January 14th, 2010

A traveling exhibition from the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, “Nazi Persecution Of Homosexuals 1933-1945,” is on display in the Student Center Atrium Conference Room through Tuesday, February 9 (open Student Center hours).

The museum website states that between 1933 and 1945 the Nazi state incarcerated tens of thousands of men in prisons and concentration camps. Using reproductions of historic documents and photographs, this exhibit examines the impact of the Nazi regime’s attempt to eradicate homosexuality.

There will be an opening reception for the exhibit on Thursday, January 21, from 4 to 6 p.m. in the Student Center Atrium. Comments by Paul Vincent will begin at 4:30 p.m.; light refreshments will be served. For more Information, contact Karen Cangialosi, 8-2578.

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From Tom White, Cohen Center: The Cohen Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies is offering two public roundtables and professional development workshops around the theme of “Seeking Tikkun: The Role of Memory in Building Community Fostering Wholeness.” The roundtables will focus on the importance of confronting difficult history in order to bear witness to, and be willing to face our responsibilities for, the other in our midst.

The initial roundtable, “Confronting a Difficult Past: Germans Wrestle with the Legacy of Nazism and the Holocaust” will be held on Friday, October 9, from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. in the Mabel Brown Room, Student Center. This event was inspired by Ursula Mahlendorf’s memoir, The Shame of Survival: Working through a Nazi Childhood. Mahlendorf was a Hitler Youth squad leader who has sought to come to terms with her past.

Joining her in the roundtable discussion will be a woman whose family was active in the German resistance; a Jewish survivor of Kristallnacht who fled Germany and would later serve in Patton’s 6th Armor Division; the son of two Holocaust survivors born in a displaced persons camp in 1946; and the son of Nazi industrialists and perpetrators whose childhood friends were the children of the commandant of Auschwitz III, Buna Monowitz.

The second roundtable, “Anguished Hope: Holocaust Scholars Confront the Palestinian-Israeli Conflict” will be held on Friday, December 11, from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. in the Mountain View Room, Student Center.

Holocaust scholars will discuss what the study of the Holocaust helps us to understand, or lead us to ponder, when facing the Palestinian-Israeli conflict while being attentive to its history and complex dynamics. Four contributors to the book Anguished Hope will discuss their work on that project, and explore their continuing engagement with this demanding topic.

A pre-registration fee is required for each roundtable. For a registration form, or more information, please visit: www.keene.edu/cchs/.

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Cohen Center director Henry F. Knight formally announced new name of The Cohen Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies during his introduction of Gerda Weismann Klein, this year’s featured speaker at the center’s annual Holocaust Memorial Lecture on September 21. The center will now offer an annual lecture on genocide awareness and supports the only BA in Holocaust and Genocide Studies in the United States. Amanda Warman, director of Campus Safety, reported that the standing-room-only crowd that spilled out of the Mabel Brown room was the largest in that room since Angela Davis gave the Sidore lecture in the fall of 2001.

Gera Weismann Klein delivered the Cohen Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies annual Holocaust Memorial Lecture on September 21. (Mark Corliss photo)

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Courtesy photo; Gerda Weissmann Klein

Gerda Weissmann’s life changed forever in 1939 when, at age 15, German troops invaded her home in Beilsko, Poland. Both Gerda and her brother, Arthur, were separated from their parents and sent to slave labor camps. Her resilience supported her through three successive years in slave-labor camps and a forced 350-mile death-march in which 2,000 women were subjected to exposure, starvation, and arbitrary execution. Throughout, she never lost the will to survive. In 1945, she was rescued at the point of starvation by her future husband, Kurt Klein, an American intelligence officer.

Weissmann has lectured throughout the country and has written several books, including her autobiography, All But My Life. A documentary about her experiences during the Holocaust, One Survivor Remembers, won an Academy Award in 1996. Another film that features her story is shown regularly at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. She has appeared on The Oprah Winfrey Show and CBS Sunday Morning and was featured on 60 Minutes and Nightline. On January 27, 2006, Gerda addressed the United Nations General Assembly on its first International Day of Commemoration in Memory of the Victims of the Holocaust. Fourteen members of Gerda Klein’s family, including her parents and brother, were killed at Auschwitz.

For more information, call the Cohen Center at 8-2490.

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Three Keene State students, an eighth grader from Monadnock Regional High School, and a storyteller from Shelburne Falls, Mass. received awards at the 12th Annual Hildebrandt Holocaust Studies Awards Program on Monday, April 20, at Keene State College. The awards program, named for the late Charles Hildebrandt, who founded KSC’s Center for Holocaust Studies in 1983 and served as its first director, remembers the Holocaust by way of student and community art and scholarship.

Hannah Bush, 14, from Richmond, N. H., received the $300 Community School Award. The eighth grader at Monadnock Regional Middle School was recognized for her entry, an original song entitled “Be a Witness.”

