, peace and conflict studies, human rights, nationalism and ethnic violence, representations of violence and trauma, conflict resolution, transitional justice, historical consciousness and collective memory.
For more information about participation in the workshop please email Wahutau Siguru at siguru@umn.edu.
International Symposium Erasures: Gender, Violence and Human Rights
Thursday, October 24 & Friday, October 25
9:00a.m. to 5:00p.m.
PLENARY SPEAKER
The Story of a Fight Against Human Trafficking in Argentina
Susana Trimarco - Activist against Human Trafficking in Argentina
Thursday, October 24, 3:30p.m.
Maroon and Gold Rooms, McNamara Alumni Center
The symposium will address violence against women as a human rights violation, the erasure of gender violence in cultural debates about human rights, and the epistemic revolts of the rethinking of violence from a gender perspective.
Thirteen national and international scholars will address the most crucial human rights struggles that are taking place in the juridical scenario, as well as the cultural practices that form part of the struggles against the invisibility and the silence about gendered forms of violence. The presentations will also underscore the importance of addressing these forms of sexual violence, and disappearance, campaigns to stop violence, national and international gatherings focusing on women and human rights issues, documentaries and testimonial literature, films, literature, art, performance, video-installations, telenovelas, murals, and arte callejero.
PLENARY SPEAKER
The Story of a Fight Against Human Trafficking in Argentina
Susana Trimarco - Activist against Human Trafficking in Argentina
After the disappearance of her daughter, Marita, Susana began her career as an investigator, uncovering a chilling criminal network of human trafficking. In the search for her daughter, she has managed to free more than a hundred victims. On Oct. 19, 2007, she founded the Fundación María de los Ángeles, through which she continues to help eradicate human trafficking in Argentina.
To see the complete schedule click programa ERASURES 1 (1).pdf.
For more information on the symposium and speaker please contact Ana Forcinito at 612-625-5858.
Sponsored by: The Department of Spanish & Portuguese, College of Liberal Arts, Human Rights Program, Sociology, Center for Holocaust & Genocide Studies, German, Scandinavian & Dutch, Institute for Global Studies, Institute for Advanced Study, Gender, Women & Sexuality Studies, Anthropology, English, Journalism and Mass Communication, Interdisciplinary Center for the Study of Global Change (ICGC), Philosophy, Human Rights Center, Writing Studies, Humphrey School of Public Affairs, The Center on Women and Public Policy at the Humphrey School of Public Affairs, Institute of Linguistics, Global Studies, Institute for Advanced Study, Cultural Studies & Comparative Literature
9:00a.m. to 5:00p.m.
PLENARY SPEAKER
The Story of a Fight Against Human Trafficking in Argentina
Susana Trimarco - Activist against Human Trafficking in Argentina
Thursday, October 24, 3:30p.m.
Maroon and Gold Rooms, McNamara Alumni Center
The symposium will address violence against women as a human rights violation, the erasure of gender violence in cultural debates about human rights, and the epistemic revolts of the rethinking of violence from a gender perspective.
Thirteen national and international scholars will address the most crucial human rights struggles that are taking place in the juridical scenario, as well as the cultural practices that form part of the struggles against the invisibility and the silence about gendered forms of violence. The presentations will also underscore the importance of addressing these forms of sexual violence, and disappearance, campaigns to stop violence, national and international gatherings focusing on women and human rights issues, documentaries and testimonial literature, films, literature, art, performance, video-installations, telenovelas, murals, and arte callejero.
PLENARY SPEAKER
The Story of a Fight Against Human Trafficking in Argentina
Susana Trimarco - Activist against Human Trafficking in Argentina
After the disappearance of her daughter, Marita, Susana began her career as an investigator, uncovering a chilling criminal network of human trafficking. In the search for her daughter, she has managed to free more than a hundred victims. On Oct. 19, 2007, she founded the Fundación María de los Ángeles, through which she continues to help eradicate human trafficking in Argentina.
To see the complete schedule click programa ERASURES 1 (1).pdf.
For more information on the symposium and speaker please contact Ana Forcinito at 612-625-5858.
Sponsored by: The Department of Spanish & Portuguese, College of Liberal Arts, Human Rights Program, Sociology, Center for Holocaust & Genocide Studies, German, Scandinavian & Dutch, Institute for Global Studies, Institute for Advanced Study, Gender, Women & Sexuality Studies, Anthropology, English, Journalism and Mass Communication, Interdisciplinary Center for the Study of Global Change (ICGC), Philosophy, Human Rights Center, Writing Studies, Humphrey School of Public Affairs, The Center on Women and Public Policy at the Humphrey School of Public Affairs, Institute of Linguistics, Global Studies, Institute for Advanced Study, Cultural Studies & Comparative Literature
Friday, October 18, 2013
CHGS Newsletter Highlight:Interview with Visiting Professor Falko Schmieder
"Students here seem to have a more emotional connection to the Holocaust"
Falko Schmieder is a DAAD visiting professor at the University of Minnesota and is currently teaching the course "History of the Holocaust." He has studied Communications, Political Science and Sociology at various German Universities. Since 2005 he has worked as a researcher at the Center for Literary and Cultural Research Berlin. Together with Matthias Rothe, the course "Adorno, Foucault, and beyond" is being offered through the Department of German, Scandinavian and Dutch. Falko Schmieder will give a lecture at the CHGS Library (room 710 Social Sciences) on The Concept of Survival on November 20th at 12 p.m.
What are the main differences between students in the US and in Germany regarding knowledge of and attitude towards the Holocaust?
After my first experiences here I would say the German students tend to know more about the historical preconditions of the Holocaust, especially the long tradition of religious anti-Judaism, and, of course they have more detailed information about German History in general. On the other hand, the students here seem to have a more emotional connection and a more political access to the subject. Many of them have come in contact with Holocaust survivors in High school, as part of their educational training, and because of the many Holocaust Survivors who emigrated to the US and started a new life here it's a more deeper innervated history. By the way, I am very fortunate to have the Holocaust Survivor Dora Zaidenweber coming to my class to speak this semester. I attended the presentation of her book The Sky Tinged Red, and was moved to learn about her personal story. I was astonished how many young people attended this program.
What do you expect your students to come out of your course?
I would like to make them aware of two things in particular: First, that modern antisemitism has a long prehistory, which is not limited to German history; and second, that antisemitism is in no way a thing of the past. Although it might have changed some of its features, it is still relevant today - at the end of my lecture I will deal with the phenomenon of antisemitism without Jews, and I will discuss some examples of contemporary reactions on the banking crisis in Germany, in which you clearly can find a revival of old antisemitic stereotypes.
How do you approach these sensitive and difficult issues in the classroom?
In the first class, when I introduced myself to the students, I showed some photographs that I took in Berlin shortly before coming to Minneapolis. These photographs show two Berlinian Jewish institutions, and how they are monitored by surveillance cameras and by the police. The American students were very surprised to learn that it's still necessary to constantly protect Jewish organizations and sites in this country, because of the fear (and possibility) of antisemitic attacks.
How does Holocaust studies relate to your current research?
My current research project is on the History of the Concept of Survival, for which the Holocaust and its aftermath is of great importance. The rupture in history is reflected in the invention of many new concepts: think of "survivor syndrome," "survivor guilt" and others, or in the disruption of traditional meanings of concepts. It is revealing that Claude Lanzmann or the well-known Spanish writer and Holocaust Survivor Jorge Semprún replaced the term "survivor" with "revenant" because older meanings of survival or survivorship no longer seemed appropriate to deal with the traumatic experiences in the extermination camps.
