New Topics course on 100th Anniversary of Armenian Genocide announced for Spring 2015

The Armenian Genocide: Disrupted History, Fractured Identities
Global Studies 5900-Sec. 003
Bi-weekly: Thursday's 1:30 to 3:00 p.m.
1 credit advanced seminar
Dr. Artyom H. Tonoyan, Baylor University



The course will explore the socio-historical dimensions of the Armenian Genocide and the contemporary effects of its denial on Armenian and Turkish societies. Particular emphasis will be placed on the rise of Turkish nationalism, the structure of the Armenian Genocide, particularly its social and ideological components, and the efforts to deal with the fallout of the extermination of the Armenians in the Ottoman Empire.


A Native of Armenia, Dr. Artyom H. Tonoyan received his Ph.D. from
Baylor University in 2012, where he completed his dissertation on the religious aspects of the conflict in Nagorno Karabakh. Additionally he taught ethno-political conflicts and international human rights at Baylor University before relocating to Minneapolis. His current research includes the politics of the memory of the Armenian Genocide, religion and nationalism in the Caucasus, and the de-secularization of contemporary Russian politics.
Sponsored by the Center for Holocaust & Genocide Studies and the Arsham and Charlotte Ohanessian Chair

100 Years of Genocide: Student Conference Call for Papers

As we approach the 100th Anniversary of the Armenian Genocide, The Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies, the Human Rights Program and the Institute for Global Studies will be hosting three days of events to commemorate this centennial. The events will include the Arsham and Charlotte Ohanessian Lecture featuring Professor Bedros Der Matossian, which is open to the public (April 23), a student conference, entitled "One Hundred Years of Genocide" (April 24) and a K-16 teacher workshop (April 25). The objectives of these events are to promote public understanding of the genocide and the fates of those who lost their lives and those who escaped. The events will also analyze responses by the international community (and/or lack thereof), and discuss the long-term implications for international policy and actions to prevent and respond to genocide. In addition to these events the Armenian Community of Minnesota will also be commemorating the genocide with there own special programming.

The student conference seeks to bring together graduate and advanced undergraduate students from different disciplines that are working on the Armenian or other episodes of genocide and mass violence.To this end, we are seeking a broad range of papers that examine but are not limited to the following topics:
The Armenian Genocide: Historical and socio-political paths leading to the genocide; the role of the international community, testimonials of survivors; public memory; etc.
Genocide and the international community: Intervention or lack thereof in genocides and large-scale political violence; potential responses to genocide and mass violence; the role of neighboring countries, and other countries.
Genocide and the media: International and local media coverage of genocide; hate media and genocide incitement; representations of mass violence and its (cognitive and ethical) limits; representations in popular media such as movies, documentaries, music etc.
Representing mass atrocity before Lemkin: the Armenian genocide has been referred to as a Crime with no name because it occurred before the Genocide Convention. How does this fact affect how we understand and talk about mass atrocities that occurred before December 9th 1948, including the Armenian genocide?
Genocide Awareness and Advocacy in the Age of Digital Communications: Social media campaigns to promote awareness and response, traditional vs. new technology platforms to document genocide and mass violence, affect organization and mobilization of citizens, etc.
Justice and politics of reconciliation after genocide: The role and effectiveness of judicial processes and transitional justice mechanisms such as International Tribunals, truth commissions and reparations.
Genocide education and public memory: Teaching about genocide and mass atrocities; the representation of the Armenian genocide in history and other textbooks. Memorials, museums and commemoration days/weeks; the politics of commemoration; the use of human remains in memorials and related issues.
Abstracts not exceeding 300 words and a 2 page CV should be sent to Wahutu j. Siguru Siguru@umn.edu by the 15th of January 2015.
The conference was made possible by funding from the Ohanessian Endowment Fund for Justice and Peace Studies at The Minneapolis Foundation and is sponsored by The Institute for Global Studies, Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies, the Arsham and Charlotte Ohanessian Chair, and the Human Rights Program at the University of Minnesota.

Twin Cities Premier of Watchers of the Sky

Tuesday, December 9
7:00-9:00 pm
William Mitchell College of Law
Presented by World Without Genocide



Open to the public, no reservations necessary. $10 general public, $5 students and seniors. Free to Mitchell students.
$35 2 standard CLE credits, $35 2 POST credits, 2 educator clock hours.

Watchers of the Sky interweaves four stories of remarkable courage, compassion, and determination, while setting out to uncover the forgotten life of Raphael Lemkin - the man who created the word "genocide," and believed the law could protect the world from mass atrocities. Inspired by Samantha Power's Pulitzer Prize-winning book, A Problem From Hell, Watchers of the Sky takes you on a provocative journey from Nuremberg to The Hague, from Bosnia to Darfur, from criminality to justice, and from apathy to action.
Watch the trailer by clicking here.
Co-sponsors: The Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies and the Human Rights Program, University of Minnesota State Bar Association Human Rights Committee,
Congregation Shir Tikvah, Minneapolis; Mt. Zion Temple, St. Paul, United Nations Association of Minnesota; and William Mitchell College of Law.

"Genocide in El Salvador: Where Ethnicity and Politics Collided"

Paula Cuellar Cuellar, Department of History and Badzin Fellow in Holocaust and Genocide Studies
HGMV Workshop
Friday, December 5
12:00p.m.
Room 710 Social Sciences Building



The HGMV workshop was founded 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, and to engage in dialogue with invited scholars.
For more information contact Erma Nezirevic at nezir001@umn.edu.

Bystanders, Rescuers or Perpetrators? The Neutrals and the Shoah-Facts, Myths and Counter Myths Conference in Madrid, Spain

The international conference will be held at Centro Sefarad-Israel in Madrid, Spain on November 24 and 26 and will aim at addressing the following issues: The neutral countries' reactions to Nazi anti-Jewish policies and their own policies on Jewish refugees;Their response to the German ultimatum of 1943 to either repatriate Jews with citizenship from their respective countries who lived in Nazi-occupied Europe or to allow their deportation;The genesis and long-lasting effects of "rescue myths", the current state of the discussion regarding the neutral countries' positions during the Holocaust;The dealing with the history of the Jewish persecution in state fact-finding commissions and committees of historians;Approaches to Holocaust education in neutral countries.Holocaust public memory (ceremonies, memorials, museums) and memory politics in neutral countries.



The conference will aim at addressing the following issues:
CHGS director Alejandro Baer will introduce "The Politics of Rescue Myths. Lessons from Spain." on the panel "Rescue Myth, Public Debates, Historical Investigations."
This conference is supported by the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) and sponsored by Centro Sefarad Israel - Madrid; Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies- University of Minnesota; Mémorial de la Shoah - Paris; History Unit of the Federal Department of Foreign Affairs of Switzerland - Berne; Topography of Terror Foundation - Berlin; Living History Forum - Stockholm; Memoshoá/Association for the Education and Remembrance of the Holocaust - Lisbon and Tarih Vakfı/History Foundation - Istanbul.
PROGRAMME CONFERENCE ON NEUTRALS - MADRID NOV 2014 - 1610.pdf

Surviving Forced Disappearance: Identity and Meaning

A Conversation with Gabriel Gatti (Prof. of Sociology, University of the Basque Country)
Thursday, November 20
3:00p.m.
Room 710 Social Sciences
(Spanish with translation)




Due in large part to humanitarian law and transitional justice, the categories of detained-disappeared and forced disappearance are today well established - so much so that in some places like Argentina and Uruguay an intense social life has taken shape around them and in their wake. Victims mix with institutions, laws, and professionals (forensic anthropologists, social scientists, jurists, psychologists, artists, archivists, writers), occupying intersecting positions and doing so with varied narratives, from the epic and heroic to the tragic and traumatic. Based on extensive fieldwork in Argentina and Uruguay, Gatti analyzes these worlds in an attempt to understand how one inhabits the categories that international law has constructed to mark, judge, think about, and repair horror.
Gabriel Gatti is Professor of Sociology at the University of the Basque Country, Spain. His research and teaching focus on contemporary forms of identity, in particular those constituted in situations of social catastrophe, rupture, and fracture. He is the author of Identidades débiles, Identidades desaparecidas, Les nouveaux répères de l'identité collective en Europe, and Basque society. His latest work, Surviving Forced Disappearance in Argentina and Uruguay: Identity and Meaning was published in august of 2014. He is also a main researcher behind the Mundo(s) de victimas (World(s) of victims) a study of four cases that deal with the construction of the "victim" category in contemporary Spain.
Professor Gatti's visit is part of the Reframing Mass Violence Collaborative Series. Sponsored by the Institute for Advanced Studies, The Human Rights Program, the Department of Sociology and CHGS.

