Holocaust conference focuses on intergenerational communication

The 15th Annual Conference on the Holocaust, March 12–19, will address modes of communicating the experience and memory of the Holocaust intergenerationally.

Planned by students, faculty, members of the Ann Arbor community and Hillel Foundation, the conference will include a 24-hour vigil on the Diag; lectures, discussions and films; and the dedication of the Holocaust Memorial.

The conference begins with the play Remnants at 8:15 p.m. March 12 in the Irwin Green Auditorium, Hillel. The play features six monologues written by psychologist Hank Greenspan and based on conversations with Holocaust survivors. The play won first prize in the 1993 Michigan Public Broadcasting Focus Awards.

Other events:

March 14

  • 1 p.m., discussion “Denying the Holocaust” with Deborah E. Lipstadt, the Dorot Professor of Modern Jewish and Holocaust Studies, Emory Univer-sity, East Conference Room, Rackham Building.

  • 3:30 p.m., film Shoah, part I, Michigan Theater. Sponsored by the Program in Film and Video Studies in conjunction with LS&A’s theme semester on the Theory and Practice of Evil.

  • 8:15 p.m., lecture “Denying the Holocaust: The Growing Assault on Truth and Memory,” Irwin Green Auditorium, Hillel. Lipstadt will discuss the impact of Holocaust denial on college campuses, particularly at the U-M.

    March 15

  • 11 a.m., 24-hour vigil on the Diag begins. Names of those who perished during the Holocaust will be read continuously.

  • Noon, discussion “Jewish Thought After the Holocaust” with Elliot K. Ginsburg, associate professor of Jewish thought, Room 3050, Frieze Building.

  • 8 p.m., “An Evening with Survivors,” Irwin Green Auditorium, Hillel. Sidney M. Bolkosky, professor of history at U-M-Dearborn, will lead a discussion about the contemporary popularity of the National Museum and Schindler’s List. Survivors who appear in the documentary shown at the end of the permanent exhibit of the U.S. National Holocaust Museum will reflect on their lives since the Holocaust.

    March 16

  • Noon, discussion “The Politics of Collaboration and Memorialization: The Shoah in the Former Soviet Union and Its Contemporary Consequences” with Zvi Gitelman, the Preston R. Tisch Professor of Judaic Studies and professor of political science, East Conference Room, Rackham Bldg.

  • 8 p.m., “The Generations After,” upstairs lecture hall, Hillel. Holocaust survivors, their children and grandchildren will address the generational challenges involved in confronting the aftershocks of a war that affected family relationships and community identification.

    March 17

  • Noon, discussion “Breaking Silence: Israel’s New Fiction of the Holocaust” with Gilead Morhag, professor of Hebrew at the University of Wisconsin, Room 3050, Frieze Building.

  • 4 p.m., discussion “Anti-Semitism and Dialogue in Continental Europe After the Holocaust” with Gabriele Bocaccini, researcher at the University of Turin, Room 3050, Frieze Building.

  • 7:30 p.m., film Partisans of Vilna, Room 1210, Willard Henry Dow Laboratory. This documentary film explores Jewish resistance during World War II. Sponsored by the Center for Judaic Studies in conjunction with the conference.

    March 18

  • Noon, discussion “Beginnings, Endings and Women’s Hair: The Making of the Holocaust Museum’s Permanent Exhibition” with Edward Linenthal, professor of religion and American culture at the University of Wisconsin, East Conference Room, Rackham Building.

  • 8:45 p.m., Shabbat potluck “The Boundaries of Memory: Reflection on the Creation of the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum” featuring Edward Linenthal, Lawyers’ Club, Law Quad. Sponsored by the Program in American Culture in conjunction with the conference.

    March 19

  • 8:15 p.m., Havdalah service in the Hillel Lounge, symbolizing the transition from remembering to teaching, from mourning to forging ahead.

    In conjunction with the conference an exhibition titled “Sites of Memory” will be on display March 12–19 at Hillel. The exhibition consists of 15 photographs by Ira Nowinski depicting the “ghetto and concentration camps where people were denied hope, freedom, dignity, and futures and life,” on loan from the Spertus Museum, Spertus Institute of Jewish Studies in Chicago.

  • Tags:

    Leave a comment

    Commenting is closed for this article. Please read our comment guidelines for more information.