Falko Schmieder is a DAAD visiting professor at the University of Minnesota and is currently teaching the course "History of the Holocaust." He has studied Communications, Political Science and Sociology at various German Universities. Since 2005 he has worked as a researcher at the Center for Literary and Cultural Research Berlin. Together with Matthias Rothe, the course "Adorno, Foucault, and beyond" is being offered through the Department of German, Scandinavian and Dutch. Falko Schmieder will give a lecture at the CHGS Library (room 710 Social Sciences) on The Concept of Survival on November 20th at 12 p.m.
What are the main differences between students in the US and in Germany regarding knowledge of and attitude towards the Holocaust?
After my first experiences here I would say the German students tend to know more about the historical preconditions of the Holocaust, especially the long tradition of religious anti-Judaism, and, of course they have more detailed information about German History in general. On the other hand, the students here seem to have a more emotional connection and a more political access to the subject. Many of them have come in contact with Holocaust survivors in High school, as part of their educational training, and because of the many Holocaust Survivors who emigrated to the US and started a new life here it's a more deeper innervated history. By the way, I am very fortunate to have the Holocaust Survivor Dora Zaidenweber coming to my class to speak this semester. I attended the presentation of her book The Sky Tinged Red, and was moved to learn about her personal story. I was astonished how many young people attended this program.
What do you expect your students to come out of your course?
I would like to make them aware of two things in particular: First, that modern antisemitism has a long prehistory, which is not limited to German history; and second, that antisemitism is in no way a thing of the past. Although it might have changed some of its features, it is still relevant today - at the end of my lecture I will deal with the phenomenon of antisemitism without Jews, and I will discuss some examples of contemporary reactions on the banking crisis in Germany, in which you clearly can find a revival of old antisemitic stereotypes.
How do you approach these sensitive and difficult issues in the classroom?
In the first class, when I introduced myself to the students, I showed some photographs that I took in Berlin shortly before coming to Minneapolis. These photographs show two Berlinian Jewish institutions, and how they are monitored by surveillance cameras and by the police. The American students were very surprised to learn that it's still necessary to constantly protect Jewish organizations and sites in this country, because of the fear (and possibility) of antisemitic attacks.
How does Holocaust studies relate to your current research?
My current research project is on the History of the Concept of Survival, for which the Holocaust and its aftermath is of great importance. The rupture in history is reflected in the invention of many new concepts: think of "survivor syndrome," "survivor guilt" and others, or in the disruption of traditional meanings of concepts. It is revealing that Claude Lanzmann or the well-known Spanish writer and Holocaust Survivor Jorge Semprún replaced the term "survivor" with "revenant" because older meanings of survival or survivorship no longer seemed appropriate to deal with the traumatic experiences in the extermination camps.
Wednesday, October 16, 2013
Tuesday, October 15, 2013
Friday, October 11, 2013
Thursday, October 10, 2013
Wednesday, October 2, 2013
Law's Labor's Lost: Constitutional Revolution and the Problem of Radical Social Change
Professor Mark Goodale, Anthropology and Conflict Studies, George Mason University
Thursday, October 17
3:30 p.m.
Room 710 Social Sciences
How do the regulating logics of law constrain forms of violence that often accompany revolutionary movements, and how do these logics at the same time constrain the kind of creative social and political practices that are necessary for real transformation? Scholars have shown how human rights can be used to bring authoritarian leaders to justice and shape progressive forms of governance. But when international norms are domesticated through national legal processes, their role in facilitating deep and structural transformation is more fraught with ambiguity and contradiction.
Mark Goodale is an anthropologist, socio-legal scholar, and social theorist. He is Associate Professor of Conflict Analysis and Anthropology at George Mason University and Series Editor of Stanford Studies in Human Rights. Goodale is author and editor of numerous books and field projects and has an upcoming critical introduction to anthropology and law and an ethnography of revolution, folk cosmopolitanism, and neo-Burkeanism, in Bolivia.
Organized by the IAS Reframing Mass Violence: Human Rights and Social Memory in Latin America and Southern Europe Collaborative. Cosponsored by the Human Rights Program, and the Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies.
Thursday, October 17
3:30 p.m.
Room 710 Social Sciences
How do the regulating logics of law constrain forms of violence that often accompany revolutionary movements, and how do these logics at the same time constrain the kind of creative social and political practices that are necessary for real transformation? Scholars have shown how human rights can be used to bring authoritarian leaders to justice and shape progressive forms of governance. But when international norms are domesticated through national legal processes, their role in facilitating deep and structural transformation is more fraught with ambiguity and contradiction.
Mark Goodale is an anthropologist, socio-legal scholar, and social theorist. He is Associate Professor of Conflict Analysis and Anthropology at George Mason University and Series Editor of Stanford Studies in Human Rights. Goodale is author and editor of numerous books and field projects and has an upcoming critical introduction to anthropology and law and an ethnography of revolution, folk cosmopolitanism, and neo-Burkeanism, in Bolivia.
Organized by the IAS Reframing Mass Violence: Human Rights and Social Memory in Latin America and Southern Europe Collaborative. Cosponsored by the Human Rights Program, and the Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies.
Dr. Vahram Shemmassian to Speak at The 2013 Ohanessian Chair Lecture
Thursday, October 17
7:00 p.m.
President's Room
Coffman Memorial Union
Dr. Vahram Shemmassian is an associate professor and the director of the Armenian Studies Program at California State University, Northridge. He is the foremost scholar on Musa Dagh the site of the famed resistance during the Armenian genocide.
Professor Shemmassian will talk about the resistance and the genocide in his presentation "The Musa Dagh Resistance to the Armenian Genocide and Its Impact through Franz Werfel's Historical Novel The Forty Days of Musa Dagh."
Franz Werfel (1890-1945), Austrian poet, modernist playwright, and novelist, was born in Prague, the son of a Jewish merchant. During World War I, Werfel served for several years on the Russian front as a soldier in the Austrian army. His novel The Forty Days of Musa Dagh published in 1933 detailed the mass murder and expulsion of Armenians from eastern Anatolia in 1915. The novel received much attention in the United States standing as a warning against future acts of mass murder and won lasting respect from Armenian communities throughout the world.
Sponsored by: The Institute for Global Studies, Center for Austrian Studies, Center for Holocaust & Genocide Studies, College of Liberal Arts, Critical Asian Studies, Study of the Asias.
7:00 p.m.
President's Room
Coffman Memorial Union
Dr. Vahram Shemmassian is an associate professor and the director of the Armenian Studies Program at California State University, Northridge. He is the foremost scholar on Musa Dagh the site of the famed resistance during the Armenian genocide.
Professor Shemmassian will talk about the resistance and the genocide in his presentation "The Musa Dagh Resistance to the Armenian Genocide and Its Impact through Franz Werfel's Historical Novel The Forty Days of Musa Dagh."
Franz Werfel (1890-1945), Austrian poet, modernist playwright, and novelist, was born in Prague, the son of a Jewish merchant. During World War I, Werfel served for several years on the Russian front as a soldier in the Austrian army. His novel The Forty Days of Musa Dagh published in 1933 detailed the mass murder and expulsion of Armenians from eastern Anatolia in 1915. The novel received much attention in the United States standing as a warning against future acts of mass murder and won lasting respect from Armenian communities throughout the world.
Sponsored by: The Institute for Global Studies, Center for Austrian Studies, Center for Holocaust & Genocide Studies, College of Liberal Arts, Critical Asian Studies, Study of the Asias.
Tuesday, October 1, 2013
Monday, September 30, 2013
Friday, September 27, 2013
German-Jewish Writer Esther Dischereit to visit the University
"Racist Killings and Mourning Songs"
Reading and Discussion with German-Jewish Writer Esther Dischereit
Tuesday, October 8
11:30 a.m.