David Arfa, from Shelburne Falls, Mass., received the $300 Community Member Award. His storytelling entry, “The Jar of Tears,” is based on the life of Rabbi Kalonymus Kalman Shapiro, the Rebbe of the Warsaw Ghetto. Rabbi Shapiro did not survive the war, but his sermons did – preserved in a milk jug, with a request that these teachings reach a wider audience.

Meagan Blais, a KSC Junior enrolled in Keene State’s new Holocaust and Genocide Studies major, will be one of the first undergraduate students in the U.S. to earn a B.A. degree in Holocaust and Genocide Studies. Her personal essay, “Inheriting the Holocaust,” received a $500 award. The essay explores the burden of shame that accompanies bearing witness to the Holocaust, both personally as a scholar and for the generations that follow the victims and survivors of the Holocaust.

KSC students Jessica Howard and Becky Midler shared a $500 award for “Unearthed Sense,” an original dance that they choreographed and performed. Their interest in the Holocaust began when they participated in “Inspired by Kaddish,” a dance performance this past fall, and continued after they viewed the Samuel Bak exhibit at the Thorne in November. The dance was representative of two individuals going through the same, but separate, struggle and takes place within a border of empty shoes.

For more information visit the website, or contact Margaret Barney, 8-2490, mbarney@keene.edu.

Courtesy photo; 2009 Hildebrandt Award winners (left to right): Hannah Bush, David Arfa, and Meagan Blais.

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On Thursday, April 16, the Cohen Center for Holocaust Studies will sponsor “Resistance Continued: Courage in the Face of Adversity,” an event to honor Lithuanian Holocaust survivor and Vilna Ghetto partisan Dr. Rachel Margolis. Congressman Paul Hodes, Tom White, and Marjorie Margolis will speak at the event, which starts at 6 p.m. in the Putnam Theatre. The film Defiance will be shown after the awards ceremony (at 7 p.m.).

Born in Vilna, Lithuania in 1921, Rachel Margolis was incarcerated in the Vilna Ghetto from 1942–1943 before escaping to join the anti-Nazi Jewish partisans. She discovered and transcribed the Kazimierz Sakowicz diary, Ponary Diary, 1941–1943: A Bystander’s Account of a Mass Murder, which documented the daily executions of Lithuanian Jews. In 2006, Dr. Margolis’s own memoir was published in Lithuania, and her cousin, Marjorie Margolis of Sharon N.H., is working on an English translation.

In Lithuania, prosecutors are studying the memoirs of several elderly Jewish Holocaust survivors to find evidence of deaths of Lithuanian citizens at the hands of pro-Soviet partisans. Although Dr. Margolis was honored for her valor as a partisan as recently as two years ago by the Lithuanian prime minister, material from her memoir has been used to support charges brought against other Lithuanian Holocaust partisans.

Margolis, an 87-year-old dual Israeli-Lithuanian citizen, spends most of the year with her daughter in Israel, but has always summered in her homeland. Now she is afraid to return, since her words are being used to support government prosecutions of Jewish Partisans for their anti-Nazi resistance. Marjorie Margolis asked Congressman Hodes to advocate for her Lithuanian cousin and other WW II-era Jewish partisans, and he is working closely with Congressman Wexler’s office and the US House Committee on Foreign Affairs. For more information, please contact the Cohen Center, 8-2490.

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From Margaret Barney, Cohen Center: Dr. Henry Knight, director KSC’s Cohen Center for Holocaust Studies, will be the keynote speaker of the 12th Annual Hildebrandt Holocaust Studies Awards Program. His lecture, “Know Before Whom You Stand,” will start at 7 p.m. on Monday, April 20, in Alumni Recital Hall at the Redfern Arts Center.

The Hildebrandt Awards Program is a Keene State event that remembers the Holocaust by way of student and community art and scholarship. The awards are named for the late Charles Hildebrandt, Professor Emeritus of Sociology at KSC, who founded KSC’s Center for Holocaust Studies in 1983 and served as its first director.

The award categories include Keene State College student entries and junior and high school student entries, as well as entries from the greater Keene community. Each year students and members of the local community are invited to submit essays, historical analyses, stories, poems, musical compositions, dance, film, theatre, and visual arts exploring and expressing their own personal relationship to or reflections on the Holocaust.

Awards totaling $1,000 will be distributed among the top three KSC entrants, $300 for community members, and $300 for junior/senior high school entries. In addition to Dr. Knight’s talk, winning entrants will share their submissions. The event, sponsored by the College’s Cohen Center for Holocaust Studies, is free and open to the public. For more information visit the website, or contact Margaret Barney, 8-2490, mbarney@keene.edu.