2013-2014 Annual Report available online

The CHGS annual report is now available in PDF on our website. The report includes highlights of programs, events and articles that took place in the last year. To directly view the report click here.

Humanizing Narco Violence in Mexico

Professor Patrick McNamara
HGMV Workshop
Thursday, November 13
3:00p.m.
Room 710
Social Sciences Building



Professor McNamara will provide workshop participants with small pieces he has written regarding his attempt to understand human rights violations in Mexico from the perspective of the perpetrators. The essay introduces ideas of memory formation and violence within the field of cognitive studies. He will speak briefly about psychological studies dealing with evil and violence and about the particular groups he has studied most in Mexico, La Familia Michoacana and Los Templarios Caballeros.

Photo: Jesus Alcazar/AFP/Getty Images 2-16-2012

Give to the Max Day is November 13, 2014

Be a light for the U's Center for Holocaust & Genocide Studies on Give to the Max Day.
Make a gift at http://z.umn.edu/givechgs.

The genocide of the Herero people in Namibia and the case for reparations

A special lecture by Ester Utjiua Muinjangue MA
Lecturer in Social Work at the University of Namibia, and Chair, Ovaherero Genocide Committee, Namibia



Presented by the University of Minnesota School of Social Work
Monday, November 10, 2014
5:30 - 7:30
Room 5, Peters Hall
School of Social Work
Light dinner served at 5:30, Presentation begins at 6:00
1.5 FREE CEUS
RSVP to elightfo@umn.edu

From "Racial Paradise" to the Racist Anti-racism of Frente Negra Brasileira

Satty Flaherty-Echeverría, Ph.D Candidate, Spanish and Portuguese Studies
HGMV Workshop
Thursday, October 30, 3:00p.m. Room 710 Social Sciences Building



Due to the late abolition of slavery in Brazil, in 1888, the emancipatory movements that emerged in the first decades of the twentieth century lacked the strength and the language to fight effectively for racial equality. A case in point is the Frente Negra Brasileira (FNB) [Brazilian Black Front], founded in 1931 and outlawed in 1937 by Getúlio Vargas' regime. The FNB had as its main purpose the "political and social union of the National Black People, to affirm their historical rights, in virtue of their material
and moral activity in the past and for the revindication of their social and political rights under Brazilian communion."
In this presentation, Flaherty-Echeverria will explore the possible reasons due to which the FNB failed to achieve its political goals. She will concentrate on identifying and analyzing what Celia M. Azevedo calls the "voice from within"1 that obstructed the Afro-centric imagination of Brazilian intellectuals of the time. Those intellectuals embraced the idea that Brazil was a "racial paradise" and, hence, an exceptional case when compared to race relations in the US.
Satty Flaherty-Echeverria is a Ph.D student in the Department of Spanish and Portuguese Studies at the University of Minnesota writing her dissertation on the recovery of the construction of a Black experience expressed at the margins: in the Portuguese and Spanish languages. Focusing on the poetic and prose articulations connecting African and African diasporic intellectuals across the Atlantic, particularly in Portugal, Brazil and Cuba during the two world wars, who created a network mainly based on periodical publications and translations where their creative and critical work intersected and challenged the mainstream paradigms of Pan-Africanism and Negritude though remaining outside of the debate due to the language in which they were writing."
The HGMV workshop was founded 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, and to engage in dialogue with invited scholars.
For more information contact Erma Nezirevic at nezir001@umn.edu.

Just A War Theory? American Public Attitudes on Proportionality and Distinction

A Lecture by Benjamin Valentino
Monday, November 3
1:30 p.m.
ROOM CHANGE
50B Humphrey School of Public Affairs

Dr. Benjamin Valentino is an Associate Professor of Government at Dartmouth College. His research interests include the causes and consequences of violent conflict and American foreign and security policies, and the causes and prevention of genocide.

His book Final Solutions: Mass Killing and Genocide in the 20th Century won the Edgar S. Furniss Book Prize for an exceptional contribution to the study of national and international security. His work appeared in outlets such as The American Political Science Review, International Organization, The Journal of Politics, Security Studies, and World Politics, as well as The New York Times and Foreign Affairs.
Sponsored by: the Minnesota International Relations Colloquium, the Comparative Politics Colloquium, and the Center of Holocaust & Genocide Studies

Re/Imagining PTSD: Toward a Cripistemology of Trauma

Angela Carter, Ph.D. Candidate, Department of Gender, Women, and Sexuality Studies
HGMV Workshop
Thursday, October 16, 3:00p.m. Room 710 Social Sciences Building



From news coverage to television dramas, American culture is saturated with representations of trauma. Moreover, global politics and economic policies all but ensure a future where a life structured by catastrophe can be expected.


Carter deconstructs the ubiquity of trauma discourse, arguing for a cripistemology of trauma as a way to reconceptualize PTSD in our neoliberal landscape. Whereas theorists such as Lauren Berlant have recently rejected trauma as an analytic framework - since, as it's argued, psychic catastrophe is something we'll all experience if we live long enough - she proposes a crip approach to trauma as a crucial lens into how suffering and "crisis ordinariness" are unevenly distributed, and dissimilarly experienced, among neoliberal subjects. By cripping PTSD, it becomes possible to reimagine an approach to suffering that makes life more livable.
Gesturing toward a larger dissertation project, she will outline three sites of inquiry within contemporary discourses of PTSD. First exploring how the post-9/11 framing of certain traumatized subjects as ideal citizen-patriots forcefully erases those that cannot be interpolated into rhetorics of U.S. exceptionalism. Secondly, examining how dominant methods of "curing" PTSD illuminate similar neoliberal undertones. Lastly, drawing on anti-psychology theorizing, offering beginning thoughts toward reimaging PTSD as an alternative, and queer, affective and temporal structure. In doing so, this paper proposes a crip way of understanding trauma - one that finds its political imperative in the pervasiveness of the discourse, and demands a theorization that imagines otherwise.
Angela Carter is a fifth year Ph.D Student in Feminist Studies. She came to the U after becoming a Ronald E. McNair Scholar at Truman State University, and the first person in her family to graduate from college. Her academic interests include: trauma theory, disability studies, queer theory, ethnography, and critical pedagogy. Broadly speaking, her dissertation work examines the intersections of contemporary feminist praxis and critical disability studies within the academy.
The HGMV workshop was founded 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, and to engage in dialogue with invited scholars.
For more information contact Erma Nezirevic at nezir001@umn.edu.