125 Nolte Centre
Recently, the discovery of 10 years of racist killings by the "National Socialist Underground" (NSU), a neo-Nazi underground guerrilla organization, has shocked the German public. Dischereit has since become the most important independent voice for the public, extensively covering the legal and political investigations of this unprecedented crime in post-war Germany involving police, secret service, politicians and state officials. Unlike standard media coverage Dischereit wants to let the voices of the victims and their families be heard. The Mourning Songs tell each story of a murder from the families' unique and painful perspective and memory, and challenge racism and xenophobia wherever it is to be found; out on the streets or inside official state institutions. Dischereit, who conducted countless interviews with the victims' families, voices her perspective of telling and mourning for the victims of various ethnic backgrounds. The Mourning Songs is one part of Dischereits' unique libretto project "Mourning Songs - Flowers for Otello: On the Crime of Jena" which has just been produced for the German radio by Deutschlandradio Kultur.
Esther Dischereit is one of the most exciting writers and thought-provoking public intellectuals in Germany today. Her poems, novels, essays, films, plays, and radio plays, and her opera libretti and sound installations offer unique insights into Jewish life in contemporary Europe. Dischereit, who was born into a survivor's family, is an artist of the Second Generation, who analyzes power relationships surrounding the body, femininity, expressions of minorities, and the different functions and forms of remembrance, ritual, and memory. Dischereit often initiates cross art projects for which she collaborates with composers, musicians, dancers and graphic art designers.
Please join us for the reading (in German, English, and Turkish) and discussion (English) of this unique, critical, and contemporary work, and meet Esther Dischereit and the translator Iain Galbraith.
Sponsored by: German, Scandinavian & Dutch, Center for Jewish Studies, Center for Holocaust & Genocide Studies, Center for Austrian Studies, Center for German and European Studies.
For more information: Amanda Haugen, E-mail: gsd@umn.edu, Phone: 612-625-2080
Reading and Discussion with German-Jewish Writer Esther Dischereit
Tuesday, October 8
11:30 a.m.
125 Nolte Centre
Recently, the discovery of 10 years of racist killings by the "National Socialist Underground" (NSU), a neo-Nazi underground guerrilla organization, has shocked the German public. Dischereit has since become the most important independent voice for the public, extensively covering the legal and political investigations of this unprecedented crime in post-war Germany involving police, secret service, politicians and state officials. Unlike standard media coverage Dischereit wants to let the voices of the victims and their families be heard. The Mourning Songs tell each story of a murder from the families' unique and painful perspective and memory, and challenge racism and xenophobia wherever it is to be found; out on the streets or inside official state institutions. Dischereit, who conducted countless interviews with the victims' families, voices her perspective of telling and mourning for the victims of various ethnic backgrounds. The Mourning Songs is one part of Dischereits' unique libretto project "Mourning Songs - Flowers for Otello: On the Crime of Jena" which has just been produced for the German radio by Deutschlandradio Kultur.
Esther Dischereit is one of the most exciting writers and thought-provoking public intellectuals in Germany today. Her poems, novels, essays, films, plays, and radio plays, and her opera libretti and sound installations offer unique insights into Jewish life in contemporary Europe. Dischereit, who was born into a survivor's family, is an artist of the Second Generation, who analyzes power relationships surrounding the body, femininity, expressions of minorities, and the different functions and forms of remembrance, ritual, and memory. Dischereit often initiates cross art projects for which she collaborates with composers, musicians, dancers and graphic art designers.
Please join us for the reading (in German, English, and Turkish) and discussion (English) of this unique, critical, and contemporary work, and meet Esther Dischereit and the translator Iain Galbraith.
Sponsored by: German, Scandinavian & Dutch, Center for Jewish Studies, Center for Holocaust & Genocide Studies, Center for Austrian Studies, Center for German and European Studies.
For more information: Amanda Haugen, E-mail: gsd@umn.edu, Phone: 612-625-2080
Book of Interest: Sky Tinged Red: A Chronicle of Two and a Half Years in Auschwitz
Sky Tinged Red is Isaia Eiger's chronicle of two-and-a-half years as a prisoner in the Auschwitz-Birkenau death camp during World War II. Bringing it to publication after Eiger's death in 1960 took the skills and passion of family members spanning four generations, including Eiger's daughter, Dora Eiger Zaidenweber, who spent hundreds of hours translating the story from its original Yiddish. This reading brings together his daughter, grandchildren and great-grandchildren to read from and discuss this moving memoir, which is a tribute to the power of survivor testimony and the transmission of memory through successive generations.
Courtney Gildersleeve PhD candidate to present at the next CHGS workshop
"Poetry, Damaged Life, and One Poem by Agha Shahid Ali"
Courtney Gildersleeve
Holocaust Genocide & Mass Violence Studies Workshop (HGMV)
Thursday, October 3
Room 710 Social Sciences
Courtney Gildersleeve is a PhD Student and Teaching Assistant in the Department of Cultural Studies and Comparative Literature. Working broadly in the field of Post-Colonial Studies, and with a commitment to the tradition of historical materialism, she examines the ways that literature and especially poetry has played a role in anti-colonial struggle and continually seeks to reckon with the long history of colonialism and violence that has shaped the modern world. Although her work is decidedly comparative, her dissertation research foregrounds the history, literature, and anti-colonial thought of the Caribbean.
While focusing primarily on writers from Cuba, Martinique, and Haiti, she studies texts that emerged from or in response to the Transatlantic slave trade, those that address the labor of African peoples in the Americas, and those that grapple with the continuing cost of 'intervention' by many other nations in the Caribbean. In addition to the presentation she will give at the HGMV workshop, which parts ways with this historical context, this semester she is also working on a project that offers a critical perspective on recent efforts--particularly in the former slave-trading city of Bordeaux--to memorialize the leader of the Haitian Revolution, Toussaint Louverture, and the struggles of that revolution.
Courtney Gildersleeve
Holocaust Genocide & Mass Violence Studies Workshop (HGMV)
Thursday, October 3
Room 710 Social Sciences
Courtney Gildersleeve is a PhD Student and Teaching Assistant in the Department of Cultural Studies and Comparative Literature. Working broadly in the field of Post-Colonial Studies, and with a commitment to the tradition of historical materialism, she examines the ways that literature and especially poetry has played a role in anti-colonial struggle and continually seeks to reckon with the long history of colonialism and violence that has shaped the modern world. Although her work is decidedly comparative, her dissertation research foregrounds the history, literature, and anti-colonial thought of the Caribbean.
While focusing primarily on writers from Cuba, Martinique, and Haiti, she studies texts that emerged from or in response to the Transatlantic slave trade, those that address the labor of African peoples in the Americas, and those that grapple with the continuing cost of 'intervention' by many other nations in the Caribbean. In addition to the presentation she will give at the HGMV workshop, which parts ways with this historical context, this semester she is also working on a project that offers a critical perspective on recent efforts--particularly in the former slave-trading city of Bordeaux--to memorialize the leader of the Haitian Revolution, Toussaint Louverture, and the struggles of that revolution.
Friday, September 20, 2013
Tuesday, September 17, 2013
Professor from University of Antioquia (Medellín-Colombia) to present at CHGS Workshop
Sandra Gómez Santamaría will present at the first meeting of the 2013 Holocaust Genocide & Mass Violence Studies Workshop, taking place on Thursday, September 19, in Room 710 Social Sciences.
Sandra Gómez Santamaría is a Human Rights professor involved in the University of Minnesota-Antioquia Human Rights partnership. She has a Master of Arts degree in Sociology of Law from the Oñati International Institute from the Sociology of Law (IISL, Basque Country-Spain) and she received a Law degree from University of Antioquia (Medellín-Colombia). She also has experience working as researcher on human rights in the Colombian Commission of Jurist, a human rights NGO in Colombia. Her áreas of interest includes Human Rights, Sociolegal studies, critical legal theories, Anthropology of the State and Cultural Studies.
The workshop was founded in 2012 by CHGS, the Human Rights Program and the Department of Sociology to foster interdisciplinary conversations on the subject areas of Holocaust studies, genocide and memory, peace and conflict studies, human rights, nationalism and ethnic violence, representations of violence and trauma, conflict resolution, transitional justice, historical consciousness and collective memory.
