FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
February 4, 2003      File #315
Contact: Jean Wasp, Media Relations, (707) 664-2057

"Rethinking the Holocaust" Scholar Yehuda Bauer is
Highlight of SSU'S 20th Annual Lecture Series

Sonoma State University's Holocaust and Genocide Studies Center is moving into a new "post-survivor era" and widening its reach into the understanding of the causes of genocide as it celebrates its 20th anniversary this year with a remarkable series of programs.

The inevitable loss of Holocaust survivors and the opening of previously closed historical archives around the world is allowing the Center to move in new directions, says Center director Myrna Goodman.

The Center, which is now an integral part of the department of sociology, began new classes on the causes of genocide this academic year. The title of the lecture series is "Witnessing, Resisting and Preventing Genocide."

Dr. Yehuda Bauer, one of the world's premier historians of the Holocaust, presents an insightful overview and reconsideration of its history and meaning at a lecture called "Rethinking the Holocaust" at Sonoma State University on May 6 in the Cooperage.

Drawing on research he and other historians have done in recent years, Bauer offers insightful opinions on how to define and explain the Holocaust; how Jews reacted to the murder campaign against them; what the relationship is between the Holocaust and the establishment of Israel; and whether the Holocaust can be compared with other genocides.

A second noteworthy lecturer is Michael Berenbaum, Director of the Sigi Ziering Center for the Study of the Holocaust and Ethics at the University of Judaism. Berenbaum's topic is "Why Wasn't Auschwitz Bombed?" as the Robert L. Harris Memorial Lecture in the Cooperage on March 25.

Berenbaum is president and chief executive officer of the Survivors of the Shoah Visual History Foundation, a non-profit organization founded by Steven Spielberg that is dedicated to videotaping and preserving interviews of Holocaust survivors throughout the world.

The series this year also features lectures on the Armenian genocide, North American Indians and genocide in Rwanda as well as a program on the Sonderkommando uprising. Lectures are held 4-5:40 p.m. in either Warren Auditorium or The Cooperage as noted below.

The complete schedule of events in the lecture series includes:

WITNESSING, RESISTING AND PREVENTING GENOCIDE
Sonoma State University
Tuesdays, 4-5:40 p.m.,
Warren Auditorium unless The Cooperage is indicated below:

Feb. 11: " Master Race 1933" and "The Genocide Factor." Historical
background and videos with Myrna Goodman, Ilka Hartmann, Joel Neuberg.

Feb. 18: Historical overview of the Holocaust, Elaine Leeder,
Dean of Social Sciences, Sonoma State University.

Feb. 25: Survivor’s Panel, Lucille Eichengreen and Lillian Judd.

March 4: Myths of Race and the Influence of Racism on Genocide,
Michael Thaler.

March 11: When Does Genocide End?: The Armenian Case,
Dickran Kouymjian, Director, Armenian Studies Program, CSU Fresno.

March 18: The North American Indian Experience: The Bloody Island Massacre,
Edward Castillo, Professor of Native American Studies, Sonoma State University.

March 25: Why Wasn't Auschwitz Bombed?,
Michael Berenbaum, Director, Sigi Ziering Center for the Study of the Holocaust and Ethics,
University of Judaism.
Robert L. Harris Memorial Lecture, The Cooperage.

April 1: Voices of the Shoah: The Sonderkommando Uprising,
Mikko Alane, Historical Content Supervisor, Survivors of the Shoah Visual History Foundation.

April 15: The Sociology of Genocide, Myrna Goodman, Sonoma State University.

April 22: Resisting the Holocaust in Denmark, Knud Dyby, Novato.

April 29: Genocide in Rwanda,
Mathilde Mukantabana, M.S.W., Consumnes River College; President, Friends of Rwanda Association.

May 6: Rethinking the Holocaust,
Dr. Yehuda Bauer, Institute of Contemporary Jewry, Hebrew University. The Cooperage.

May 13: Facing Current Genocides, Jerry Fowler, Staff Director,
Committee on Conscience, United State Holocaust Memorial Museum, Washington, D.C.

May 20: Legacies of the Holocaust: Second Generation Panel,
Elaine Leeder, Dean of Social Sciences, Sonoma State University, Moderator.

May 27: What Have We Learned? Faculty/Student Panel.

For further information, phone Myrna Goodman, Ph.D., Director of Holocaust and Genocide Studies Center, (707) 664-4296.