Post-graduate Symposium on Occupation, Transitional Justice and Gender

Call for Papers and Posters
The Transitional Justice Institute (University of Ulster) and the Institute for Research in the Social Sciences (University of Ulster) invite proposals for a one-day postgraduate symposium on Occupation, Transitional Justice and Gender to be held on Friday, 8 May 2015.

This symposium seeks to explore the interface between occupation, transitional justice and gender. The starting point for exploration is based in feminist concerns that are broadly focused on issues of power, control and hierarchies. More specifically, feminist theorizing acknowledges that women's needs during times of occupation, conflict, and/or transition are often ignored, sidelined or essentialised; recent research is also looking into masculinities during these periods. While much research has explored transitional justice and gender, there has been limited research on the relationship and complexities of occupation and gender.
Furthermore, there is a dearth of research on how these three concepts intersect, inform and/or impact each other. Some questions to be explored during the symposium may include:
What might be the approach in exploring the interface between occupation and transitional justice while utilizing a gendered lens?
How does law capture modern instances of occupation that do not fit neatly into the existing legal coding?
Can transitional justice mechanisms be employed while there is an occupation and can such mechanisms take the gendered needs of the population into account?
Can the exceptionality of occupation reveal gender differences unapparent in normal settings and, if so, what are their implications for transitional justice theory and praxis?
We invite papers from postgraduate students (PhD and Masters) who are exploring the above-mentioned questions in any context and any time period; case studies and theoretical papers are also welcomed. We also invite poster proposals to be featured during a special poster session. For paper or poster proposals, please send a title, a 200-word abstract, and a short one-paragraph biography by 31 December 2014 to Rimona Afana (afana-r@email.ulster.ac.uk) and Stephanie Chaban (chaban-s@email.ulster.ac.uk). Acceptance of abstracts will be notified by 15 January 2015.
All submissions will be eligible for Best Paper and Best Poster awards. Papers will get substantive and thorough feedback from faculty with expertise in gender/transition and/or law of armed conflict. The organizers are exploring the possibility of publication for the best papers. The symposium will feature Professor Christine Chinkin, Professor of International Law at the London School of Economics and Political Science, as the keynote speaker. Gender experts from the Transitional Justice Institute and IRiSS will also participate. Furthermore, there will also be a praxis session involving domestic and international work related to women's grassroots involvement in transitional justice mechanisms. The full schedule will be announced shortly.
While there is no registration fee, we regret that we are unable to cover travel and accommodation costs for participants.
The symposium is sponsored by the Feminist & Women's Studies Association (FWSA): http://fwsablog.org.uk/
Further sponsorship is provided by the Transitional Justice Institute, University of Ulster, the Research Graduate School, University of Ulster, and the Institute for Research in the Social Sciences, University of Ulster.

The Aleph-bet as an Ontological Basis of Ethics?

Classical Rhetorics, Technical Communication, the Holocaust, and the Object Beyond
A conversation with Steven Katz, the R. Roy and Marnie Pearce Professor of Professional Communication, and Professor of English, at Clemson University.
Wednesday, October 22
125 Nolte Center
11:30 a.m.
Presented by the Department of Writing Studies

This presentation will entail discussions of rhetoric, Judaism, and philosophies of language and reality. Revisiting what he had considered to be a primary ethical problem rooted in classical Greek and Roman rhetoric, what he called "the ethic of expediency" first formalized in Aristotle's Rhetoric, Dr. Katz will touch on the apparent manifestation of this ethic in technical communication, and whether and to what degree the ethic of expediency was a major operant in the Holocaust.

Picking up the Jewish theme, Dr. Katz will summarize an ancient philosophy of the Hebrew aleph-bet, and briefly compare this philosophy to that of classical Greek rhetoric; he will argue, as he has done in publication, that this philosophy of the Hebrew aleph-bet seems to represent a somewhat unique strand of classical rhetoric. Dr. Katz will suggest ways this Jewish sophistic relates to technical communication, and how the rhetoric of the aleph-bet may harbor or at least hint at an ontological antidote to the ethic of expediency.

In the conclusion of his presentation, Dr. Katz will speculate about the epistemological implications of this orthographic ontology for mystical, magical, empirical, social-epistemic, deconstructive, object-oriented, and digital philosophies of communication and reality in a post-human age.

Lunch will follow this special event. Please RSVP to Kate Gobel (kdgobel@umn.edu.)
This lecture is sponsored by Center for Holocaust & Genocide Studies, The Center for Jewish Studies and the Department of English.

CHGS co-sponsoring 2 films at the Twin Cities Jewish Film Festival

CHGS will co-sponsor The German Friend and 24 Days at the 2014 Twin Cities Jewish Film Festival on November first and second, both screenings will be at the Sabes Jewish Community Center.



The German Friend (Der Deutsche Freund)
Saturday, November 1
7:30 p.m.
Sabes Jewish Community Center
Tickets: $10 in advance; $14 same day
For more information or to purchase tickets click here.
The German Friend is the story of a German-Jewish girl and the son of an exiled Nazi form an enduring bond in Argentina. Through 30 years of personal and political postwar history, the film delivers an intimate examination of a guilt-ridden generation seeking to escape the legacy of their forbearers. Director Jeanine Meerapfel tells a story of a deep love in a time of political upheaval and historical change.
Directed by Jeanine Meerapfel; Argentina, Germany; 2012; German and Spanish with English subtitles; Adult, Nudity
24 Days (24 Jours: La Verite sur l'affaire Ilan Halimi)
November 2
4:00p.m.
Discussion to follow screening
Sabes Jewish Community Center
Tickets: $10 in advance; $14 same day

Sticking dangerously close to the real-life incident that inspired it, 24 Days offers up a white-knuckle dramatization of the nearly month-long kidnapping and torture of 23-year-old Ilan Halimi, whose traumatic ordeal at the hands of the "Gang of Barbarians" prompted a massive police manhunt and, eventually, a national outcry against anti-Semitism in France.
Directed by Alexandre Arcady; France; 2014; English Subtitles; Mature Audiences, Content; 110 min

AGMI ANNOUNCES 2015 LEMKIN SCHOLARSHIP FOR FOREIGN STUDENTS

The Armenian Genocide Museum-Institute announces 2015 LEMKIN SCHOLARSHIP program for foreign students and PhD candidates. Raphael Lemkin scholarship is intended to enable foreign students, who specialize in genocide studies, especially in the Armenian Genocide, to visit Armenia for a month to conduct research in local scientific institutions and libraries.



The Armenian Genocide Museum-Institute will provide researchers possibility to carry out their research in AGMI, including necessary research materials and consultation.
The deadline for application is on 15 December, 2014. The winner will be selected by the Scientific Council of the AGMI on 25 December, 2014.
The beginning of the scholarship program is on 1 January, 2015. Winners are free to select a month within 2015 except January, February and December.
The duration of the scholarship is one month.
Winner of the Scholarship will provide article for International Journal of Armenian Genocide Studies as a result of his/her research within 6 months from the end of visit to Armenia.
Financial support
The AGMI will cover all travel and accommodation expenses related to the nominee. A separate funding will be provided to cover some per diem and research expanses.
For complete details and application please click here.

A Cinematic Look at Political Violence in Latin America

Fridays, October and November 2014
2:00-4:00p.m.
Room 710 Social Sciences
Presented by Paula Cuellar, 2014-2015 Badzin Fellow in Holocaust & Genocide Studies



From the dictatorships of the Southern Cone to the civil wars that took place in Central America, the selected films will provide a lens into the systematic and widespread human rights violations that were perpetrated by state authorities during the last decades of the past century. By depicting the different situations lived in Argentina, Chile, Peru, Guatemala, El Salvador, the viewers will be able to explore the darkest moments of the history of Latin America in the twentieth century through the arts. In addition to the films we will have discussions on the different implications that the particular forms of violence had for every country.



