Apollo Club Male Chorus Present Special Concert

The Liberation of Auschwitz
with special guests James Andrews, dancer, and Aaron James, baritone
Tuesday, January 27
7:00 P.M.
Ted Mann Concert Hall
Tickets available by clicking here.



Tuesday, January 27, 2015 marks (exactly) the 70th anniversary of the Liberation of Auschwitz. Arnold Schoenberg's rarely performed A Survivor from Warsaw is programmed within the WORLD-PREMIERE of noted composer James Bassi's Five Prayers. Commissioned by The Apollo Club, Five Prayers is a five-movement symphonic song cycle for male chorus, solo baritone, orchestra, and dancer. This concert is artistically conceived to begin and end liberatingly with the darkest moment in the center of the program, to symbolically represent the U-shaped Jewish menorah.
Artisans of Music
The Apollo Club elevates the consciousness of performance music by creating an authentic stage for amateurs and professionals alike. Since 1895, it is the signature icon of sacred and secular music in the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul, bringing together generations of voices who inspire audiences locally, nationally and internationally. As "artisans of music," the organization is dedicated to building craft, culture and camaraderie in the community.

Panel Discussion: "Remembering the Holocaust in Literature, Film, and Theology"

February 6
7:00 p.m.
Benson Great Hall, Bethel University

This panel discussion will touch on the role of memory in constructing identity and the ethical challenge that the Holocaust presents to the modern world and the Christian and Jewish communities. The evening will be primarily conversational, with audience participation through Q&A. The panel will feature:

Alejandro Baer, Associate Professor & Director, Center for Holocaust & Genocide Studies, University of Minnesota

Victoria Barnett, Director of the Program on Ethics, Religion, and the Holocaust at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum

Steve Carr, Professor of Communication at Indiana University Purdue University Fort Wayne, specializing in Holocaust Film Studies

Robert Ehrenreich, Director of the Center for Advanced Holocaust Studies at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum

Petra Schweitzer, Professor at Shenandoah University specializing in women in the Holocaust

This program has been made possible by the Programs on Ethics, Religion, and the Holocaust, Center for Advanced Holocaust Studies, United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, with the support of the Hoffberger Foundation.

Special Screening of Granito: How to Nail a Dictator with filmmakers Pamela Yates and Paco Onís

3:00 p.m.
St Anthony Main Theatre
Free open to the public



Granito tells the stories of five main characters whose destinies are joined together by Guatemala's turbulent past. Even though the Guatemalan civil war spanned from 1960-1996, Granito focuses in on the early 1980s and its ramifications for the country.

Pamela Yates is an American documentary filmmaker and co-founder of Skylight Pictures. Four of her films have been nominated for the Grand Jury Prize at the Sundance Film Festival.

Paco Onis is a partner at Skylight Pictures, and previously produced documentaries for PBS, National Geographic and a range of other programs.

Granito: Trailer

Screening with filmmakers is part of the Reframing Mass Violence: Human Rights and Social Memory in Latin America and Southern Europe course which take place on
Thursday's from 3:00 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. in room 235 Notle Center. All lectures are open to the public.

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.

Co-sponsored by the Film Society of Mpls/St. Paul.

Local legislator op/ed on Holocaust analogies

Stop equating trivial things to Nazis or Hitler
1-23-2014

Global Holocaust Memory and the New Antisemitism.

A lecture by Alejandro Baer
Wednesday, February 5
7:30 p.m.
Beth El Synagogue

Research on contemporary antisemitism, as well as Holocaust education and commemoration reveals that the way people think about the Holocaust is changing. Rather than public discussions of the Holocaust discouraging hatred, in some cases the reverse is happening. This new phenomenon, sometimes called "memory envy," or "Holocaust skepticism," is channeling new resentments and hostilities. Professor Baer will shed light on the sources, functions and different contexts of emergence of a new anti-Semitism related to the globalization of Holocaust memory.

Professor 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. Prof. Baer directed the Spanish section of the Shoah Visual Archives and has served as a member of the Spanish delegation to the International Task Force for Holocaust Education Remembrance and Research.

Sponsored by the Center for Jewish Studies, Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies, Department of German, Scandinavian and Dutch, Jewish Community Relations Council.

UNESCO announces International Holocaust Remembrance Day events

UNESCO events for the International Day of Commemoration in Memory of the victims of the Holocaust
1-16-2014

Risk of genocide rising in the CAR

U.N. warns of genocide risk in Central African Republic
1-16-2014

Israel to make it a crime to call someone a Nazi

Israel's Efforts to Limit Use of Holocaust Terms Raise Free-Speech Questions
1-15-2014

Reframing Mass Violence: Transitional Justice and Human Rights

Barbara Frey, Director, Human Rights Program, University of Minnesota
Thursday, January 23
3:00 p.m.
235 Nolte

Countries emerging from repression, armed conflict, or mass atrocities have sought ways to address the past as a part of their transition into new forms of governance and citizenship. In this introduction to the topic, Barbara Frey will review some of the methods and mechanisms that have been developed by national and international actors, including public memorials, truth commissions, and national or international criminal prosecutions to assist societies to transition away from their repressive pasts.

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.

Lecture Flier: 20140114170524742.pdf

Local survivor and friend of CHGS Gustav "Gus" Gutman dies at 78

It is with great sadness that the Center for Holocaust and Genocide announces the passing of Gus Gutman. We recently had the pleasure of working with Gus on the "Portraying Memories" project with artist Felix de la Concha. Gus was an enthusiastic participant, turning what is typically a 2-4 hour session into a daylong adventure involving a trip to the Shalom Home, where he introduced Felix to his good friend Walter Schwartz, so he could participate as well.



Gus was always full of energy, a wonderful storyteller and great to be around. We were very surprised to hear he was ill and extremely saddened to hear of his passing on January 11.

Although Gus was a child during the Holocaust, he spoke often about remembering the events of Kristallnacht (the Nazi pogrom) that took place throughout Germany and Austria on November 9,10, 1938. "I was just a small child in Hildesheim when my father held me up to see the smoke coming from our beloved synagogue. The experience was so embedded in my memory I even wrote a play, "Guests of the City," about my return to Germany with flashbacks to that time which was produced and performed in my home town Hildesheim in 2005 (I played my father)."

We are very fortunate that Gus's story will live on the CHGS website and that others will be able to view his painting session with Felix de la Concha. The portrait will also be on display in an exhibition planned for Spring of 2015, and website dedicated to all of Felix de la Concha's Holocaust portraits.

Gus's story can be seen by clicking here.

Gustav Gutman, 01/20/1935 - 01/11/2014: Obituary