For more information about particpation in the workshop please email Wahutau Siguru at siguru@umn.edu.
Sandra Gómez Santamaría is a Human Rights professor involved in the University of Minnesota-Antioquia Human Rights partnership. She has a Master of Arts degree in Sociology of Law from the Oñati International Institute from the Sociology of Law (IISL, Basque Country-Spain) and she received a Law degree from University of Antioquia (Medellín-Colombia). She also has experience working as researcher on human rights in the Colombian Commission of Jurist, a human rights NGO in Colombia. Her áreas of interest includes Human Rights, Sociolegal studies, critical legal theories, Anthropology of the State and Cultural Studies.
The workshop was founded in 2012 by CHGS, the Human Rights Program and the Department of Sociology to foster interdisciplinary conversations on the subject areas of Holocaust studies, genocide and memory, peace and conflict studies, human rights, nationalism and ethnic violence, representations of violence and trauma, conflict resolution, transitional justice, historical consciousness and collective memory.
For more information about particpation in the workshop please email Wahutau Siguru at siguru@umn.edu.
Thursday, September 12, 2013
The Discovery of the "New World" and Traditions of Othering
A lecture by Pedro Martínez García
September 20, 2013
Room 1210 Heller Hall
12:15 p.m.
The arrival of the Castilian caravels in 1492 on the coast and islands which at first sight were identified as the Orient and the resulting encounters with the first natives oddly coincides with the end of the so called "coexistence of the three cultures" in the kingdoms of the Iberian Peninsula. Contemporary Christian Castilians set aside their Jewish and their Morisco others to engage with "new others" in unchartered territories, where concepts like conversion, conquista and cohabitation evolved and were adapted to new contexts. This moment is often considered a symbolic turning point between the Middle Ages and Modernity.
In his talk, Dr. Martinez will focus on the traditions of othering in the early modern Iberian Atlantic World, paying special attention to the European perceptions of the natives of the "New World" through chronicles and travel narratives.
Pedro Martínez García is a lecturer in the Chair of Early modern History, University of Bayreuth, Germany.
Since 2008, he has been writing his dissertation entitled "Face to Face with the Other: Travel Narratives and Alterity from the Late Middle Ages to the Early Modern Period"
at the University of Valladolid (Spain) and the University of Bayreuth (Germany).
Sponsored by: Center for Holocaust and Genocides Studies, Center for Early Modern History, Department of Spanish and Portuguese.
September 20, 2013
Room 1210 Heller Hall
12:15 p.m.
The arrival of the Castilian caravels in 1492 on the coast and islands which at first sight were identified as the Orient and the resulting encounters with the first natives oddly coincides with the end of the so called "coexistence of the three cultures" in the kingdoms of the Iberian Peninsula. Contemporary Christian Castilians set aside their Jewish and their Morisco others to engage with "new others" in unchartered territories, where concepts like conversion, conquista and cohabitation evolved and were adapted to new contexts. This moment is often considered a symbolic turning point between the Middle Ages and Modernity.
In his talk, Dr. Martinez will focus on the traditions of othering in the early modern Iberian Atlantic World, paying special attention to the European perceptions of the natives of the "New World" through chronicles and travel narratives.
Pedro Martínez García is a lecturer in the Chair of Early modern History, University of Bayreuth, Germany.
Since 2008, he has been writing his dissertation entitled "Face to Face with the Other: Travel Narratives and Alterity from the Late Middle Ages to the Early Modern Period"
at the University of Valladolid (Spain) and the University of Bayreuth (Germany).
Sponsored by: Center for Holocaust and Genocides Studies, Center for Early Modern History, Department of Spanish and Portuguese.
Syrian Event to be aired Today on MPR
Countering Mass Atrocities in Syria: Between Human Rights Ideals and Geo-Political Concerns will be broadcast today, Thursday, September 12 at noon.
To listen to the program please click here.
The program, sponsored by the Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies and the Human Rights Program was in the form of a panel discussion featuring: Sarah Parkinson, Assistant Professor. Humphrey School of Public Affairs, Ragui Assaad, Professor, Planning and Public Affairs at the Humphrey School of Public Affairs, Ron Krebs, Associate Professor Department of Political Science, Dr. Wael Khouli and Mazen Halibi, members of the Syrian community.
The discussion was moderated by Barbara Frey, Director Human Rights Program and introduced by Alejandro Baer, Director Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies.
Sponsored by the Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies, the Human Rights Program and Institute for Global Studies and the Institute for Advanced Studies.
To listen to the program please click here.
The program, sponsored by the Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies and the Human Rights Program was in the form of a panel discussion featuring: Sarah Parkinson, Assistant Professor. Humphrey School of Public Affairs, Ragui Assaad, Professor, Planning and Public Affairs at the Humphrey School of Public Affairs, Ron Krebs, Associate Professor Department of Political Science, Dr. Wael Khouli and Mazen Halibi, members of the Syrian community.
The discussion was moderated by Barbara Frey, Director Human Rights Program and introduced by Alejandro Baer, Director Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies.
Sponsored by the Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies, the Human Rights Program and Institute for Global Studies and the Institute for Advanced Studies.
Tuesday, September 10, 2013
Syria: If Not Now When?
By Alejandro Baer
"If I am not for myself, then who will be for me? And if I am only for myself, then what am I? And if not now, when?" Said Rabbi Hillel, one of the most influential sages and scholars in Jewish history.
It is unlikely that Barak Obama had this phrase of the Talmud in mind last week during the Moscow's G20 summit. However, he seems to have performed a political interpretation of this often quoted Jewish aphorism when he tried to convince his fellow world leaders of the necessity of joint military action against the criminal Assad regime in Syria.
The figures of the Syrian tragedy are well known. 100,000 people killed in two years, two million refugees living in bordering countries, four million displaced within the country and, only a few weeks ago, a lethal chemical weapons attack against the civilian population, in a clear violation of international law. No other government has dared to cross the line of chemical weapons use since the 1980s. The situation has reached a tipping point and it requires a meaningful response by the international community. But what sort of action should be taken?
It seems we are always fighting the previous genocide. Violence unfolding before our eyes usually lacks the unambiguous quality of retrospective moral outrage, naming and condemnation. It is entangled in a complex constellation of forces and unpredictable developments that lead to the fact that the realpolitik, immediate interests and geopolitical concerns are weighted against human rights ideals.
What will be the consequences of military action in Syria? Have all other measures and means of pressure been exhausted? Will the envisioned bombing raids serve to protect civilians?
On September 11 the Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies and the Human Rights Program will host a panel discussion in which Syrian community members, experts and scholars will discuss ways to take action without vast and devastating consequences.
"If I am not for myself, then who will be for me? And if I am only for myself, then what am I? And if not now, when?" Said Rabbi Hillel, one of the most influential sages and scholars in Jewish history.
It is unlikely that Barak Obama had this phrase of the Talmud in mind last week during the Moscow's G20 summit. However, he seems to have performed a political interpretation of this often quoted Jewish aphorism when he tried to convince his fellow world leaders of the necessity of joint military action against the criminal Assad regime in Syria.
The figures of the Syrian tragedy are well known. 100,000 people killed in two years, two million refugees living in bordering countries, four million displaced within the country and, only a few weeks ago, a lethal chemical weapons attack against the civilian population, in a clear violation of international law. No other government has dared to cross the line of chemical weapons use since the 1980s. The situation has reached a tipping point and it requires a meaningful response by the international community. But what sort of action should be taken?
It seems we are always fighting the previous genocide. Violence unfolding before our eyes usually lacks the unambiguous quality of retrospective moral outrage, naming and condemnation. It is entangled in a complex constellation of forces and unpredictable developments that lead to the fact that the realpolitik, immediate interests and geopolitical concerns are weighted against human rights ideals.