Friday, October 10: The Official Story (Argentina, 1985): The film deals with the story of an upper middle class couple who lives in Buenos Aires with an illegally adopted child. The mother comes to realize that her daughter may be the child of a desaparecido, a victim of the forced disappearances that occurred during Argentina's last military dictatorship. Director: Luis Puenzo.
Friday, October 17: Death and the Maiden (Chile, 1994): Paulina is a housewife married to a prominent lawyer in an unnamed South American country. One day a storm forces her husband Gerardo to ride home with a charming stranger. She is convinced that the stranger, Doctor Miranda, was part of the old fascist regime and that he tortured and raped her for weeks while she was blindfolded. Paulina takes him captive to determine the truth. Director: Roman Polanski.
Friday, October 24: The Fall of Fujimori (Peru, 2005): The Fall of Fujimori is a character-driven, political-thriller documentary that explores the volatile events that defined Alberto Fujimori's decade-long reign of Peru. In 2000 he fled the country for Japan to avoid facing 21 charges of corruption, murder and human rights abuses. Then, five years later, Fujimori flew into Chile and declared his intention of once again running for president in 2006. This is his story. Director: Ellen Perry.
Friday, October 31: When The Mountains Tremble (Guatemala, 1983): Documentary film produced by Skylight Pictures about the war between the Guatemalan Military and the Mayan Indigenous population of Guatemala. It narrates the story of the Guatemalan people at large, specifically the struggles of the poor and peaceful Indian population that came to be labeled "subversives" by a draconian government. Director: Pamela Yates.
Friday, November 7: Monseñor: The Last Journey of Óscar Romero (El Salvador, 2011) In the 1970s, as El Salvador moved irrevocably closer to civil war, one man was known as the voice of the poor, the disenfranchised, the disappeared. Appointed Archbishop in 1977, Monseñor Oscar Romero worked tirelessly for peace, justice and human rights, while in constant personal peril. Using the power of the pulpit to denounce official corruption, he inspired millions with his nationally broadcast sermons, until in March of 1980; he was shot dead at the altar. Directors: Ana Carrigan and Juliet Weber.
Friday, November 14: Pictures from a Revolution (Nicaragua, 1991): In this lively, intellectually stimulating discourse on the power of images, a renowned photojournalist returns to the scenes of a revolution she witnessed and captured with her camera. Delving into the lives of guerrillas, Sandinistas, and bystanders, scattered from Miami to Managua, a decade after they faced off in a bloody struggle, this artful film finds both disappointment and modest pride amidst still fresh, stirring memories. Director: Susan Meiselas.
For more information please contact Paula Cuellar at cuell020@umn.edu.
Paula Cuellar is the 2014-2015 Badzin Fellow in Holocaust and Genocide Studies and is currently working towards a minor in Human Rights and an advanced degree in History at the University of Minnesota. Her research focuses on genocide of indigenous people in El Salvador and Paraguay in the 20th century. Cuellar's academic education includes a LL.B. Degree from the Central American University "José Simeón Cañas," 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.

Barbara Frey, will present on Human Rights Advocacy in Mexico at the first HGMV workshop

"Uneven Ground: Asymmetries of Power in Human Rights Advocacy in Mexico"
Presented by Barbara Frey, Director, Human Rights Program
Thursday, October 2
3:00p.m.
Room 710 Social Sciences


The presentation is the first of the 2014-2015 workshops for the Holocaust, Genocide and Mass Violence Studies (HGMV) Interdisciplinary Graduate Group.



Professor Frey will explore the social and political context or "terrain" in which human
rights actors work in Mexico and the barriers to their success in protecting human rights on the ground. She will show how this terrain affects advocacy by describing one particular case, the campaign for due process reforms in the criminal justice system. Frey's central finding is that the terrain of human rights advocacy in Mexico is profoundly "uneven" - characterized by asymmetries of power that limit the effectiveness of the human rights movement to bring about sustainable human rights protections.
Barbara Frey is Director of the Human Rights Program in the College of Liberal Arts at the University of Minnesota. Frey has headed the Program since it was established in 2001, for the purpose of providing academic, research and outreach opportunities for students in the field of international human rights.
The HGMV workshop was founded 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 HGMV please email Erma Nezirevic at nezir001@umn.edu.

Has German law been slow to prosecute perpetrators of the Holocaust?

Case against Oskar Gröning highlights Germany judiciary's Holocaust problem

Our Mothers, Our Heimat, Our Holocaust: "Ordinary" Nazis on German Television, 1984-2014

A Lecture by Offer Ashkenazi
Monday, September 22
4:00 p.m.
1210 Heller Hall



Edgar Reitz's groundbreaking TV drama "Heimat" aired 30 years ago in an attempt to 'take back" German history from the American entertainment industry. Going back to this drama -- and to the sequel and prequel Reitz directed during the past decades -- I will suggest that "Heimat" subtly provided a revolutionary portrayal of World War II as a framework in which "German" and "Jewish" categories have been melded together to create a new nation (or a genuine alternative to "American" imperialism). In emphasizing this process, I will look at more recent productions, such as "Generation War," to argue that Reitz's implicit notion of German-Jewish symbiosis has been replicated in later mainstream TV dramas. The transformation of this image, however, replaced the self-criticism (or self-mockery) of "Heimat" with a melodramatic affirmation of Germany's "cure" from its violent past.

Ofer Ashkenazi, Department of History Koebner-Minerva Center for German History
The Hebrew University, Jerusalem. Ashkenazi received his PhD in History from the Hebrew University in 2006 and conducted his post-doctoral research at the University of California, Berkeley, was a visiting professor at the University of Minnesota returning to Jerusalem, in the summer of 2013. During 2013-2014 he taught classes on the 'visual turn' in the study of history; cultural aspects of the Great War; film and history; and Nazism. His research interests include Central European cultural and intellectual history, modern visual culture, and Jewish urban experience in twentieth-century Europe. He is currently working on a research project that examines the works of filmmakers and photographers who emigrated from Germany during the 1930s. It explores the influence of the experiences, the intellectual paradigms, and the artistic imagination of the Weimar era on the development of various national cultures in post-1933 Europe, the United States and Israel.
Presented by the Department of German,Scandinavian& Dutch. Sponsored by: The Center for Holocaust & Genocide Studies, The Center for German & European Studies, The Department of History and the Center for Jewish Studies

Convert or Die Christian Persecution and the Rise of the Islamic State

A round table discussion with French author Richard Millet



Thursday, September 18
3:00pm
Room 710 Social Sciences Building

In recent months Christians in Iraq have been given a seriously stark choice by the terrorist group ISIS- "Convert, pay a religious tax, or die!" Forcing many to flee while others have been tortured and killed. Mainly unnoticed by the media the current crisis has hit peak levels and Iraqi Christians no longer feel safe in their homes or country.

French author Richard Millet will discuss the current situation giving insight into the crisis. Millet has spent many years in Lebanon living among the Christian Maronites his latest work on Middle Eastern Christians will be published in Paris later this year.

The lecture will be in French & English with a translation by Bruno Chaouat, Chair of the Department of French & Italian, and Monica Kelley, JD, PhD.

This is the first and long-awaited visit of Richard Millet to the United States. Millet is the author of over twenty books of fiction, a prolific essayist, and a beacon of the contemporary French novel. His essays have provoked robust debate in Europe. His eclectic writings include autobiographical novels that explore questions of origin, mourning and dereliction. His most recent work is on Charlotte Salomon, a German Jewish artist murdered at Auschwitz.