Courtesy photo; Dr. Henry F. Knight

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From Margaret Barney, Cohen Center: The registration deadline for this year’s student trip to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, DC, is Monday, March 2. The trip will take place the weekend of April 17–19 (learn more about it here).

Please pass this information along to any students who may be interested in learning more about the Holocaust and visiting the Museum. KSC faculty and staff interested in joining us on this educational trip are also encouraged to contact Margaret Barney at 8-2490 ASAP.

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Keene State is pleased to announce a new baccalaureate degree in Holocaust and Genocide Studies. The interdisciplinary undergraduate Holocaust and Genocide Studies major is currently accepting students for the 2009–10 academic year.

The Holocaust and Genocide Studies curriculum combines historical study with an interdisciplinary exploration of both the Holocaust and other genocidal events. The major incorporates film, literature, philosophy, psychology, sociology, religious studies, women’s studies, and other offerings. With an understanding of such issues as prejudice, discrimination, and racism, students master the skills needed to analyze contemporary political situations, think critically about ethical responsibility, and respond to injustice.

“These skills are at the heart of a liberal arts education,” said Cohen Center Director Dr. Henry Knight. “In a world still tormented by mass murder, studying the Holocaust offers an analytical framework that can help us to understand ongoing global genocide.”

Program graduates will be prepared to support social studies and history curriculum development, and to pursue careers in social and governmental service. The major also prepares students for graduate studies in history as well as Holocaust and genocide studies, and for other post-graduate work, such as law.

For more information about the Holocaust and Genocide Studies major, or to see a schedule of workshops, in-service training, classroom presentations, and individual curriculum consultations, visit www.keene.edu/cchs.

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The Cohen Center for Holocaust Studies will present a symposium, Representing the Irreparable: The Shoah, the Bible, and the Art of Samuel Bak, on Thursday, November 20, at 7:30 p.m. in the Mabel Brown Room of the Student Center.

Dr. Gary A. Phillips, Dean of the College at Wabash College and Dr. Danna Nolan Fewell, Professor of Hebrew Bible at Drew University, will discuss Bak’s work within both Biblical and Post-Holocaust frameworks. They co-edited a book on the work of Bak, also entitled Representing the Irreparable: The Shoah, the Bible, and the Art of Samuel Bak, which will be available for purchase at the event. There will be a book-signing opportunity immediately following the symposium, with Drs. Phillips and Fewell as well as Samuel Bak.

Samuel Bak’s work is currently part of the exhibit, “Facing the Holocaust: 25 Years of the Cohen Center at Keene State College,” at the Thorne. The symposium is free and open to the public. For more information call 8-2490.

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From Jackie Hooper, Thorne: Three New England artists whose works are influenced by the Holocaust will be showcased in an exhibit at the Thorne-Sagendorph Art Gallery commemorating the 25th anniversary of the Cohen Center for Holocaust Studies at Keene State College.

Samuel Bak, an artist and a Holocaust survivor; Leslie Starobin, an artist and photographer who creates montages inspired by family and history; and photographer Clemens Kalischer, a member of One by One, an organization that brings together the children of Holocaust survivors and German families, will display their work in “Facing the Holocaust: 25 Years of the Cohen Center at Keene State College” from Friday, November 7, through Sunday, December 7. An opening reception, hosted by the Friends of the Thorne, will take place from 4:30 to 6:30 p.m. on Thursday, November 6, at the Thorne Gallery. For information, call 8-2720.

Photo: Clemens Kalischer, Untitled

 

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Kristallnacht, the “night of broken glass,” will be remembered on Thursday, November 6, at 7 p.m. at the Colonial Theatre in downtown Keene. This event in Germany in 1938 marked the beginning of the Nazis’ systematic persecution of Jews and served as a prelude to the Holocaust. The KSC Chamber Singers, the Chamber Singers of Keene, and MoCoArts of Keene will all be part of the evening of Remembrance.

This year’s event will feature Emmy Award-winning documentary filmmaker and Chambon Foundation president Pierre Sauvage. A child survivor of the Holocaust and a child of Holocaust survivors, he is best known for his 1989 feature documentary Weapons of the Spirit, which tells the story of a mountain community in France that defied the Nazis and took in and saved five thousand Jews, including Sauvage and his parents. Sauvage himself was born in this unique Christian oasis, Le Chambon, at a time when much of his family was being tortured and murdered in the Nazi death camps. It was only at the age of 18 that he learned that he and his family were Jewish and survivors of the Holocaust.

Kristallnacht, sponsored by the Keene Interfaith Clergy Association, the Cohen Center for Holocaust Studies at Keene State College, Congregation Ahavas Achim, the Office of the Vice President for Finance and Planning at Keene State College, and the New Hampshire Humanities Council, is free and open to the public and is suitable for children ages 10 and up. Please call Tom White, 8-2746, or visit http://www.keene.edu/cchs for more information.

