NASHVILLE, Tenn. – The Holocaust Lecture Series at Vanderbilt, the longest continuous holocaust lecture series at an American university, turns its attention this year to damage intentionally wrought upon their victims’ rich cultures by Nazi Germany and other genocidal regimes.
“Some people may survive a genocide, but if the culture is gone then we have a separate and equal tragedy,” said Jay Geller, assistant professor of modern Jewish culture in the Divinity School and chair of this year’s Holocaust Lecture Series. “Some Jews survived the Holocaust in Eastern Europe, but their Yiddish-speaking cultural community was destroyed.”
The 2006 Holocaust Lecture Series at Vanderbilt gets underway on Oct. 19, following an Oct. 14-16 visit to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington by a group of students.
The schedule:
– 7 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 19: “Genocide in Guatamala: Historical and Contemporary Perspectives,” a lecture by Beatriz Manz of the University of California at Berkeley. Renaissance Room of Vanderbilt Law School.
– 7 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 22: Fateless, a film about a 14-year-old Hungarian Jewish boy who journeys through a series of death and concentration camps, based on an autobiographical novel by Nobel Literature Prize-winner Imre Kertesz. The screening will be followed by a discussion. Sarratt Cinema.
– 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 25: A Company of Angels: The Story of Charlotte Salomon, a production by mask-and-puppet theatre troupe In the Heart of the Beast that tells the story of painter Charlotte Salomon, an artist caught up in the Holocaust. After the performance Fred Westfield, professor of economics, emeritus, will speak on Jewish life under the Third Reich. Westfield was rescued from Germany when he was 12, and is involved in efforts to recover art stolen by the Nazis. Belcourt Theatre.
– 7 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 29: “Medical Ethics in the Shadow of the Holocaust: The Nazi Doctors, Racial Hygiene, Murder and Genocide,” a lecture by Michael Alan Grodin, M.D., of Boston University. Renaissance Room of Vanderbilt Law School.
– 7 p.m. Wednesday, Nov. 1: Darfur Diaries: Message from Home, a film about refugees from the ongoing genocide in Darfur, Sudan. A discussion with the filmmaker will be held after the screening. Sarratt Cinema.
– 7:30 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 5: “A Yiddish Writer Survives the Shoah,” a lecture by author and survivor Chava Rosenfarb, about her career writing in Yiddish after the Holocaust and the destruction of the Yiddish-speaking cultural community of Eastern Europe. Ben Schulman Center for Jewish Life.
– 7 p.m. Wednesday, Nov. 8: “While 6 Million Died: Cultural Genocide in Poland,” a lecture by Piotr Wrobel of the University of Toronto. Renaissance Room of Vanderbilt Law School.
These events are free and open to the public. Parking is available for events at the Schulman Center and Sarratt Student Center events in the Central Garage, at 25h Avenue South and Highland Avenue. After 5 p.m. parking is also available in Zone 3 lots 18, 64 and 71 off 25th Avenue South. For events at the Law School, parking is available at the Terrace Place Garage, on Terrace Place between 20th and 21st Avenues South, in Zone 2 spaces 93-401 and 611-824. After 5 p.m., parking is also available in Zone 2 lots 4, 5 and 6 off 21st Avenue South. For more information, call 615-322-2457.
There will also be a slate of events in conjunction with the Holocaust Lecture Series, listed at http://www.vanderbilt.edu/religiouslife/holocaustlectures.html. Selected events from the 2006 Holocaust Lecture Series at Vanderbilt will be available for podcast at VUCast (http://www.vanderbilt.edu/news/), the Vanderbilt News Service website.
Media contact: Jim Patterson, (615) 322-NEWS
jim.patterson@vanderbilt.edu