Sponsored by: Human Rights Program, Department of French & Italian and Program in Human Rights & Health

Photo: Eddie Potros

New Memorial to honor Poles who helped Jews during World War II to be built in Warsaw

New memorial to honour Poles who saved Jews from Holocaust
09-09-2014

Call for Abstracts Special Issue of Gender & History

Special Issue of Gender & History Volume 28:3 (November 2016)
Gender and Global Warfare in the Twentieth Century
Edited by Louise Edwards (UNSW Australia), Martha Hanna (University of Colorado), and Patricia M. E. Lorcin (University of Minnesota).




Gender & History calls for article abstracts for a special issue addressing 'Gender and Global Warfare in the Twentieth Century'. Although the occasion for this special issue is the centenary of the First World War, we are interested in contributions that provide a gendered analysis of modern warfare across the globe and throughout the twentieth century, as well as articles relating to the First World War era in particular. Scholarly contributions to the literature on gender and war are usually restricted to a specific war in a specific place, but the memory and trauma of past wars shape the politics, cultures and societies in post-war periods and create the basis on which future wars are waged, experienced or perceived.

We welcome papers that consider these connections by exploring the gendered implications of global warfare, and also papers that connect the First World War era with subsequent wars. We encourage potential contributors to consider larger questions of how gender analysis challenges or changes some of the categories that routinely inform war studies. We invite work that falls under one or more of the following rubrics: gendering engagement and resistance, sexuality and violence, politics and culture, memory and trauma, health practices and medicine, and ideologies of war. Interested authors are encouraged to consult the extended version of this call for abstracts on the Gender & History website by clicking here.
The production of the special issue will follow a symposium, to be held at the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities in late April or early May 2015 (date to be announced), whose participants will be selected on the basis of the abstracts submitted. Please submit 1-2 page abstracts in English (500-750 words maximum) to gendhist@umn.edu by October 1, 2014, with 'Special Issue 28:3 abstract submission' in the subject line (limited funds for the translation of articles written in other languages might be available). Invitations to present at the symposium will be issued in November 2014. Papers must be submitted for pre-circulation to the editors by March 30, 2015, as a condition of participation.

Fellowship in Advanced Shoah Studies

The Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany (Claims Conference)
is offering a limited number of fellowships for Ph.D. and Post Doctoral Candidates
Conducting Research on the Holocaust.

The application deadline is January 5, 2015 for the academic year of 2015-2016.
Maximum Award Amount: $20,000 Per Year

The Saul Kagan Claims Conference Fellowship for Advanced Shoah Studies aims to strengthen Shoah studies and Holocaust memory throughout the world. Our mission is to support the advanced study of the fate of Jews who were systematically targeted for destruction or persecution by the Nazis and their allies between 1933 and 1945, as well as immediate post-war events.



Studies covered by the Fellowships can include the immediate historical context in which the Holocaust took place and encompass political, economic, legal, religious and socio-cultural aspects, as well as ethical and moral implications. The Fellowship also supports awardees in learning languages necessary to studying original Holocaust- related documents, such as languages of the former Soviet Union and certain European countries. Candidates can be pursuing a degree in a variety of fields, including History, Sociology, Philosophy, Judaic Studies, Political Science, Government, Women's Studies and other fields. Candidates focusing on the immediate aftermath of the Holocaust will also be considered.
For more information please click here.

Interview with the director of "The Cut" new film about the Armenian Genocide

Q&A: Fatih Akin Discusses His New Film 'The Cut'
08-27-2014

First Meeting of the HGMV 2014-2015 Workshop Announced

Holocaust, Genocide and Mass Violence
Studies (HGMV) Interdisciplinary Graduate Group
2014-2015 workshops

First Meeting
Thursday, September 18
12:00 p.m. to 1:30 p.m.
Room 710 Social Sciences Building
Lunch will be provided

The group was founded 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.

The HGMV Graduate Group also provides funds for graduate students whose work has been accepted for conference presentations.

To RSVP to the September 18 meeting or for more information on how to become involved please contact Erma Nezirevic at nezir001@umn.edu.

Call for Applications: Introduction to the Holocaust in the Soviet Union

The Jack, Joseph and Morton Mandel Center for Advanced Holocaust Studies at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum invites applications for the seminar "A Research Introduction to the Holocaust in the Soviet Union." This seminar will be held January 5-9, 2015, at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, DC.



The objective of the seminar is to acquaint advanced undergraduate, MA, and early PhD students with the central topics, issues, and sources related to the study of the Holocaust in the Soviet Union, including mass shootings, evacuation and rescue, forced labor, and issues of commemoration and memory. Mandel Center scholars will lead discussions, and the seminar will include group analysis of many of the types of primary source material available in the Museum's collections. In addition, participants will have the opportunity to explore the Museum's extensive library, archival, and other collections.

All application materials must be received by Tuesday, September 30, 2014. Selected participants will be notified by November 1, 2014.

Please click here for full details and application requirements.

Professor Samuel Totten discussion on genocide in regards to the killing of Yazidis and Christians

What Leads to Genocide?
08-19-2014

OP/ED Responsibility for Mass Murder of the Yazidi Kurdish

Is Barzani Responsible for Mass Murder and Rape of Yazidi Kurdish?
08-13-2014

Film about the Armenian Genocide raises the ire of Turkey

In Turkey, even a respected filmmaker can't discuss Armenian genocide
08-19-2014

Seats still available for new course, Never Again! Memory and Politics after Genocide

SOC 4090 and GLOS 4910
Tue/Th 1.00 to 2.30 (FALL 2014) /Room 15 Humphrey Center
Instructor: Alejandro Baer, Associate Professor Sociology, Feinstein Chair and Director of the Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies



Course overview: This course focuses on the social repercussions and political consequences of large-scale political violence, such as genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes. How do individuals, communities and societies come to terms with these atrocities? How do successor regimes balance the demands for justice with the need for peace and reconciliation? How is public memory of the atrocities constructed?

Section I provides an overview of the basic concepts and themes of this class: defining mass violence, collective memory and forgetting in post-atrocity contexts, and transitional justice. In Section II we will look at memory of the Holocaust among descendants of victims and descendants of perpetrators and its impact on the way other communities shape and represent their memories of mass violence and victimhood, i.e. their specific demands, symbolic politics and judicial strategies. In Section III we will address cases from around the globe and different historical settings, including the legacies of State terror in Latin America, the aftermath of Stalinist mass violence in Eastern Europe and American Indian struggles for memory and justice.

We will also examine public remembrance projects such as monuments and museums, film and television series, visual art and other initiatives which operate in conjunction or in tension with legal and political procedures (tribunals, truth commissions, reparations, etc.) and are often initiated by human rights NGOs, victim organizations, intellectuals and artists.

Course Format: This course will be conducted as a combined lecture and discussion course. This basic format will be supplemented by occasional in-class exercises.

Course Requirements: In addition to regular attendance and active participation in discussions, students are required to complete short in-class writing based on the readings, write two 4-5 page, double spaced, critical essays, complete one mid-term exam and a end of semester essay.