What will be the consequences of military action in Syria? Have all other measures and means of pressure been exhausted? Will the envisioned bombing raids serve to protect civilians?
On September 11 the Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies and the Human Rights Program will host a panel discussion in which Syrian community members, experts and scholars will discuss ways to take action without vast and devastating consequences.
Thursday, September 5, 2013
The Intergenerational Transmission of Trauma: Recovering Humanity, Repairing Generations
A lecture by Jeffrey Prager
Saturday, October 5
9:00 a.m.
20 Mondale Hall
In this presentation, UCLA Sociology Professor Jeffrey Prager explores the difficulties in overcoming a traumatic past: how psychic trauma restricts individuals from fully engaging their post-traumatic world and how, unless treated, the trauma gets passed on to the next generation, emotionally and often unconsciously. Transmission of trauma is possible over many generations and interferes with a healthy engagement in the present-day world.
Prager considers specifically the South African case, especially their establishment of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission at the end of apartheid, to describe the necessity of the public world recognizing the sufferer and collectively acknowledging various forms of private pain and suffering. Finally, he describes trauma as the severing of an implicit, taken-for-granted social contract, which, if it is to be repaired, requires the restoration of interpersonal trust and belief in a social world protective of the individual from psychological and physical harm.
Jeffrey Prager is Professor of Sociology at UCLA and a practicing psychoanalyst. He is a former Co-Dean of the New Center for Psychoanalysis in Los Angeles, where he serves as a member of the Senior Faculty. He has published widely at the intersection of sociology and psychoanalysis, especially in the areas of trauma, recovered memory, racial conflict, intergenerational transmission of trauma, forgiveness and reconciliation.
He is the author of Presenting the Past: Psychoanalysis and the Sociology of Misremembering (Harvard 1989) and several articles on how societies respond to their traumatic pasts. He currently participates in a working group in South Africa focusing on the disruption of traumatic transmission in post-apartheid South Africa. In addition, Dr. Prager is the co-editor (with Anthony Elliott) of the forthcoming Routledge Handbook of Psychoanalysis for the Humanities and Social Sciences.
Sponsored by the Department of English, University of Minnesota, and the Minnesota Psychoanalytic Society and Institute, and co-sponsored by AAPCSW, Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies, Center for Victims of Torture, Human Rights Center, and Institute for Advanced Studies (IAS). The event has been organized by Elise Sanders, Hal Steiger, and Regents Professor Madelon Sprengnether.
For more information please visit the Department of English website.
Saturday, October 5
9:00 a.m.
20 Mondale Hall
In this presentation, UCLA Sociology Professor Jeffrey Prager explores the difficulties in overcoming a traumatic past: how psychic trauma restricts individuals from fully engaging their post-traumatic world and how, unless treated, the trauma gets passed on to the next generation, emotionally and often unconsciously. Transmission of trauma is possible over many generations and interferes with a healthy engagement in the present-day world.
Prager considers specifically the South African case, especially their establishment of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission at the end of apartheid, to describe the necessity of the public world recognizing the sufferer and collectively acknowledging various forms of private pain and suffering. Finally, he describes trauma as the severing of an implicit, taken-for-granted social contract, which, if it is to be repaired, requires the restoration of interpersonal trust and belief in a social world protective of the individual from psychological and physical harm.
Jeffrey Prager is Professor of Sociology at UCLA and a practicing psychoanalyst. He is a former Co-Dean of the New Center for Psychoanalysis in Los Angeles, where he serves as a member of the Senior Faculty. He has published widely at the intersection of sociology and psychoanalysis, especially in the areas of trauma, recovered memory, racial conflict, intergenerational transmission of trauma, forgiveness and reconciliation.
He is the author of Presenting the Past: Psychoanalysis and the Sociology of Misremembering (Harvard 1989) and several articles on how societies respond to their traumatic pasts. He currently participates in a working group in South Africa focusing on the disruption of traumatic transmission in post-apartheid South Africa. In addition, Dr. Prager is the co-editor (with Anthony Elliott) of the forthcoming Routledge Handbook of Psychoanalysis for the Humanities and Social Sciences.
Sponsored by the Department of English, University of Minnesota, and the Minnesota Psychoanalytic Society and Institute, and co-sponsored by AAPCSW, Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies, Center for Victims of Torture, Human Rights Center, and Institute for Advanced Studies (IAS). The event has been organized by Elise Sanders, Hal Steiger, and Regents Professor Madelon Sprengnether.
For more information please visit the Department of English website.
Unspoken: IAS Panel Discussion Concerning Trauma
Institute for Advanced Studies Thursday Speaker's Series
Unspoken
Thursday, September 12, 2013
4:00 pm
125 Nolte Center
Panel Discussion Featuring:
Rebecca Krinke, Professor of Landscape Architecture, UMN, has an art practice and research agenda focused on trauma and responses to trauma. Krinke has invited five distinguished scholars to help her explore this issue through short individual presentations and reflective discussion.
Panelists
David Beard, Associate Professor of Rhetoric, UMD, speaking on the 1920 lynchings in Duluth and their ongoing impact.
Jeanne Kilde, Religious Studies, UMN, speaking on issues related to the Muslim Community Center proposed near ground zero, NYC.
Kevin Murphy, Associate Professor of History and a UMN leader of the multi-institutional "Guantanamo Public Memory Project."
Discussants
Naomi Scheman, Professor of Philosophy, UMN.
José Medina, Professor of Philosophy, Vanderbilt University.
Fro more information visit the IAS website.
Unspoken
Thursday, September 12, 2013
4:00 pm
125 Nolte Center
Panel Discussion Featuring:
Rebecca Krinke, Professor of Landscape Architecture, UMN, has an art practice and research agenda focused on trauma and responses to trauma. Krinke has invited five distinguished scholars to help her explore this issue through short individual presentations and reflective discussion.
Panelists
David Beard, Associate Professor of Rhetoric, UMD, speaking on the 1920 lynchings in Duluth and their ongoing impact.
Jeanne Kilde, Religious Studies, UMN, speaking on issues related to the Muslim Community Center proposed near ground zero, NYC.
Kevin Murphy, Associate Professor of History and a UMN leader of the multi-institutional "Guantanamo Public Memory Project."
Discussants
Naomi Scheman, Professor of Philosophy, UMN.
José Medina, Professor of Philosophy, Vanderbilt University.
Fro more information visit the IAS website.
Wednesday, September 4, 2013
CHGS and the Program for Human Rights Announce Program on Syria
Countering Mass Atrocities in Syria: Between Human Rights Ideals and Geo-Political Concerns
Wednesday, September 11
4:00 p.m.
Note: Room Change:
125 Willey Hall
As the situation in Syria grows evermore difficult, maintaining its position in center stage as the world watches mass atrocities unfold, tensions over what action to take (or not to take) continue to escalate. Russia stands firm in its decision to block a UN backed intervention, and the United States looks to take matters into its own hands with military action. In the anticipation of a potential confrontation, experts and scholars hope to find a way to take action without vast and devastating consequences.
Panelists:
Sarah Parkinson, Assistant Professor. Humphrey School of Public Affairs, Ragui Assaad, Professor, Planning and Public Affairs at the Humphrey School of Public Affairs, Ron Krebs, Associate Professor Department of Political Science, Dr. Wael Khouli and Mazen Halibi, members of the Syrian community.
Moderated by Barbara Frey, Director Human Rights Program and Alejandro Baer, Director Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies.
Sponsored by the Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies, the Human Rights Program and Institute for Global Studies.
For more information contact: 612-624-9007
Wednesday, September 11
4:00 p.m.
