The uncommon friendship of a holocaust survivor and a Nazi youth that spawned a nationwide best-selling book is one of several highlights of the 19th Annual Holocaust Lecture Series at Sonoma State University this semester.
"Shadows of the Holocaust: Exploring the Legacies" is the theme of the free public lecture series now being held on Tuesdays from 4 to 5:15 p.m. through May 21 on the Rohnert Park campus.
Speakers during the series will address topics ranging from the founding of Israel, the post-Holocaust church, voices from the Shoah Project, the legacies of Nuremberg and confronting the current genocides in Africa.
Bernie Rosner and Frtiz Tubach will discuss their Holocaust memoir, "An Uncommon Friendship: From Opposite Sides of the Holocaust" in a lecture on March 26 in the Evert B. Person Theatre.
Rosner is a Hungarian Jew who survived the Auschwitz concentration camp during World War II, before eventually being adopted by an American soldier and moving to the United States. Tubach was the son of a German army soldier and member of the the Nazi Youth Movement. In their touching memoir they reveal how they became friends and how their friendship forced each of them to come to terms with his past.
Voices From The Shoah Project with Mikko Allane with be presented on March 19. Allane will show a video tape of survivors forced to work in the crematoria and gas chambers.
On April 23, Kathi L. Austin, Director of the Arms and Conflict Program for the Fund for Peace will show her documentary "Forsaken Cries: Genocide In Rwanda." Austin has written and consulted widely on issues relating to the arms trade, the proliferation and abuse of small arms and light weapons, security, conflict, human rights and Africa policy.
The Holocaust Lecture Series is sponsored by the Alliance for the Study of the Holocaust, the Sonoma State University Holocaust Study Center, and the Paul V. Benko Holocaust Education Endowment.
Credit is available to community participants. For further information, contact Myrna Goodman, Director of the Holocaust Studies Center,
(707) 664-4076/4296.
The complete schedule follows:
19TH ANNUAL SONOMA STATE UNIVERSITY HOLOCAUST LECTURE SERIES
Through May 21,
Tuesdays, 4-5:15 p.m.
Warren Auditorium
Robert L. Harris lecture in Evert B. Person Theatre
SHADOWS OF THE HOLOCAUST: EXPLORING THE LEGACIES
February 5: Historical Background and Video: "Master Race 1933" - Steve
Watrous, Ph.D. SSU.
February 12: "Historical Legacies And The Third Reich" - Steve Watrous, Ph.D. SSU.
February 19: "Survivors Panel" - Lucille Eichengreen, Berkeley Betty Kale, Santa Rosa.
February 26: "Zionism, The Holocaust And The Founding Of The State Of Israel" - Barry Preisler, Ph.D., Lecturer, SSU.
March 5: "The Post-Holocaust Church" - Sandy Lowe, Ph.D. www.westarinstitute.org/Fellows/Lowe/lowe.html
March 12: "New Perspectives In Holocaust Scholarship" - Myrna Goodman, Ph.D.; Ilka Hartmann M.A.; Elaine Leeder Ph.D.; Barbara Lesch McCaffry Ph.D.; Joel Neuberg, M.I.L.S., Sonoma State University.
March 19: "Voices From The Shoah Project" - Mikko Allane: Historical Content
Supervisor, Survivors of the Shoah Visual History Foundation
March 26: "Overcoming the Past: An Uncommon Friendship" - Fredric Tubach, Ph.D. and Bernat Rosner, L.L.D. Robert L. Harris Memorial Lecture, Evert B. Person Theatre
April 9: "Facing History And Ourselves" - Jack Weinstein, Northern California Program Director, Facing History and Ourselves National Foundation. www.facinghistory.org
April 16: "Legacies Of Nuremberg: International Legal Accountability" - Dr. Diana Grant, Professor of Criminal Justice, Sonoma State University
April 23: "Forsaken Cries: Genocide In Rwanda" - Kathi L. Austin, Director, Arms and Conflict Program, The Fund for Peace. www.fundforpeace.org/programs/acp/acp.htm
April 30: "The Sociology of Evil," Noel Byrne, Ph.D., Professor of Sociology, SSU.
May 7: "Confronting Current Genocides" - Jerry Fowler, Staff Director, Committee on Conscience, United States, Holocaust Memorial Museum, Washington D.C. www.ushmm.org/conscience/
May 14: "The Legacy Continues: Second Generation Panel" - Blair Pleasant, and Julia Silverberg. Dr. Elaine Leeder, Dean of School of Social Sciences, SSU, moderator.
May 21: "What Have We Learned?"