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From Bill Menezes, Redfern: Thanks to a generous KSC Pepsi Grant, the first 200 Keene State students who request student tickets can attend the Inspired by Kaddish: A Celebration of the Arts performance for free on Saturday, November 1, at 7:30 p.m. at the Redfern Arts Center. The performance will showcase the talents of area musicians and singers and Keene State College faculty and students.

Inspired by the stunning debut last spring of composer Lawrence Siegel’s Kaddish, the artists will unite their talents to create a celebration of the arts at Keene State. Excerpts from Inspired by Kaddish will be played by a chamber orchestra and sung by a choir and soloists, and the music will be enhanced by original dance works and special readings from the original score throughout the evening.

Like its inspiration, the November 1 performance, through the words and memories of victims, survivors, and bystanders, creates a series of musical and spoken vignettes of the Holocaust. However, the production is not only about the past, but also about exploring our humanity and responding ethically to intolerance and injustice today. It culminates in a message of hope and peace that extends beyond the lines of religion, race, and ethnic background.

The artistic director of Inspired by Kaddish is KSC theatre and dance professor Marcia Murdock. Murdock has also created new dances for 12 KSC dance students to enhance the music.

Professor of music Elaine Broad Ginsberg, who conducted the choir for the premiere of Kaddish, will conduct the 14-piece chamber orchestra, the 32-voice KSC Chamber Singers, and the eight members of the community chorus who performed in the premiere.

The performance will also feature four soloists: Keene State music professors Diane Cushing (soprano) and Pamela Stevens (mezzo-soprano), who performed in the premiere. Baritone David Ripley, who appeared in the original production, is widely known for his oratorio, recital, chamber opera, and early and contemporary music programs. The tenor is KSC music major Mike Cassese.

The performance is made possible by the generous support of the offices of the KSC Provost and the Dean of Arts and Humanities and the Redfern Arts Center on Brickyard Pond. KSC students will need to show a valid 2008 – 2009 ID at the box office to pick up a ticket.

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Donald Bloxham, professor of Modern History at the University of Edinburgh, will give the 2nd Annual Genocide Awareness Lecture, “Genocides in Comparative Perspective: Does the Holocaust Fit?,” on Monday, October 27. The lecture is free and open to the public and will start at 7:30 p.m. in the Mabel Brown Room, Young Student Center.

Professor Bloxham is an expert in Holocaust and genocide studies with focused work on the Armenian genocide.

He received the Chancellor’s Rising Star Award in 2007 at the University of Edinburgh and has authored nearly 50 articles and book chapters. His monographs include Genocide, the World Wars, and the Unweaving of Europe; The Great Game of Genocide: Imperialism, Nationalism, and the Destruction of the Ottoman Armenians; and Genocide on Trial: War Crimes Trials and the Formation of Holocaust History and Memory. He is co-editor of the forthcoming Oxford Handbook of Genocide and serves on the editorial board of the journals Holocaust Studies, Patterns of Prejudice, Zeitschrift für Genozidforschung, and the Journal of Genocide Research.

Professor Bloxham was the 2007 – 08 J.B. and Maurice C. Shapiro Senior Scholar-in-Residence at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, where he completed his forthcoming book, The Final Solution: A Genocide and Its Contexts. He is the recipient of the 2007 Raphael Lemkin Award for genocide scholarship.

For more information contact Margaret Barney, mbarney@keene.edu.

Courtesy Photo: Professor Donald Bloxham

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Professor Christopher Browning will present the 11th Annual Holocaust Memorial Lecture, “Holocaust Denial in the Courtroom: The Historian as Expert Witness,” on Monday, September 22, at 7:30 p.m. in the Mabel Brown Room.

Professor Browning is the Frank Porter Graham Professor of History at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He is known for his book Ordinary Men: Reserve Police Battalion 101 and the Final Solution in Poland, and for his role as an expert witness in the libel defense of Prof. Deborah Lipstadt, author of Denying the Holocaust, who was sued by Holocaust denier David Irving in the late 1990s.

Other scholarship by Browning includes The Final Solution and the German Foreign Office (1978), Fateful Months: Essays on the Emergence of the Final Solution (1985), The Path to Genocide (1992), and Final Solution: The Evolution of Nazi Jewish Policy, September 1939-March 1942 (2004).

In 1999 Professor Browning gave the George Macaulay Trevelyan Lectures at Cambridge University, since published under the title Nazi Policy, Jewish Workers, German Killers (2000). In 2001 he delivered the first George Mosse Lecture at the University of Wisconsin, later published as Collected Memories: Holocaust History and Postwar Testimony (2003). Using the testimony of nearing 265 survivors, he is currently working on a case study of the slave labor camps in Starachowice in central Poland. For more information visit the Cohen Center or call 8-2490.

Courtesy photo
Professor Christopher Browning

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