Note: Room Change:
125 Willey Hall
As the situation in Syria grows evermore difficult, maintaining its position in center stage as the world watches mass atrocities unfold, tensions over what action to take (or not to take) continue to escalate. Russia stands firm in its decision to block a UN backed intervention, and the United States looks to take matters into its own hands with military action. In the anticipation of a potential confrontation, experts and scholars hope to find a way to take action without vast and devastating consequences.
Panelists:
Sarah Parkinson, Assistant Professor. Humphrey School of Public Affairs, Ragui Assaad, Professor, Planning and Public Affairs at the Humphrey School of Public Affairs, Ron Krebs, Associate Professor Department of Political Science, Dr. Wael Khouli and Mazen Halibi, members of the Syrian community.
Moderated by Barbara Frey, Director Human Rights Program and Alejandro Baer, Director Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies.
Sponsored by the Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies, the Human Rights Program and Institute for Global Studies.
For more information contact: 612-624-9007
Friday, August 23, 2013
Tuesday, August 20, 2013
2013 Holocaust Genocide & Mass Violence Studies Workshops Announced
The Center for Holocaust & genocide Studies, the Human rights Program and the Department of Sociology have just released the fall semester schedule for the Holocaust, Genocide & Mas violence Workshops for graduate students and faculty.
The first meeting will take place on Thursday, September 19, in Room 710 Social Sciences.
The workshop was founded in 2012 to foster interdisciplinary conversations on the subject areas of Holocaust studies, genocide and memory, peace and conflict studies, human rights, nationalism and ethnic violence, representations of violence and trauma, conflict resolution, transitional justice, historical consciousness and collective memory.
Support fellow scholars and provide feedback at various stages of the research process.
Engage in dialogue with invited scholars.
Twelve students, visiting professors and faculty members gave papers throughout the 2012-2013 academic school year. A complete list of presenters and topics is available by clicking the following link.
For more information about particpation in the workshop please email Wahutau Siguru at siguru@umn.edu.
The first meeting will take place on Thursday, September 19, in Room 710 Social Sciences.
The workshop was founded in 2012 to foster interdisciplinary conversations on the subject areas of Holocaust studies, genocide and memory, peace and conflict studies, human rights, nationalism and ethnic violence, representations of violence and trauma, conflict resolution, transitional justice, historical consciousness and collective memory.
Support fellow scholars and provide feedback at various stages of the research process.
Engage in dialogue with invited scholars.
Twelve students, visiting professors and faculty members gave papers throughout the 2012-2013 academic school year. A complete list of presenters and topics is available by clicking the following link.
For more information about particpation in the workshop please email Wahutau Siguru at siguru@umn.edu.
Tuesday, July 30, 2013
Special Screening The Act of Killing
Theatrical Cut July 31, 7:30 p.m. Walker Art Center
Director's Cut August 1, 7:00 p.m. Walker Art Center
Conversation with director Joshuah Oppenheimer August 3, 12:00 p.m. Walker Art Center
In this chilling and inventive documentary, filmmaker Joshua Oppenheimer examines Indonesia's communist purge of 1965, in which more than one million leftists, intellectuals, and ethnic Chinese were killed. Leaders of the death squads continue to be celebrated as heroes, and the director challenged them to reenact their real-life killings in the style of the American movies that inspired their methods. The result is a cinematic fever dream, an unsettling journey deep into the imaginations of mass murderers and the shockingly banal regime of corruption and impunity they inhabit.
For more information on tickets and screenings please contact the Walker Art Center.
Mass Murder? Gee, That Was Fun 'Act of Killing' Re-enacts Indonesian Massacres: NY Times Movie Review
Director's Cut August 1, 7:00 p.m. Walker Art Center
Conversation with director Joshuah Oppenheimer August 3, 12:00 p.m. Walker Art Center
In this chilling and inventive documentary, filmmaker Joshua Oppenheimer examines Indonesia's communist purge of 1965, in which more than one million leftists, intellectuals, and ethnic Chinese were killed. Leaders of the death squads continue to be celebrated as heroes, and the director challenged them to reenact their real-life killings in the style of the American movies that inspired their methods. The result is a cinematic fever dream, an unsettling journey deep into the imaginations of mass murderers and the shockingly banal regime of corruption and impunity they inhabit.
For more information on tickets and screenings please contact the Walker Art Center.
Mass Murder? Gee, That Was Fun 'Act of Killing' Re-enacts Indonesian Massacres: NY Times Movie Review
Monday, July 15, 2013
CHGS Summer Institute for Secondary Educators
The Holocaust in European Memory took place on July 8-11, 2013 at the University of Minnesota.
The workshop examined questions such as how the Nazi murder of European Jews became "The Holocaust." How the story is conveyed through public memorials, school curricula, art, literature and film. How the Holocaust has been contextualized and rendered meaningful within the diversity of European nations and in the distant US. And what are its implications for teaching the Holocaust in the classroom.
The topic was approached from an interdisciplinary perspective, with internationally recognized scholars in the fields of history, sociology, literature and German/European studies from the University of Minnesota and Gustavus Adolphus College. Speakers focused on historiography, testimony, media and visual arts and assisted educators in creating curriculum and lessons they can incorporate into their classrooms.
Educators also dialogued with Holocaust survivor Dora Zaidenweber. Who shared her insights on Holocaust memory and her experiences after World War II in Germany, Poland and the U.S.
The workshop examined questions such as how the Nazi murder of European Jews became "The Holocaust." How the story is conveyed through public memorials, school curricula, art, literature and film. How the Holocaust has been contextualized and rendered meaningful within the diversity of European nations and in the distant US. And what are its implications for teaching the Holocaust in the classroom.
The topic was approached from an interdisciplinary perspective, with internationally recognized scholars in the fields of history, sociology, literature and German/European studies from the University of Minnesota and Gustavus Adolphus College. Speakers focused on historiography, testimony, media and visual arts and assisted educators in creating curriculum and lessons they can incorporate into their classrooms.
Educators also dialogued with Holocaust survivor Dora Zaidenweber. Who shared her insights on Holocaust memory and her experiences after World War II in Germany, Poland and the U.S.
Friday, July 12, 2013
Wednesday, July 3, 2013
Saturday, June 29, 2013
Thursday, June 27, 2013
Monday, June 24, 2013
Thursday, June 20, 2013
Wednesday, June 19, 2013
Monday, June 17, 2013
A Nazi in our Midst?
A Nazi in our midst? Pursuit of justice must persistArticle by Alejandro Baer June 17, 2013
Star Tribune
If he is connected with war crimes, he must be held accountable.
Until Friday, 94-year-old Michael Karkoc was only an immigrant living the quiet and peaceful life of a retiree in northeast Minneapolis. He was known as a loving father and grandfather, a longtime member of the Ukrainian immigrant community, a citizen who attended church regularly, always friendly and considerate toward his neighbors.
But soon Karkoc will be subject to the full force of the law, suspected of the worst imaginable of crimes. Karkoc is alleged to have been a top commander of a Nazi SS-led unit accused of burning villages filled with women and children. It seems that the evidence is strong enough for him to face deportation and to be prosecuted for war crimes in Germany or Poland.
How could this man immigrate to the United States after the war and live a normal life in Minnesota for six decades? According to an extensive investigation by the Associated Press, Karkoc fooled the American authorities in 1949, concealing his role as an officer and founding member of the infamous Ukrainian Self Defense Legion.
To read the entire article click here.
Star Tribune
If he is connected with war crimes, he must be held accountable.
Until Friday, 94-year-old Michael Karkoc was only an immigrant living the quiet and peaceful life of a retiree in northeast Minneapolis. He was known as a loving father and grandfather, a longtime member of the Ukrainian immigrant community, a citizen who attended church regularly, always friendly and considerate toward his neighbors.
But soon Karkoc will be subject to the full force of the law, suspected of the worst imaginable of crimes. Karkoc is alleged to have been a top commander of a Nazi SS-led unit accused of burning villages filled with women and children. It seems that the evidence is strong enough for him to face deportation and to be prosecuted for war crimes in Germany or Poland.
