Holocaust survivor Solomon Perel will give the keynote speech for B’nai B’rith Hillel Foundation’s 14th Annual Conference on the Holocaust at 8 p.m. March 18 at Hillel, 1429 Hill St.
Perel, the man upon which Europa, Europa is based, will give the Michael M. Bernstein Memorial Lecture. A short commemorative service in memory of those who perished and in honor of survivors will precede the lecture.
The conference opens 12:30 p.m. March 15 with a 24-hour vigil on the Diag. Members of the Jewish community will take turns reading the names of those who died in the Holocaust.
Recent visitors to Poland will discuss what the concentration camps look like today in a program at 8 p.m. March 15 in the Kuenzel Room, Michigan Union, and at the following residence halls: Mosher-Jordan, Mary Markley, Alice Lloyd, East Quadrangle, West Quadrangle and Bursley.
All other conference programs will be held in Hillel.
Holocaust survivors will tell their stories at 7:30 p.m. March 16.
Europa, Europa will be shown at 7 p.m. and 9:30 p.m. March 17. This Golden Globe Award-winning film depicts how Perel, as a young boy, escapes from a Polish ghetto, lives in a Communist orphanage, hides out in an elite school for Hitler youth and fights on the battlefield. Admission is $3.
Martin Pernick, professor of history, will discuss “Medicine and the Construction of Genocide” at noon March 19.
A Havdalah service will be held at 7:45 p.m. March 20 to welcome the beginning of a new week.
A traveling Jewish theatre from California will perform Crossing the Broken Bridge at 7:30 p.m. March 21. Through songs, poetry, stories and movement, the performance examines the forces that divide the human community. Admission is $5 for students, $10 for others.
“Lodz: Survival and Destruction of the First Ghetto,” a display of maps, narratives and photographs about life in the Lodz ghetto, will be on display March 15–21 at Hillel.