Section I provides an overview of the basic concepts and themes of this class: defining mass violence, collective memory and forgetting in post-atrocity contexts, and transitional justice. In Section II we will look at memory of the Holocaust among descendants of victims and descendants of perpetrators and its impact on the way other communities shape and represent their memories of mass violence and victimhood, i.e. their specific demands, symbolic politics and judicial strategies. In Section III we will address cases from around the globe and different historical settings, including the legacies of State terror in Latin America, the aftermath of Stalinist mass violence in Eastern Europe and American Indian struggles for memory and justice.
We will also examine public remembrance projects such as monuments and museums, film and television series, visual art and other initiatives which operate in conjunction or in tension with legal and political procedures (tribunals, truth commissions, reparations, etc.) and are often initiated by human rights NGOs, victim organizations, intellectuals and artists.
Course Format: This course will be conducted as a combined lecture and discussion course. This basic format will be supplemented by occasional in-class exercises.
Course Requirements: In addition to regular attendance and active participation in discussions, students are required to complete short in-class writing based on the readings, write two 4-5 page, double spaced, critical essays, complete one mid-term exam and a end of semester essay.
Visit One Stop to register.

Three and half decades after the fall of Cambodia's Khmer Rouge, the two surviving leaders get life in prison for crimes against humanity.

Cambodia Tribunal Convicts Khmer Rouge Leaders

08-07-14

Tribal peoples who have been victims of genocide are highlighted on UN Indigenous Day

Survival reveals 'five faces of genocide' for UN Indigenous Day

08-06-14

Registration open for Holocaust and Genocide related courses

Registration for University of Minnesota's fall 2014 semester is now open with a number of courses that fall within the Center's interdisciplinary approach to the study of the Holocaust and genocide.

The following courses are designed to provide direct and comprehensive instruction on the topic of the Holocaust, as well as the social, memorial and political impact of genocides:

History 3729, Nazi Germany and Hitler's Europe
Professor Gary Cohen
Comprehensive exploration of Third Reich. Students will examine How the Nazis came to power, transformations of 1930s, imposition of racial politics against Jews/others, nature of total war. Students read historical accounts, memoirs, state documents, view films.

Global Studies 4910, "Never Again!" Memory and Politics After Genocide
Professor Alejandro Baer
This course focuses on the aftermath of large-scale political violence. How do individuals, communities and societies come to terms with these atrocities? How do successor regimes balance the demands for justice with the need for peace and reconciliation? How is public memory of the atrocities constructed?

For an extended list of multi-disciplinary courses that present contextual studies of conflicts, human rights violations, power dynamics, social memory and transformation that are mirrored in the Holocaust and other genocides, please see the Fall 2014 Courses List.pdf

To register please visit the University of Minnesota's One Stop Home.

Secretary of State John Kerry remembers Romani victims of the Nazis

Statement in Commemoration of the World War II Genocide of Roma

08-02-14

30 years on, Khmer Rouge tribunal seeks to bring the ruthless regime to justice

Khmer Rouge Tribunal to Tackle Genocide Charges

07-29-14

Holocaust survivors reflect on new realities in Israel

The Holocaust survivors with bicycle helmets.

07-29-14

Communities that suffered under German colonial rule receive development funds

Germany spent N$274m on genocide communities

07-29-14

Marek Edelman Dialogue Center to commemorate 70th anniversary of Litzmannstadt Ghetto liquidation

This year marks the 70th anniversary of the liquidation of the Litzmannstadt (i.e. Łódź) Ghetto, the second-largest ghetto (after the Warsaw Ghetto) established for Jews and Romani in German-occupied Poland. The Marek Edelman Dialogue Center will be hosting a commemoration of the ghetto's liquidation from August 28 - 31, 2014 in and near Łódź, Poland.

A total of 204,000 Jews passed through the Litzmannstadt Ghetto. Despite reverses in the war, the Germans persisted in liquidating the ghetto and were able to transport the remaining population to Auschwitz and Chełmno extermination camps, where most died. It was the last ghetto in Poland to be liquidated. It is believed that the last transport took place on August 29, 1944.

A full program of the commemorations can be found by clicking here. Registration is needed to take part in selected events and is available here.

German authorities charge 89 year old Philadelphian man who was a guard at Auschwitz

A Retiree, 89, Is Held in Deaths at Auschwitz
06-18-2014

USC Shoah Foundation seeking 2014-2015 Center Research Fellow

The USC Shoah Foundation Center for Advanced Genocide Research (CAGR) has invited senior scholars to apply for its 2014-2015 Center Research Fellow. Applications will be accepted from now until July 14, 2014.

The fellowship provides $30,000 support and will be awarded to an outstanding candidate from any discipline who will advance genocide research through the use of the Visual History Archive (VHA) of the USC Shoah Foundation and other USC resources. The incumbent will spend one semester in residence at the CAGR during the 2014-2015 academic year and will be expected to provide the Center with fresh research perspectives, play a role in Center activities, and to give a public talk during his or her stay.

For more information, please see the USC Shoah Foundation Call for Applications.pdf

The CAGR was launched in April 2014 and builds on the diverse and interdisciplinary genocide research programs established over the last several years at the University of Southern California to offer a unique research opportunity to students and scholars around the world.

Organizer of the 'Kindertransports' to the UK set to receive Order of the White Lion

Britain's Schindler: Sir Nicholas Winton, who saved 669 Jewish children during Holocaust set to receive highest Czech honour at age 105

06-17-2014

Day of the African Child honors Rwandan child victims

Rwanda: Children Honour Youngsters Killed in 1994 Genocide Against the Tutsi

06-16-2014

Searching for truthful, not symbolic, Holocaust remembrance in Hungary

Boycotting government Holocaust commemorations, Hungary's Jews forge new path
06-10-2014

Khmer Rouge survivors prepare for final phase of trial against two former regime leaders

Khmer Rouge Tribunal Victims Unit To Hold Seminar

06-04-2014

Secret cable captures reluctance of U.S. to respond to Rwandan genocide

Declassified U.N. Cables Reveal Turning Point in Rwanda Crisis of 1994

06-04-2014

Paula Sofia Cuellar announced as the 2014-2015 Bernard and Fern Badzin Graduate Fellow

The Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies and the Department of History are pleased to announce the Bernard and Fern Badzin Graduate Fellowship in Holocaust and Genocide Studies has been awarded to Paula Sofia Cuellar.

Cuellar's research project will focus on genocide of indigenous people in El Salvador and Paraguay in the twentieth century. She suggests that during the military dictatorships of General Maximiliano Hernández in El Salvador (1931 to 1944) and of General Alfredo Stroessner in Paraguay (1954 to 1989), the genocide of indigenous people characterized national security policies in both countries.

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.



Wahutu Siguru the recipient of the Badzin Graduate Fellowship in 2013-2014 will receive a $9,000 fellowship extension for Spring semester of 2015 to continue his research. Siguru seeks to answer the questions about what frames and memories journalists (especially African journalists) rely upon when reporting about mass violence, specifically on Darfur. Siguru hopes to show how the way conflict situations are represented have consequences on how suffering and victimization are understood and what types of responses they will inspire in terms of possible interventions (humanitarian, legal or military).

The Badzin Fellowship pays a living stipend of $18,000, and the cost of tuition, mandatory fees and health insurance. An applicant must be a current student in a Ph.D. program in the College of Liberal Arts, currently enrolled in the first, second, third, or fourth year of study, and have a doctoral dissertation project in Holocaust and genocide studies.
The fellowship is awarded on the basis of the quality and scholarly potential of the dissertation project, the applicant's quality of performance in the graduate program, and the applicant's general scholarly promise.

In Memoriam. Fred Baron (1924-2014)

CHGS is sad to announce the loss of friend and Holocaust survivor, Fred Baron.


Fred Baron was born in Vienna in 1924. He was 15 when the German's annexed (Anschluss) Austria in 1938. Fred's father had died while his sister was sent to England as part of the Kindertransport in 1939. Meanwhile, he and his mother sought shelter and lived in hiding. In 1941 they managed to escape to Hungary. Fred was arrested in Hungary and imprisoned for a time while his mother was sent to an interment camp. In June 1944 he was deported to Auschwitz.

