They were not what one might consider to be typical Holocaust victims.

Soviet Jewish soldiers had experienced Nazism first-hand. They were determined to fight.

Their story of perseverance will be explored through events organized by the University of Michigan’s Jean & Samuel Frankel Center for Judaic Studies. They begin with a symposium from 1:30-5 p.m. Oct. 25: “Resistance in Red: Soviet Jewish Combatants in World War II.”

“They knew what they were fighting for, and they understood the consequences of failure,” says Jeffrey Veidlinger, director of the Frankel Center. The symposium will examine the approximately 500,000 Soviet Jews who fought in the Red Army during the war, of whom only 300,000 survived.

The symposium concludes with 1966 Soviet film “Eastern Corridor,” from 6-8 pm at the U-M Museum of Art Helmut Stern Auditorium. Produced about the Holocaust in the Soviet Union, the Soviet government withdrew it from theaters soon after its release for failing to conform to the Party line on the war.  The exhibit “Lives of the Great Patriotic War: The Untold Story of Jewish Soviet Soldiers in the Red Army During WWII,” is presented Oct. 25-Dec. 15 in the Hatcher Library Gallery.

Parkinson’s disease research symposium presented Thursday

The inaugural Udall Center for Parkinson’s Disease Research Symposium will be presented from 9 a.m.-1 p.m. Thursday in the Kahn Auditorium, Biomedical Science Research Building. It is headlined by Parkinson’s researcher Etienne Hirsch. He is director of the Neuroscience, Cognitive Science, Neurology and Psychiatry Institute at the French Institute of Health and Medical Research in Paris, France. 

Following Hirsch’s keynote address, there will be talks from a variety of Parkinson’s researchers.

For more information, go to udallpd.umich.edu/html/NewsEvents.html.