How could this man immigrate to the United States after the war and live a normal life in Minnesota for six decades? According to an extensive investigation by the Associated Press, Karkoc fooled the American authorities in 1949, concealing his role as an officer and founding member of the infamous Ukrainian Self Defense Legion.
To read the entire article click here.
Sunday, June 16, 2013
Immigration to America: the 1948 Displaced Persons Act
By Jodi Elowitz June 17, 2013
The startled reaction to the news that Michael Karkoc, an alleged former Nazi is living in Northeast Minneapolis is understandable. To have a Nazi in our midst is unsettling and leads to the larger question of how it is possible for someone who (if found guilty of war crimes) could have lived in the Twin Cities for 70 years undetected.
In terms of what happens next, the United States needs to investigate Karkoc's denial of military service on the application form he filed in order to immigrate to the United States.
Karkoc was admitted into this country under the 1948 Displaced Persons Act, designed to authorize for a limited period of time the admission into the United States of certain European displaced persons for permanent residence and or other purposes.
After World War II there were more than 250,000 Jewish displaced persons between 1945 and 1952 living in DP camps throughout Germany and Austria, waiting to regain their lives after the Holocaust. At first the thought was to return them to their countries of origin but most had no homes or families to go back to, and antisemitism remained problematic. The Displaced Persons Act at first was not specific or favorable to the Jewish DP's and many Jews continued to wait to immigrate to the United States. It was not until 1950 that the act was amended and Jews had more accessibility to emigrate. By 1952 80,000 displaced Jews made it to the US with the additional aid of Jewish relief agencies. Of those 80,000 it is believed that roughly three to four hundred made Minnesota their new home.
Life in Minnesota was not easy for the new Jewish immigrants, jobs were hard to come by and the larger community did not quite understand what these refugees had experienced during the war. Most did not speak of their Holocaust experiences until much later, when people began to ask and wanted to hear about what they witnessed.
When the news of Karkoc's alleged Nazi past appeared on every Minnesota news and media outlet, local Holocaust survivors began to speak up, hoping that if he did indeed commit these crimes against his fellow Ukrainians and Poles, murdering women and children, that he would be brought to justice. Many wondered how he was able to slip into this country under the act that was designed to help people who had been victims of Nazi persecution and could not return home. As one survivor said, "The fact that he was let into the US and has lived a relatively quiet and happy life is problematic because justice has not been served."
Sources for this article: United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Encyclopedia, University of Washington Bothel Library.
The startled reaction to the news that Michael Karkoc, an alleged former Nazi is living in Northeast Minneapolis is understandable. To have a Nazi in our midst is unsettling and leads to the larger question of how it is possible for someone who (if found guilty of war crimes) could have lived in the Twin Cities for 70 years undetected.
In terms of what happens next, the United States needs to investigate Karkoc's denial of military service on the application form he filed in order to immigrate to the United States.
Karkoc was admitted into this country under the 1948 Displaced Persons Act, designed to authorize for a limited period of time the admission into the United States of certain European displaced persons for permanent residence and or other purposes.
After World War II there were more than 250,000 Jewish displaced persons between 1945 and 1952 living in DP camps throughout Germany and Austria, waiting to regain their lives after the Holocaust. At first the thought was to return them to their countries of origin but most had no homes or families to go back to, and antisemitism remained problematic. The Displaced Persons Act at first was not specific or favorable to the Jewish DP's and many Jews continued to wait to immigrate to the United States. It was not until 1950 that the act was amended and Jews had more accessibility to emigrate. By 1952 80,000 displaced Jews made it to the US with the additional aid of Jewish relief agencies. Of those 80,000 it is believed that roughly three to four hundred made Minnesota their new home.
Life in Minnesota was not easy for the new Jewish immigrants, jobs were hard to come by and the larger community did not quite understand what these refugees had experienced during the war. Most did not speak of their Holocaust experiences until much later, when people began to ask and wanted to hear about what they witnessed.
When the news of Karkoc's alleged Nazi past appeared on every Minnesota news and media outlet, local Holocaust survivors began to speak up, hoping that if he did indeed commit these crimes against his fellow Ukrainians and Poles, murdering women and children, that he would be brought to justice. Many wondered how he was able to slip into this country under the act that was designed to help people who had been victims of Nazi persecution and could not return home. As one survivor said, "The fact that he was let into the US and has lived a relatively quiet and happy life is problematic because justice has not been served."
Sources for this article: United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Encyclopedia, University of Washington Bothel Library.
Friday, June 14, 2013
Wednesday, June 12, 2013
Monday, June 3, 2013
Representing Genocide Videos on CHGS YouTube Channel
On April 5th and 6th, the Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies, hosted the symposium, Representing Genocide: Media, Law and Scholarship, to explore the intersections between journalistic, judicial and social scientific depictions of atrocities, with a focus on cases of the Holocaust, Darfur and Rwanda. The symposium was was recorded and is now available to be viewed on the Center's YouTube channel by clicking here.
The symposium was organized by the Center's Director, Alejandro Baer, and Professor of Sociology, Joachim Savelsberg, and made possible by the Wexler Special Events fund for Holocaust and Genocide Studies, the Center for Austrian Studies, The Center for German and European Studies and several other centers and departments across the university(for a complete list click here).
The symposium was organized by the Center's Director, Alejandro Baer, and Professor of Sociology, Joachim Savelsberg, and made possible by the Wexler Special Events fund for Holocaust and Genocide Studies, the Center for Austrian Studies, The Center for German and European Studies and several other centers and departments across the university(for a complete list click here).
Two new Holocaust films streaming on Netflix
The critically acclaimed films The Flat (2011) and Hitler's Children (2011) are now streaming on Netflix. The Flat is a documentary film about director Arnon Goldfinger's 98-year-old grandmother who lived in Israel after emigrating from Berlin in the 1930's. After his grandmother passes away the family is tasked with cleaning her flat. While going through her belongings they discover a secret that causes renewed reflection on the family's relationship to the past and the memory of the Holocaust.
Hitler's Children (2011) is a standard documentary that examines the lives of some of the descendants of the Third Reich's more notorious Nazi leaders. One of the most fascinating of these is the segments dealing with Rainer Hoess the grandson of Rudolf Hoess the commandant of Auschwitz and Eldad Beck an Israeli journalist and grandson of Holocaust survivors. They travel to Auschwitz together to help Hoess put context to his troubled connection to his father and grandfather.
Both films explore Holocaust memory and seek to show how the generations handle these memories in order to be able to live in the present.
Hitler's Children (2011) is a standard documentary that examines the lives of some of the descendants of the Third Reich's more notorious Nazi leaders. One of the most fascinating of these is the segments dealing with Rainer Hoess the grandson of Rudolf Hoess the commandant of Auschwitz and Eldad Beck an Israeli journalist and grandson of Holocaust survivors. They travel to Auschwitz together to help Hoess put context to his troubled connection to his father and grandfather.
Both films explore Holocaust memory and seek to show how the generations handle these memories in order to be able to live in the present.
Tuesday, May 21, 2013
Friday, May 17, 2013
Tuesday, May 7, 2013
World Jewish Congress calls for a ban of public Holocaust Denial
WJC approves resolution calling for ban of public Holocaust denial
5-7-2013
5-7-2013
Scripting the Shoah presented by Aomar Boum now Available to View on line
On April 11, 2013 Professor Aomar Boum presented an overview of his research dealing with the Holocaust in Moroccan official and public discourses. The recording of this presentation is now available for viewing on the CHGS YouTube channel. You can access the video by clicking here.
The lecture was a collaboration between CHGS and the Center for Jewish Studies.