After time in various labor camps, he was liberated by the British Army at Bergen-Belsen; in terrible health he was taken to Sweden for medical care. At the hospital he met his future wife Judith, who was also a Holocaust survivor, and was reunited with his sister. He resettled in Minnesota in 1947, attracted to the large Swedish population.

With Judith he raised a family, started a successful business and was a great supporter of the community. He had a kind and gentle spirit and a very optimistic outlook on life. He spoke often about his experiences and generously supported Holocaust education.

Fred died at the age of 91 on May 23, 2014. He will be sorely missed.

Margot De Wilde: "I always knew I would survive"

By Jodi Elowitz





I met Margot De Wilde when I was working as the director of Holocaust education at the Jewish Community Relations Council (JCRC). Margot had contacted me to make me aware that she was available to go out to schools to tell her story and would I be interested in helping her organize this. After meeting with her I knew that we would indeed work together, but I did not know at the time that we would become good friends.

Margot's story is one of resistance, tragedy, and resilience. Margot was an active member of the Jewish resistance under Nazi occupation of the Netherlands; she worked in the underground by delivering false passports and identification cards to Jews to aid them in leaving Holland. Margot and her husband Lo were arrested when attempting to escape using these underground papers via train to Switzerland. Both were then sent to Auschwitz.

Margot was assigned to the infamous Block 10 where she endured and survived the Nazi medical experiments that were performed in Auschwitz under the supervision of Dr. Josef Mengele. In a rare occurrence, Margot was made aware that Lo was in the camp in the sick barrack, which she could see from hers. On one occasion she was able to catch a glimpse of him. She often told me how surreal that moment was as she wondered to herself if she was actually married to the man she saw through the cracks, (a shadow of his former self) or if they would remain married after all they had been through. Lo died in Block 9 at Auschwitz in 1944.


I thought about Margot's time in Auschwitz often this past summer when I spent a week there for a summer institute on Polish Memory. I had a hard time standing in Block 10 listening to our guide tell us about the experiments that took place there, as I had known full well what Margot had been through, what she had told me. I tried to imagine what it must have been like for her to look out those windows, or the time she saw Lo that one and only time. Of course I could not. But I was able to hear Margot saying to me that she never gave up, she never for one moment thought she would not survive.
Margot always said it was her rebellious nature that helped her survive, that she never did what she was told or was expected to do. "Always the opposite" she would remark. Her rebellious spirit is what I loved best about Margot. We would discuss current events and offer up our solutions to the world's problems. On one occasion when I was bringing her to an event at the Weisman Art Museum on the University of Minnesota campus we discovered that the elevator in the parking ramp was not working, so we had to find a way to get her close to the door, given her inability to walk long distances. I decided the only way was to actually drive up to the front of the Weisman. In order to do this we had to illegally drive up onto campus over the walk bridge, swinging past Coffman Union on the campus sidewalks. She was completely delighted by this and we both laughed about it every time I came to pick her up.
Margot loved to speak to school groups. She felt that the children she spoke to became the ones she could not have of her own. Margot never turned down a speaking engagement.
I remember Margot called me after she had received documents from the Red Cross Tracing Service; I went over to see her and she showed them to me. She was so grateful to have them since she told me it proved her existence at the time, that what she and Lo went through was documented. It was all there. No one could dispute it.
Margot always said she was not bitter about what happened to her. She felt that she was put here on earth to do something and maybe bearing witness to the Holocaust was what she was meant to do. When she eventually had to stop speaking because of her health she told me she had no regrets. She had done all she could do and maybe it was time to rest. Margot did not fear death, she thought of it as a part of life, so although I will miss her I know she will always be with us. Her story will live on as will her spirit. I hope now she is getting the rest she so richly deserves.
Ruth Margot DeWilde's passed away on May 1, at the age of 92. To learn more about her you can visit her CHGS web page by clicking here.
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.

The Past cannot remain Buried: Polish Memory in the film Ida

By Jodi Elowitz

Ida, directed by Pawel Pawlikowski, is a beautiful work of cinema, lovingly paying homage to other Polish filmmakers in his use of cinematography and black and white to convey a strong film about Poland's troubled past.



Like Aftermath, the other recent film about polish memory and the Holocaust, the main characters in Ida are looking for an answer to their own identities lost amongst the secrets of the past. Both films deal with the idea of memory and what the characters, and to an extent the viewers, think we know about history, and yet what is uncovered is far worse than what we can imagine.

In life there are many ways of dealing with the past. We can claim ignorance and refuse knowledge out of a sense of innocence or misunderstanding or we can tell ourselves many things to help us suppress memories too painful to recall. Days, weeks, months and years might go by, but finally when confronted with the truth, we can no longer hide and must reconcile who we were in the past with who we have become now. The film does this by examining the characters against the crossroads (symbolically) of Poland and its memory of the Holocaust, Stalinism, Catholic religion, Nationalism and Judaism.

There are many confessions and truths unveiled in Ida. Pawliskowski's decision to shoot in black and white gives the film the stark contrasts, using the dark and light to highlight the past and the present, the living and the dead, as well as issues of good and evil, right and wrong. Shadows and grey tones fall over the landscape and the faces of the characters to evoke beauty, sorrow, wonder and desperation.

The film is like a photograph found in a drawer, creating a sense of nostalgia not for the good old days but more towards the notion of putting things right. The fog of the past has been lifted on Poland and now with history unearthed they can find ways to live with the truth in order to move forward.

IDA opens at Uptown Theater on May 30th and Edina Cinema on June 6th.

To watch the trailer, please click here.

For more information on the film, please visit Music Box Films.

Alleged Nazi commander living in Minneapolis may face German prosecution

Minnesota Nazi-Suspect Case Moves Ahead

05-22-2014

Daniel Schroeter awarded Ina Levine Invitational Scholar Fellowship

One of the less known dimensions of the history of World War II was how Jews living under French colonial rule in North Africa were devastated by the fall of France and the establishment of the French collaborationist government of Vichy in 1940. The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum (USHMM) in Washington, DC has in recent years amassed a considerable archive related to the Jews of North Africa during the war and has encouraged scholars to research this subject.

In June 2010, Daniel Schroeter, the Amos S. Deinard Memorial Chair in Jewish History at the University of Minnesota, co-taught a research workshop at the USHMM, and began studying their voluminous collection of documents. He will be returning to Washington, DC, having been awarded the Ina Levine Invitational Scholar Fellowship at the Center for Advanced Holocaust Studies of the USHMM for the 2014-2015 academic year.



During Schroeter's residency at the USHMM, he will be conducting research for a book on the subject of Vichy and the Jews in the protectorate of Morocco. Jews under French colonial rule were legally classified as indigenous Moroccan subjects of the sultan, a ruler whose power was limited and controlled by the French administration. The anti-Jewish laws, instigated by the central Vichy government in France, and promulgated in Morocco by the French protectorate authorities as royal decrees signed by the sultan Mohammed Ben Youssef, revealed the racism and discrimination inherent in the colonial system and the ambivalent position of the Moroccan monarchy and the Muslim population towards the Jews.

Research conducted at the Center will focus on the legal, social, and economic impact of the Vichy regime on the Moroccan Jewish communities, the response of the Muslim leaders and population to the anti-Jewish measures implemented in different parts of the country, and the contested politics of remembrance of World War II in Morocco.

For more information on Daniel Schroeter, please click here.

