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

Communities that suffered under German colonial rule receive development funds

Germany spent N$274m on genocide communities

07-29-14

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

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.

Marcel Reich-Ranicki, Literary Critic and survivor of the Warsaw ghetto, is dead at 93

Marcel Reich-Ranicki, Literary Critic, Is Dead at 93

Germany to look into case of former Nazi-led unit commander living in Minnesota

Germany probes Karkoc, Nazi-led unit
June 24, 2013

German court rules for secrets to be kept on Adolf Eichmann.

Court dismisses bid for full access to intelligence files on Nazi Eichmann
June 27, 2013

Germany to look into case of former Nazi-led unit commander living in Minnesota

Germany probes Karkoc, Nazi-led unit
June 24, 2013

Summer Travel and Education Opportunity for Secondary Educators

Checkpoint Charlie Foundation Berlin Summer Academy
The Holocaust & Present-day Jewish Life in Germany
July 14-21, 2013
Deadline for Applications, April 1, 2013


A summer study program in Berlin, Germany, for U.S. public secondary school teachers in cooperation with the Education Division of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Washington, D.C..

This one-week study tour in July of each year is designed for U.S. secondary school teachers to gain insight into many of the historical, social, religious, political, and economic factors that cumulatively resulted in the Holocaust.

For complete information and application forms please visit their website by clicking here.

Rebuilding the Community: Jewish Life in Germany after the Shoah now available to view on YouTube

On Sunday, October 28, 2012 Professor Jay H. Geller spoke to the community about Jewish life in Germany after the Shoah. A video of that talk is available by visiting The Center for Jewish Studies, University of Minnesota YouTube channel.

Even after the Shoah, Jews chose to settle in Germany. Who were these Jews, and why did they decide to remain in a country that had been hostile to their very existence only a few years earlier? How did they deal with antagonism by German neighbors and isolation by Jewish groups abroad? This talk explores the circumstances that led to a renewed Jewish community in post-Holocaust Germany and the alliances that permitted it to flourish.

Jay Geller is the Samuel Rosenthal Professor of Judaic Studies and Associate Professor of History at Case Western Reserve University. He specializes in Jewish history and modern European history, with a focus on Germany. He is the author of Jews in Post-Holocaust Germany, and co-editor of Three-Way Street: Germans, Jews, and the Transnational with Leslie Morris. He is currently writing a biography of Gershom Scholem and his family.

Right-wing extremist attitudes are on the rise in parts of Germany, particularly in the east, according to a study

Far-Right Attitudes Increase in Germany
November 12, 2012

Scholar to speak on Jewish life in Germany after the Shoah

Rebuilding the Community: Jewish Life in Germany after the Shoah
Jay H. Geller, Professor of Judaic Studies, Case Western Reserve University
Sunday, October 28, 2012
7:30 p.m.
Beth El Synagogue
26th St., St. Louis Park, MN 55416

Even after the Shoah, Jews chose to settle in Germany. Who were these Jews, and why did they decide to remain in a country that had been hostile to their very existence only a few years earlier? How did they deal with antagonism by German neighbors and isolation by Jewish groups abroad? This talk explores the circumstances that led to a renewed Jewish community in post-Holocaust Germany and the alliances that permitted it to flourish.

Jay H. Geller is the Samuel Rosenthal Professor of Judaic Studies and Associate Professor of History at Case Western Reserve University. He specializes in Jewish history and modern European history, with a focus on Germany. He is the author of Jews in Post-Holocaust Germany, and co-editor of Three-Way Street: Germans, Jews, and the Transnational with Leslie Morris. He is currently writing a biography of Gershom Scholem and his family.
This event is free and open to the public.
For more information, please contact Center for Jewish Studies at jwst@umn.edu or by phone at 612-624-4914.
Sponsored by: Center for Jewish Studies, Center for Holocaust & Genocide Studies, Department of German, Scandinavian & Dutch, Department of History and Beth El Synagogue.

"Law and Democracy: The Paradoxes of Transitional Justice in Germany, 1945-1950."

Devin Pendas, Associate Professor and director of graduate studies, Boston College

Wednesday, April 4
4:30p.m.
Room 1210
Heller Hall

Wednesday, April 4
4:30p.m.
Room 1210
Heller Hall
The effort at transitional justice in Germany after World War II was one of the largest and most systematic ever undertaken. Among the least known aspects of that effort were the thousands of prosecutions for Nazi crimes undertaken by the Germans themselves in the immediate aftermath of the war.
Shaped by the context of military occupation and the budding Cold War, these German trials had a complex and often surprising impact on the political culture of the two emerging German states. Prosecuting Nazi atrocities actually played an important role in consolidating East Germany's emerging Stalinist dictatorship. And it was West German hostility to prosecuting Nazi crimes that proved crucial to its eventual democratic success.
Devin Pendas is Associate Professor and director of graduate studies at the Boston College Department of History. Professor Pendas also holds a position as a faculty affiliate and co-chair of the German Study Group at the Center for European Studies at Harvard University. His fields of interest include German history, modern Europe, legal history, and the history of mass violence and war.
His research centers on war crimes trials after World War II, particularly on German Holocaust trials, and he is interested in the comparative and transnational dimensions of genocide. Pendas' 2005 book, The Frankfurt Auschwitz Trial, 1963-1965: Genocide, History and the Limits of the Law, provides a comprehensive history ofthe largest, most public, and most important trial of Holocaust perpetrators conducted in West German courts, addressing both the inadequacy of the trials and the public's divided response.
He has received research fellowships from the German Academic Exchange Service, the MacArthur Foundation, the Center for Contemporary Historical Research in Potsdam, Germany, the U.S. Holocaust Museum, and the American Council of Learned Societies (Burkhardt Fellowship).
Presented by: The Department of History, the Department of Sociology and the Center for Holocaust & Genocide Studies.

Laughing with Traumas: Humor about the Holocaust in Contemporary German and Israeli Popular Culture

A Talk by Ofer Ashkenazi, Ph.D.
Wednesday, October 19
11:45-1p.m.
Room 1210 Heller Hall

The talk examines comic references to the Holocaust in contemporary Israeli and German mainstream culture. Ashkenazi will argue that during the last two decades, Holocaust-related humor has been often used as a means to criticize the fundamental premises of the political discourse in these countries.
In blurring the boundaries between the sacred and the mundane, it provided an alternative language for the discussion of the return of the past as a culturally mediated trauma. The endeavor to represent the Holocaust, and to display its 'meaning,' has been an essential element in post-1945 Western culture.
In numerous works dedicated to this effort scholars have documented and analyzed its role in the formation of current 'trauma-cultures,' in which mediated traumas have become key components of collective identities (as well as popular commodities). For various reasons, these studies tend to focus on somber - often melodramatic -images and narratives, which aim to envisage Holocaust reality "as it was," or could have been. Such inquiries have a particular importance in the examination of popular culture in Israel and Germany, where the memory of the Holocaust still determines not only the national self-perception but also the national and international politics.
A close look at the mainstream culture of these countries since the early 1990s, however, reveals a flood of humorous references to the Holocaust and its iconography (in television shows, films, popular magazines, and file-sharing Internet-sites). In analyzing this phenomenon, Ashkenazi will argue that rather than ridiculing or denying the horrors of the Holocaust, these references often work to expose the (political) implications of the current trauma-culture and warn against its exploitation.
Sponsored by the History Department, University of Minnesota