Using archival material and ethnographic interviews, Professor Boum argued that North African and Moroccan perspectives about the Holocaust are part of what he calls the durable structures of acceptance and minimization. Using Bourdieu's habitus, Boum claims that Moroccan debates about the Holocaust have been framed and ossified in a context of social and political pre-dispositions of minimization of the Holocaust generating typological and conflicting scripts. Therefore, when individuals go against the grain and question this habitus, they are perceived as going against the principles of regular continuity that has governed the Arab/Moroccan critique of Israeli policies towards Palestinians.
The lecture was a collaboration between CHGS and the Center for Jewish Studies.
Using archival material and ethnographic interviews, Professor Boum argued that North African and Moroccan perspectives about the Holocaust are part of what he calls the durable structures of acceptance and minimization. Using Bourdieu's habitus, Boum claims that Moroccan debates about the Holocaust have been framed and ossified in a context of social and political pre-dispositions of minimization of the Holocaust generating typological and conflicting scripts. Therefore, when individuals go against the grain and question this habitus, they are perceived as going against the principles of regular continuity that has governed the Arab/Moroccan critique of Israeli policies towards Palestinians.
Eric Harkleroad PhD Candidate in Anthropology to Present at CHGS Workshop
Workshop for Graduate Students and Faculty Holocaust, Genocide and Mass Violence Studies
Thursday, May 9
3:30 p.m. - 5:00 p.m.
710 Social Sciences
Eric Harkleroad will present "Warfare and Society: Archaeology's Contribution to the Discussion."
Eric's research focuses on situating warfare within the social sphere to examine its changing place in the daily life of Iron Age people in Southern Britain. His dissertation takes a regional look at how warfare, or the symbolic representations of warfare, is distributed across the landscape at different sites and how this changes through time. The work he is presenting uses a different scale focusing on one site and trying to understand how warfare fits into society at one specific site. Additionally he will address the relevance of Anthropology and Archaeology to the interests of the HGMV workshop.
This the last workshop of the 2012-2013 school year. The workshop will resume in September of 2013. For more information on how you can participate next year please email Alejandro Baer at abaer@umn.edu.
Special thanks to Shannon Golden for facilitating and organizing the workshops this year.
Thursday, May 9
3:30 p.m. - 5:00 p.m.
710 Social Sciences
Eric Harkleroad will present "Warfare and Society: Archaeology's Contribution to the Discussion."
Eric's research focuses on situating warfare within the social sphere to examine its changing place in the daily life of Iron Age people in Southern Britain. His dissertation takes a regional look at how warfare, or the symbolic representations of warfare, is distributed across the landscape at different sites and how this changes through time. The work he is presenting uses a different scale focusing on one site and trying to understand how warfare fits into society at one specific site. Additionally he will address the relevance of Anthropology and Archaeology to the interests of the HGMV workshop.
This the last workshop of the 2012-2013 school year. The workshop will resume in September of 2013. For more information on how you can participate next year please email Alejandro Baer at abaer@umn.edu.
Special thanks to Shannon Golden for facilitating and organizing the workshops this year.
Thursday, May 2, 2013
New Publication of Holocaust Testimony by Minnesota Survivor Translated 70 Years Later by his Daughter
Sky Tinged Red is the chronicle of Isaia Eiger's two years as a prisoner in Auschwitz- Birkenau. Eiger immediately wrote of his experiences in the camp shortly after the war. The book focuses on his experiences and his role in the resistance movement that took place at the camp.
Isaia Eiger passed away in 1960, leaving the manuscript unpublished for his family. Discovered by his daughter Dora Eiger Zaidenweber, it was put aside until the mid 80's when she set out to translate her father's story. After translating the nearly 100 pages of the typed manuscript she was surprised to find that it abruptly ended prior to his liberation. It would be another 20 years before she would find the remainder of the memoir, which was handwritten in Yiddish. The pages were small and the writing detailed and cramped, which made the process of translating the remaining pages incredibly challenging considering Zaidenweber was now legally blind. Determined, she invented a process to translate the pages. Even so, it took a great deal of patience and persistence on her part to finish the memoir that has now been published. The process she underwent to translate her father's words is a true testament to her strength of character.
The book is now available for purchase and more information can be found by clicking here.
For more information about Dora's story please visit her CHGS web page.
Isaia Eiger passed away in 1960, leaving the manuscript unpublished for his family. Discovered by his daughter Dora Eiger Zaidenweber, it was put aside until the mid 80's when she set out to translate her father's story. After translating the nearly 100 pages of the typed manuscript she was surprised to find that it abruptly ended prior to his liberation. It would be another 20 years before she would find the remainder of the memoir, which was handwritten in Yiddish. The pages were small and the writing detailed and cramped, which made the process of translating the remaining pages incredibly challenging considering Zaidenweber was now legally blind. Determined, she invented a process to translate the pages. Even so, it took a great deal of patience and persistence on her part to finish the memoir that has now been published. The process she underwent to translate her father's words is a true testament to her strength of character.The book is now available for purchase and more information can be found by clicking here.
For more information about Dora's story please visit her CHGS web page.
Whitney Taylor and Katie Menke Receive Human Rights Awards
The Human Rights Program and the Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies congratulate Whitney Taylor and Katie Menke as the recipients of the 3rd annual human rights awards.
Taylor is the recipient of the Sullivan Ballou award, and Menke received the Inna Meiman Award. These two exemplary students have demonstrated incredible aptitude, commitment, and passion in their service of others throughout their time at the University of Minnesota.
An awards luncheon will take place on Friday, May 3 at 12:00 p.m. 280 Ferguson Hall.
Whitney Taylor is a dedicated and emerging human rights activist and scholar, who exhibits incredible energy and intellect inspiring and mobilizing all of those around her.
Taylor has contributed expertise in editing and assisting various human rights research projects and publications and has conducted some of her own human rights research.
Whitney has also contributed to the promotion of human rights through her travels to South Africa during the summer of 2011, where she worked to empower individuals as a research intern for the Southern African Media and Gender Institute. While in Cape Town, Whitney worked to bring meaningful change and to give a voice to those who might otherwise not have been heard through facilitating empowerment workshops in women's prisons.
As an employee at the Human Rights Program, Whitney has assisted in successfully carrying out countless human rights events, which have served to raise awareness on many different critical human rights issues.
Katie Menke, is a devoted human rights activist and scholar whose summa thesis examines the work of the Salvadorian organization, Pro-Busqueda, which reunites families with children who were kidnapped during the country's civil war. In addition to her academic attention to issues of human rights and social justice, Katie has given freely and extensively of herself to advocating on behalf of human rights, particularly in relation to youth, homelessness and inequality. This past winter, Katie took the initiative to spread information about resources for the homeless in Minneapolis, including a program established by St. Stephen's Outreach. During the fall/winter of 2010-11, Katie volunteered with the Centro de Trabajadores Unidos en Lucha (CTUL), working throughout the Twin Cities specifically on their retail cleaning campaign, which focused on bringing attention the poor working conditions of retail cleaners.
The Inna Meiman Award is given in recognition of the friendship between Inna Meiman, a Soviet era Jewish refusenik who was repeatedly denied a visa to seek medical treatment and Lisa Paul a graduate of the University of Minnesota, who fought tirelessly on her behalf, including a 25-day hunger strike that galvanized a movement for Inna's freedom. The friendship between Paul and Meiman is memorialized in the book, Swimming in the Daylight: An American Student, a Soviet-Jewish Dissident, and the Gift of Hope.
The Sullivan Ballou Award is named after Major Sullivan Ballou, an Army soldier killed at the First Battle of Bull Run in 1861. Ballou became the inspiration for this award because of the heartfelt commitment he expressed in a letter to his wife before the battle. The award carries on Ballou's spirit by honoring a student who acts from the heart and devotes heartfelt energy to those around them.
The celebration is hosted by the Human Rights Program in the Institute for Global Studies and the Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies at the University of Minnesota.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)