Exhumations, Memory and the Return of Civil War Ghosts in Spain

On May 8th, the Reframing Mass Violence Collaborative hosted Associate Researcher of the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC), Francisco Ferrándiz, to present a lecture entitled Exhumations, Memory and the Return of Civil War Ghosts in Spain.



In his talk, Ferrándiz examined the social process of the exhumation of mass graves from the Spanish Civil War and the Post-War years, including from political and legal initiatives of great social and media impact to local actions on the ground, at times failed, ephemeral or almost imperceptible, but no less crucial.

To view the lecture please click here.

This event was co-sponsored by the Human Rights Program and the Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies.

Genocide and its Aftermath: Lessons from Rwanda

On April 16, 17 & 19, the Institute for Global Studies, the Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies and the Human Rights Program held a series of events to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the 1994 genocide that took the lives of an estimated 500,000-1,000,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus. The events included a public conference, a student conference, and a K-16 teacher workshop. The objectives of the commemorative events were: promoting public understanding of what happened in Rwanda, discussing the immediate responses of the international community to the violence, and analyzing the long-term consequences that the cataclysmic failure to prevent the genocide had on international policy and action.



The public conference, Genocide and its Aftermath: Lessons from Rwanda, was designed to bring together research and praxis. Academics, activists and diplomats led a public exploration of what we have learned from the genocide in Rwanda and how we have been affected by, and should use, that knowledge to create more effective methods of intervention. Themes of the panels included: representations of atrocity, immediate aftermaths, transitional justice and its impacts, and preventing genocide and mass atrocity.

Watch the conference's opening address by Taylor Krauss, founder of Voices of Rwanda, and the keynote address by Adama Dieng, United Nations Special Adviser on the Prevention of Genocide, as well as the three panel discussions, please click here or visit CHGS' youtube channel.

Genocide and its Aftermath: Lessons from Rwanda

On April 16, 17 & 19, the Institute for Global Studies, the Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies and the Human Rights Program held a series of events to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the 1994 genocide that took the lives of an estimated 500,000-1,000,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus. The events included a public conference, a student conference, and a K-16 teacher workshop. The objectives of the commemorative events were: promoting public understanding of what happened in Rwanda, discussing the immediate responses of the international community to the violence, and analyzing the long-term consequences that the cataclysmic failure to prevent the genocide had on international policy and action.



The public conference, Genocide and its Aftermath: Lessons from Rwanda, was designed to bring together research and praxis. Academics, activists and diplomats led a public exploration of what we have learned from the genocide in Rwanda and how we have been affected by, and should use, that knowledge to create more effective methods of intervention. Themes of the panels included: representations of atrocity, immediate aftermaths, transitional justice and its impacts, and preventing genocide and mass atrocity.



Watch the conference's opening address by Taylor Krauss, founder of Voices of Rwanda, and the keynote address by Adama Dieng, United Nations Special Adviser on the Prevention of Genocide, as well as the three panel discussions, by clicking here or visiting CHGS' youtube channel.

Hollie Nyseth Brehm will represent CHGS at summer Genocide Scholars Conference

Dr. Hollie Nyseth Brehm will represent the Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies this summer at the International Association of Genocide Scholars (IAGS) Conference, "Time, Movement, and Space: Genocide Studies and Indigenous Peoples." Held at the University of Manitoba in Winnipeg, Canada from July 16-19, 2014, this eleventh annual conference presents an opportunity for genocide scholars to engage in discussion about colonial control over, expansion into, appropriation and settlement of Indigenous territories.

At the Saturday session of the conference, Dr. Nyseth Brehm will join Christoper Uggen and Jean-Damascene Gasanabo to present a panel on "Genocide, Justice and Rwanda's Gacaca Courts" under the conference's heading of "Genocide's Spaces of Law and Justice."

On June 9, 2014 Dr. Nyseth Brehm successfully defended her dissertation, "Conditions and Courses of Genocides." Her advisors are professors Elizabeth Boyle and Joachim Savelsberg. In fall 2014, Dr. Nyseth Brehm will begin her career as an Assistant Professor of Sociology with the Department of Sociology at Ohio State University-Columbus.

Dallaire witness and former UN officer in Rwanda talks about the genocide.

Rwanda genocide witness bemoans lack of political will to stop similar atrocities

05-13-2014

CHGS & HRP grant three students human rights awards

Each spring, the Human Rights Program and the Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies celebrate the tremendous work of students in human rights with the Inna Meiman Award and the Sullivan Ballou Award. This year three University of Minnesota undergraduate students have been recognized for their accomplishments in promoting and protecting human rights. Melanie Paurus has been awarded the 4th Annual Inna Meiman Human Rights Award, while Joe Fifield and Anna Meteyer have been honored with the Sullivan Ballou Award.

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 award is intended to recognize a University of Minnesota student who embodies a commitment to human rights. As this year's recipient, Melanie Paurus will receive a $1,000 scholarship.

The Sullivan Ballou Award is supported by the Sullivan Ballou Fund and is named after Major Sullivan Ballou, an Army soldier killed at the First Battle of Bull Run in the U.S. Civil War. The award honors Major Ballou's memory by recognizing a student who devotes heartfelt energy to promote human rights. The Sullivan Ballou Fund gives $1000 awards to celebrate and affirm people acting from the heart. They provide compassion, services, or advocacy to their local communities, the poor, homeless, children, victims of violence and mistreatment or the disabled.

Melanie, Joe and Anna embody the spirit with which these awards were created - recognizing a significant personal contribution to protecting human rights and the heartfelt energy that compels an advocate to take meaningful action.

Several genocide memorials in Rwanda in disrepair.

Rwanda: Genocide Memorial Sites in Sorry State, Says Report
04-30-2014

Yom HaShoah Commemoration

Sunday, April 27, 2014
7:00 PM

Temple of Aaron
616 S. Mississippi River Blvd.
St. Paul, MN 55116

Featuring voices of Twin Cities Holocaust Survivors, the annual Yom HaShoah Commemoration honors the memory of the six million Jews and other victims murdered in the Holocaust. As is tradition at Yom HaShoah, Holocaust survivors are invited to light candles in memory of the victims of the Holocaust.

The event is free of charge and open to the public. For more information, please e-mail susie@minndakjcrc.org.

Sponsors: the Jewish Community Relations Council of Minnesota and the Dakotas, Children of Holocaust Survivors Association in Minnesota (CHAIM), Temple of Aaron, the Minneapolis Jewish Federation, and the Jewish Federation of Greater St. Paul

Exhumations, Memory, and the Return of Civil War Ghosts in Spain

Francisco Ferrandiz, Spanish National Research Council (CSIC)

Reframing Mass Violence: Human Rights and Social Memory in Latin America and Southern Europe.

Thursday, May 8
3:00 PM - 4:30 PM
1-109 Herbert M Hanson, Jr Hall

Since 2000, the exhumation of mass graves from the Spanish Civil War and the Post-War years, mostly involving the largely abandoned graves of civilians killed in the Francoist rearguard by paramilitary groups, has become a central element in contemporary social and political debates in the country about the nature of the armed conflict and the dictatorial regime following it. Although exhumations have become a crucial tool for symbolic reparation and have triggered claims for justice for the crimes committed and now unearthed, the social process unleashed by their opening is way larger, and relates to the emergence of a fragmented and heterogeneous political culture focused on the memory of the defeated in the war.

In this talk, the complexity and dynamism of this process is analyzed, including from political and legal initiatives of great social and media impact to local actions on the ground, at times failed, ephemeral or almost imperceptible, but no less crucial. Regional differences, associated to uneven public memory policies, will also be considered.

Organized by the IAS Reframing Mass Violence Research Collaborative. Cosponsored by the Human Rights Program, and the Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies.