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Center for Holocaust & Genocide Studies
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Center News
U.S. Court of Appeals rules in favor of the University of Minnesota in case involving the Turkish Coalition of America
The United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit ruled in favor of the University today in a closely watched case involving First Amendment and academic freedom claims. A Plaintiff in the case, Turkish Coalition of America, claimed that statements on a University department website that suggested that the Turkish Coalition's information about the Armenian genocide was "unreliable" violated its free speech rights and were defamatory. A University student also allegedly feared he would be subjected to academic reprisals if he used information from the organization's website in his own work.
The federal district court had previously granted the University's motion to dismiss the claims, based principally upon its finding that the University's website contained statements of faculty scholarly opinion and critique that were protected by the doctrine of academic freedom.
The Court of Appeals today affirmed the District Court's dismissal of the plaintiff's claims. It found the Turkish Coalition free speech claim failed because it could not show it had suffered any restrictions on its speech activities. The Court of Appeals also found that the Turkish Coalition's defamation claims failed because the University faculty's statements were either true or were statements of opinion, which cannot support a defamation claim. The Court of Appeals also found the student had no standing to bring any claims because he could not show he suffered any injury.
The case has been watched closely by scholars around the United States and the world because of its implications for principles of academic freedom. GC Mark Rotenberg stated, "Today's federal court decision confirms the right of universities and their faculty to offer scholarly criticism and critique on websites without fear of legal exposure. This protection is especially important when the scholarly opinions expressed by the faculty are controversial. We are very pleased to have successfully defended this important academic interest."
(Continue Reading)Rosenfeld lecture now available on CHGS YouTube channel
In his public address on Sunday evening April 15, "Is There an Anti-Jewish Bias in Today's University?" Professor Alvin Rosenfeld discussed how many campuses have become hospitable to certain political and ideological currents of thought that issue in actions and statements that can be seen as hostile to many Jewish students and professors.
(Continue Reading)New translation of the testimony of Georges Wellers
From Drancy to Auschwitz by the French Biologist and historian Georges Wellers was first published in France in 1946.
Wellers worked for many years at the Sorbonne, where he held the position of Director of Research Laboratory of Medical Department. In 1941 he was arrested by the Nazis and spent more than three years in concentration camps-first in Drancy near Paris, then in Auschwitz and Buchenwald. Despite all the deprivations during his captivity, Georges lived a long and productive life. He excelled in a prominent scientific career, was awarded the Legion of Honor Rosette as its Officer, was Vice-President of the Association of Nazi-camp survivors of France, and was the only French witness at the Eichmann war crime trial in Israel.
(Continue Reading)The Conceptual Jew: Reflections on Arendt and Adorno's Post-Holocaust Theories of Anti-Semitism
A Lecture by: Jonathan Judaken, Rhodes College
Wednesday, April 25, 2012
Room 710 Social Sciences Building
4:00 p.m.Professor Judaken will reconstruct the very different theoretical paradigms of the interactionist and the socio-psychoanalytic that Hannah Arendt and Theodor Adorno developed to understand anti-Semitism.
(Continue Reading)The 2nd Annual Inna Meiman Human Rights Award Winners Announced
Congratulations to Anna Kaminski recipient of the Inna Meiman Human Rights Award and Tenzin Pelkyi, who was awarded the Sullivan Ballou Award in a ceremony among family, friends and University faculty on Friday, April 20, 2012.
Each award, carrying a $1,000 scholarship, recognizes a University of Minnesota undergraduate student who embodies a commitment to human rights and has worked tirelessly to address human rights abuses.
Read article in Minnesota Daily by clicking here.
(Continue Reading)"How Did You Get Here? Jewish Self Invention and the Culture of Exile"
Alicia Borinsky
April 19, 2012 12:00-1:30
325 Nicholson HallAlicia Borinsky will focus on the Diaspora and its tales of displacement and integration.
(Continue Reading)This Sunday, April 15-"Is There an Anti-Jewish Bias in Today's University?"
Alvin Rosenfeld, Irving M. Glazer Chair in Jewish Studies; Director, Institute for the Study of Contemporary Anti-Semitism (Indiana University)
Sunday, April 15, 2012
7:30p.m.
Cowles Auditorium
The Humphrey School of Public AffairsIn his public address, "Is There an Anti-Jewish Bias in Today's University?" Professor Alvin Rosenfeld will discuss how many of our campuses have become hospitable to certain political and ideological currents of thought that issue in actions and statements hostile to many Jewish students and professors. A review of contemporary debates about two issues of particular concern to Jews--the Holocaust and the State of Israel--suggests that we may be witnessing the emergence of some new versions of the "Jewish Question."
(Continue Reading)CHGS to Host Symposium on the University During the Third Reich
Betrayal of the Humanities: The University During the Third Reich
Symposium
Sunday April 15 & Monday April 16
Mondale Hall, Law SchoolPublic Program: "Is There an Anti-Jewish Bias in Today's University?"
Alvin Rosenfeld,Irving M. Glazer Chair in Jewish Studies; Director, Institute for the Study of Contemporary Anti-Semitism (Indiana University)Sunday, April 15, 2012
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7:30 p.m.
Cowles Auditorium
Humphrey School of Public AffairsThe Young Turks' Crime Against Humanity
Taner Akçam
The Tenth Annual Arsham and Charlotte Ohanessian LectureMonday, April 16, 2012, 7:00p.m.
Maroon & Gold Room, McNamara Alumni Center
200 Oak Street SE, Minneapolis MN 55455This event is free and open to the public. A reception will follow the lecture.
(Continue Reading)The 2nd Annual Inna Meiman Human Rights Award-Nominations Due Friday, April 6
The Human Rights Program and the Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies
are pleased to announce The 2nd Annual Inna Meiman Human Rights Award.Recognizing undergraduate students at the University of Minnesota who have made significant personal contributions in the promotion and protection of human rights.
This award will be given in recognition of the friendship between Inna Meiman, a Soviet era Jewish refusnik who was repeatedly denied a visa to seek medical treatment, and Lisa Paul, a graduate of the University of Minnesota who fought tirelessly on her behalf, including a 25-day hunger strike that galvanized a movement for Inna's freedom. The friendship between Lisa Paul and Inna Meiman is memorialized in the book, Swimming in the Daylight: An American Student, a Soviet-Jewish Dissident, and the Gift of Hope.
The award is intended to recognize a University of Minnesota student who embodies a commitment to human rights. The Awardee will receive a $1,000 scholarship.
Nominations will be accepted through Friday, April 6, 2012 at 5:00 p.m.
(Continue Reading)"Law and Democracy: The Paradoxes of Transitional Justice in Germany, 1945-1950."
Devin Pendas, Associate Professor and director of graduate studies, Boston College
Wednesday, April 4
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4:30p.m.
Room 1210
Heller Hall¡Si Hubo Genocidio!: Exhumations, Truth and Justice after the Guatemalan Genocide
Victoria Sanford, Professor of Anthropology at Lehman College, City College of New York
Monday, April 2
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4:00p.m.
Room 250
Blegen HallPreventing Mass Violence: The Expansion of R2P and the Challenge of Statebuilding
Jon Western, Associate Professor of International Relations at Mount Holyoke College
Thursday, March 29
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3:30 p.m.
1314 Social SciencesGlobal Memory of the Holocaust and the Politics of Never Again
Alejandro Baer, Visiting Chair of Qualitative Methods of Social Research, Ludwig Maximilians-Universität-München
Tuesday, March 27
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4:00 p.m.
1114 Social SciencesNo Generation of Silence: American Jews and the Holocaust in the Post-War Era
Hasia Diner, New York University
Jewish Studies Community Lecture Series
March 21, 2012 7:30 p.m.
Temple Israel
2324 Emerson Ave S, MinneapolisAmerican Jews in the two decades after the end of World War II found many ways to make the tragedy that had engulfed their people in Europe at the hands of the German Nazis a part of their communal culture. The Holocaust loomed large for them. How did postwar American Jews experiment with language and ideas to keep alive the memories of those who had perished in Europe-- and use their memories to effect changes in the world of the late 1940s through the early 1960s?
(Continue Reading)The International Human Rights Movement: A History
Aryeh Neier
February 28, 2012, 7:00 PM
McNamara Alumni Center
Maroon & Gold Room
200 Oak Street SE, Minneapolis (East Bank)Aryeh Neier has spent more than a half-century promoting and protecting the human rights of others. Born in Nazi Germany and a refugee at the age of two, Neier knew about violence from his earliest days. A tireless advocate for improvements in human rights globally, Neier has conducted investigations of human rights abuses in more than forty countries. He has played a leading role in the establishment of the international criminal courts that have heralded a new era of international justice.
(Continue Reading)The Post Holocaust Golem: A Jewish Legend Returns Now on CHGS YouTube Channel
On Wednesday, November 9, 2011, Dr. Elizabeth Baer, Professor of English and Holocaust and Genocide Studies at Gustavus Adolphus College, spoke about how contemporary Jewish-American writers have created golem stories as a re-imagining of text-centered Jewish traditions by appropriating, adapting, revising and riffing on older golem legends. Such appropriation, deploying the imagination to seek a better understanding of human nature, is crucial in light of the Holocaust experience under the Nazis. The presentation included golems from novels, comic books, graphic narratives, and "The X-Files."
Dr. Baer's new book, The Golem Redux: From Prague to Post-Holocaust Fiction from Wayne State University Press, will appear in Spring 2012.
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The lecture can be viewed on the Center's YouTube channel, CHGSumn.All the Missing Souls: A Personal History of the War Crimes Tribunals
David Scheffer
February 8, 2012, 7 PM presentation, followed by a small reception
McNamara Alumni Center, Maroon & Gold Room
200 Oak Street SE, Minneapolis (East Bank)David Scheffer had an insider's seat at the creation of the most important human rights institution of our era, the International Criminal Court. Representing President Clinton as head of the U.S. delegation to negotiations establishing the Court, Scheffer drew on his previous experience spearheading efforts to create war crimes tribunals for the former Yugoslavia, the Balkans, Rwanda, Sierra Leone, and Cambodia.
(Continue Reading)Bruno Chaouat to participate in Talmud Torah of St. Paul's evening of Jewish Learning
Engage: An evening of Jewish Learning
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Is Holocaust Awareness Bad for the Jews?
January 28, 2012
8:35 p.m. - 9:35 p.m.
Talmud Torah of St. PaulCLA Announces Search for New CHGS Director
Dear Friends and Supporters-
I will be stepping down as director of CHGS at the end of this academic year, as planned when I accepted the two-year position in June 2010. I am delighted to announce that the College of Liberal Arts has decided to convene a search for a new permanent director.
Being the director of CHGS has been a very rewarding experience for me. I would like to thank the staff of CHGS for all of their hard work in helping me further the mission of the Center. To our campus and community partners, thank you for all your warm support during my tenure.I am convinced that CHGS will benefit immensely from having a permanent director who can carry forth the vision of founding director Stephen Feinstein. In the meantime, CHGS will continue its work in educating all sectors of society about the Holocaust and other genocides; it is my hope that you will continue to support us and the work we do. Please consult our website for upcoming programming and the latest resources and news.
I look forward to seeing you throughout the rest of the academic school year.
Bruno Chaouat
(Continue Reading)Deborah Lipstadt Lecture now available on CHGS Youtube Channel
Deborah Lipstadt, Dorot Professor of Modern Jewish and Holocaust Studies at Emory University and author of internationally acclaimed books related to the Holocaust spoke on campus on Wednesday night, October 26 about Holocaust Denial: A New Form of Anti-Semitism and her recent critically acclaimed book The Eichmann Trial.
You can view the lecture by clicking here.
An audio interview with Dr. Lipstadt about Holocaust Denial and the 50th anniversary of the Eichmann Trial on Access Minnesota.
(Continue Reading)Dispute between Watenpaugh and Turkish-American group
As reported by Inside Higher Ed, Dr. Keith Watenpaugh, associate professor of religious studies at the University of California at Davis, has angered a Turkish-American group who reacted to an article about the historian's research that was published in the Davis alumni magazine by writing letters to university officials.
Dr. Watenpaugh gave a lecture sponsored by CHGS in April 2011. To watch a video of his talk, click here.
(Continue Reading)Special Film Screening- "As Seen Through These Eyes"
Sunday, December 4, 2:00 pm
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Sabes Jewish Community Center
Directed by Hilary Helstein and narrated by Maya Angelou, As Seen Through These Eyes is a window into the surviving art and artists of the Holocaust. The film offers an incredible look at humanity's survival mechanism, regardless of race or religion. The eyes of the witnesses reveal the profound need to communicate at any cost"The Responsibility to Protect" The Hon. Lloyd Axworthy President of the University of Winnipeg
Tuesday, November 22, 3:30 - 5:00 p.m.
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Room 25, Law School, Mondale Hall, West Bank, University of MinnesotaThe Post Holocaust Golem: A Jewish Legend Returns
Dr. Elizabeth Baer
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Wednesday, November 9
4:00p.m.
Room 710
Social Sciences BuildingWorkshop Explores Childhood Memory as part of the Art Survives: Expressions from the Holocaust Exhibition
Seeing The World Through Art: Creating a Symbol from Your Childhood Memory
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Workshop with David Feinberg
Sunday, October 30, 1-4:00 p.m.
Tychman Shapiro Gallery
Sabes JCCDeborah Lipstadt Lecture Tonight at 7:00p.m. Coffman Theater
The Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies (CHGS) proudly presents the Bernard and Fern Badzin Lecture featuring Deborah Lipstadt, Dorot Professor of Modern Jewish and Holocaust Studies at Emory University and author of internationally acclaimed books related to the Holocaust.
Wednesday, October 26, 2011 at 7:00 p.m. at the Coffman Theater, Coffman Memorial Union, on the East Bank of the University of Minnesota.
Dr. Lipstadt will speak on Holocaust Denial: A New Form of Anti-Semitism and her recent critically acclaimed book The Eichmann Trial.
The event is free and open to the public; however, reservations are required. To reserve your tickets please click here or call the reservation line at 612-626-2587.
For parking and travel info please click here.
The Center for Holocaust and Genocide Education at St. Cloud State University is the initiating sponsor of Deborah Lipstadt's visit to Minnesota.
University of Minnesota Sponsors: Institute for Global Studies, Center for the Study of Political Psychology, Program in Health and Human rights, Center for Jewish Studies, Human Rights Program, Department of German, Scandinavian & Dutch, and the Institute for Advanced Study
Community Sponsors: Jewish Community Relations Council, CHAIM Children of Holocaust Survivors Association in Minnesota, St. Paul JCC, and the Jewish Historical Society of the Upper Midwest
(Continue Reading)Art Survives: Expressions from the Holocaust
October 10-December 22, 2011
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Reception: Sunday, October 16, 7:00 p.m.
Tychman Shapiro Gallery
Sabes JCCConference My Letter to the World: Narrating Human Rights Featuring a Lecture by Philip Gourevitch
Monday, October 10, 2011
Coffman Theater, Coffman Memorial UnionConference 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.
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Esther Freier Lecture by Philip Gourevitch 7:30 p.m.Help CHGS Rebuild Our Website
The Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies is in the process of rebuilding our website. Please take a few minutes to complete this short survey. We value your input, and appreciate your support.
(Continue Reading)Presidential Study Directive on Mass Atrocities
On August 4, President Obama announced two important steps to prevent mass atrocities: the creation of a standing inter-agency Atrocities Prevention Board and a proclamation barring serious human rights violators from entering the United States.
(Continue Reading)Voices From Congo: The Road Ahead
Live webcast on Tuesday, July 26 starting at 9:30 a.m. EST on the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum website.
(Continue Reading)Enemies of the People Available for Download on iTunes
The award-winning documentary about the brutalities of the Khmer Rouge Killing Fields is now available for download on iTunes.
(Continue Reading)Summer Institute on Human Rights
Institute on Human Rights Education and Advocacy
July 18 - July 22, 2011
9:00 AM - 4:00 PM
Twin Cities,West Bank
Cost: $75The Human Rights Program of the University of Minnesota is holding the institute to introduce participants to the theory and practice of international human rights in the world today.
(Continue Reading)"Thoughts on Agamben's Remnants of Auschwitz: A Talk at the University of Minnesota." Now available
"Thoughts on Agamben's Remnants of Auschwitz: A Talk at the University of Minnesota." by Jeffrey Mehlman (Continue Reading)-
Régine Waintrater's "Testimony: Genocide and Transmission" available to view online
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Video of Professor Keith David Watenpaugh's lecture Hate in the Past Tense available online
(Continue Reading) The transcript of Meïr Waintrater's lecture "You, Zionist!" Uses and Misuses of the Z-Word in Current Political Discourse is now available.
On March 29, 2011 Meïr Waintrater, editor-in-chief, L'Arche spoke at the St. Paul JCC about the systematic use of the words "Zionism" and "Zionist" where the words "Israel" and "Israelis" would be expected by various individuals who are hostile to Israel. Waintrater contrasted the use of the word "Zionist" in France, Great Britain and the United States, suggesting that while criticism of Israel should not be reduced to Jew-hatred, the "anti-Zionist" argument is often used to legitimize genuine anti-Semitism.To read the transcript of that lecture please click on the PDF file below.
Uses and Misuses of the ZWord in Current Political Discourse.pdf
Meïr Waintrater was born in 1947 in Paris, and lived and worked as an economist and journalist at various institutions in Israel between 1973 and 1988. As editor-in-chief of L'Arche, he is a major commentator on questions of Jewish importance in Europe and France.
(Continue Reading)Alternative Narratives or Denial?
Godard's Wars
Philip Watts, Associate Professor of French, Department Chair, Columbia UniversityThoughts on Giorgio Agamben's Remnants of Auschwitz: The Witness and the Archive
Jeffrey Mehlman, Professor of French, Department of Romance Studies, College of Arts and Sciences, Boston UniversityWednesday, April 13
4:00 p.m.
Humphrey Forum, Humphrey CenterGodard's Wars
There has been much controversy about French filmmaker Jean-Luc Godard's relation to the Jews and the Holocaust. Godard was recently accused of anti-Semitism. Philip Watts will return to this recent affair by focusing on Godard's filmic representation of WWII, the Middle East conflict and the Holocaust.
How has the Holocaust figured in Godard's films since his earliest days as a filmmaker of the New Wave? What role has the memory of the Holocaust played in Godard's radical politics? What is the relation between the representation of the Holocaust in his films and his anti-Zionism? Do Godard's films somehow distort the memory of the Holocaust? Watts will tackle these questions by revisiting three Godard's films: "A Married Woman" (1964), "Ici et ailleurs" (1975) and "In Praise of Love "(2001) to examine Godard's problematic construction of the memory of the Second World War and of the Holocaust in particular.Philip Watts, Associate Professor of French, Department Chair, Columbia University, received his BA at the University of California, Santa Barbara in 1982 and his PhD from Columbia University in 1991. His research and teaching focuses on 20th-century French literature and film and the relation between politics and aesthetics.
(Continue Reading)"Hate in the Past Tense: Understanding the Origins of Armenian Genocide Denial as a Problem of Contemporary Reconciliation"
Keith David Watenpaugh
Thursday, April 14
4:00 p.m.
Room 710 Social Science Building
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Dr. Watenpaugh will explore how aspects of Armenian Genocide denial first emerged around a discrete historical moment, in particular international humanitarian relief efforts on behalf of Armenian Genocide survivors in the early interwar period. Thinking about denial in this fashion creates a space in which to reflect critically about how history as both a discipline and practice operates in the spheres of power and public opinion, especially across political and cultural divides."You, Zionist!" Uses and Misuses of the Z-Word in Current Political Discourse
Meïr Waintrater, Editor-in-Chief, L'Arche
Tuesday, March 29, 2011
7:00 p.m.
St. Paul JCC
1375 St. Paul Avenue
Saint Paul, MN 55116For several years, within circles hostile to Israel, there has been a systematic use of the words "Zionism" and "Zionist" where the words "Israel" and "Israelis" would be expected. Meïr Waintrater, French journalist and editor-in-chief of the Jewish magazine L'Arche, will contrast the use of the word "Zionist" in France, Great Britain and the United States. Waintrater will suggest that while criticism of Israel should not be reduced to Jew-hatred, the "anti-Zionist" argument is often used to legitimize genuine anti-Semitism.
Meïr Waintrater was born in 1947 in Paris, and lived and worked as an economist and journalist at various institutions in Israel between 1973 and 1988. As editor-in-chief of L'Arche, he is a major commentator on questions of Jewish importance in Europe and France. France is home to one of the largest Jewish communities, while at the same time being home to one of the largest Muslim populations in Western Europe. Waintrater's perspective is crucial to understanding the tensions between the two communities, as well as the recent increase in French Jewish immigration to Israel which can be seen as a consequence of a new trend in anti-Semitism.
Co-sponsors: Jewish Community Relations Council (JCRC), St. Paul JCC,
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University of Minnesota: Center for Jewish Studies, School of Journalism and Mass Communication.Testimony: Genocide and Transmission
The human catastrophes that marked the 20th century have made survivor testimony an unprecedented issue. For genocide survivors and their descendants, testimony is a means to inscribe a history within a genealogy that has been broken by the violent acts of genocide. As an oral or written account, testimony engages, provokes and challenges disciplines in the humanities and the social sciences. How does the process of witnessing develop? What are the expectations that it provokes--and what are its risks? How can bearing witness restore the victims' identity, rather than re-traumatizing them?
Régine Waintrater
Psychoanalyst, Family Therapist, Associate Professor at Université Paris 7-Diderot
Monday, March 28, 2010
5:00p.m.
Humphrey Forum, Humphrey Center
301 19th Ave. S.Régine Waintrater's practice as a therapist is critical of the ideology of testimony as catharsis. Waintrater has been involved in the Fortunoff Video Archive for Holocaust Testimonies at Yale University Library, and in the USC Survivors of the Shoah Visual History Foundation, two important projects of testimony collection. Her experience with these projects will be the point of departure for addressing issues surrounding testimony.
Régine Waintrater is the author of Sortir du genocide (Out of Genocide: Testifying to Learn to Live Again).
Co-sponsors: The Human Rights Center at the University of Minnesota Law School, History Department, Human Rights Program, CHAIM (Children of Holocaust Survivors Association in Minnesota)
(Continue Reading)Calling for Nominations for Inna Meiman Human Rights Award!
The Human Rights Program and the Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies
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are pleased to announce
The Inna Meiman Human Rights Award
Recognizing students at the University of Minnesota who have made significant personal contributions in the promotion and protection of human rights
This award will be given in recognition of the friendship between Inna Meiman, a Soviet era Jewish refusnik who was repeatedly denied a visa to seek medical treatment, and Lisa Paul, a graduate of the University of Minnesota who fought tirelessly on her behalf, including a 25-day hunger strike that galvanized a movement for Inna's freedom. The friendship between Lisa Paul and Inna Meiman is memorialized in the book, Swimming in the Daylight: An American Student, a Soviet-Jewish Dissident, and the Gift of Hope.The award is intended to recognize a University of Minnesota student who embodies a commitment to human rights. The Awardee will receive a $1000 scholarship.
Nominations will be accepted through Friday, March 4, 2011 at 5:00 p.m.A Film Unfinished
Thursday, March 3, 2011
7:00pm
St. Anthony Main Theater 115 Main St SE
Minneapolis
Tickets:
$6.00 student/senior
$8.50 general admissionPost-show discussion moderated by Bruno Chaouat, Director CHGS
In 1942, the Nazi propaganda machine was hard at work. 70 years later, the deceit is finally unmasked.
At the end of WWII, 60 minutes of raw film, having sat undisturbed in an East German archive, was discovered. Shot by the Nazis in Warsaw in May 1942, and labeled simply "Ghetto," this footage quickly became a resource for historians seeking an authentic record of the Warsaw Ghetto. However, the later discovery of a long-missing reel, inclusive of multiple takes and cameraman staging scenes, complicated earlier readings of the footage.
"A Fim Unfinished" is one of the most uncanny documentary movies about Nazi nihilism, said Bruno Chaouat, director for the center. "It confronts the viewer with the abyss of cynicism into which totalitarianism had immersed Europe. One of the most critical reflection on the visual archive, "A Film Unfinished" is as close as it gets to visual thought."
A Film Unfinished, presents the raw footage in its entirety, carefully noting fictionalized sequences (including a staged dinner party) falsely showing "the good life" enjoyed by Jewish urbanites, and probes deep into the making of a now-infamous Nazi propaganda film.
Sponsored by: The Film Society of Minneapolis/St. Paul and the Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies
(Continue Reading)CHGS "Alternative Narratives or Denial?" Reading Discussion Group
In conjunction with the spring lecture "Alternative Narratives or Denial," taking place on campus April 13 and 14, CHGS will facilitate a reading discussion group focusing on seminal works on the topic of Holocaust and genocide denial.
On February 15th, 2011, we will discuss Empathy to Denial: Arab Responses to the Holocaust by Esther Webman and Meir Litvak.
Feel free to join us even if you were unable to attend the first meeting of the group.
Reservations required: Please email chgs@umn.edu or phone 612-624-0256.
For more on the discussion visit the CHGS Reading Discussion Group blog.
(Continue Reading)NUREMBERG: Its Lesson for Today
Saturday, February 5
7:00 p.m. at the Lagoon Cinema
1320 Lagoon Avenue, Minneapolis, MN 55408
NUREMBERG: Its Lesson for Today (The Schulberg/Waletzky Restoration) features one of the greatest courtroom dramas in history. NUREMBERG shows how the international prosecutors built their case against the top Nazi war criminals using the Nazis' own films and records.
Following the documentary screening, a panel discussion will take place featuring Sandra Schulberg, Restoration Producer of the Documentary; Steve Hunegs, JCRC Executive Director; and Bruno Chaouat, Director of the Center for Holocaust & Genocide Studies, University of Minnesota.
The Nuremberg trial established the "Nuremberg principles" -- the foundation for all subsequent trials for war crimes and crimes against humanity. Though shown in Germany as part of the Allies' de-Nazification campaign, U.S. officials decided not to release NUREMBERG in America for political reasons, nor was it shown in any other country.
(Continue Reading)Letter of Support in Response to "Unreliable Websites" from the Middle East Studies Association (MESA)
On November 30, 2010 The Turkish Coalition of America filed a lawsuit against the U of M, its President, and the director of CHGS Bruno Chaouat. The University of Minnesota filed a dismissal of the suit on December 17, 2010 and a hearing is scheduled for February 4, 2011. Below is a letter of support received from the Middle East Studies Association (MESA) in support of CHGS and the University.
The Middle East Studies Association (MESA) is a private, non-profit, non-political learned society that brings together scholars, educators and those interested in the study of the region from all over the world. From its inception in 1966 with 50 founding members, MESA has increased its membership to more than 3,000 and now serves as an umbrella organization for more than sixty institutional members and thirty-nine affiliated organizations.
The Middle East Studies Association (MESA) fosters the study of the Middle East, promotes high standards of scholarship and teaching, and encourages public understanding of the region and its peoples through programs, publications and services that enhance education, further intellectual exchange, recognize professional distinction, and defend academic freedom.
January 18, 2011
G. Lincoln McCurdy
President, Turkish Coalition of America
1025 Connecticut Avenue, NW Suite 1000
Washington, DC 20036Dear Mr. McCurdy:
I write to you on behalf of the Middle East Studies Association of North America (MESA) and its Committee on Academic Freedom to express our grave concern about your decision to file a lawsuit in November 2010 against the University of Minnesota and its Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies. According to press reports, your lawsuit was prompted by the Center's listing of your organization's website as an "unreliable" source with respect to the history of Armenians in the final years of the Ottoman Empire.
MESA was founded in 1966 to promote scholarship and teaching on the Middle East and North Africa. The preeminent organization in the field, the Association publishes the International Journal of Middle East Studies and has nearly 3000 members worldwide. MESA is committed to ensuring academic freedom and freedom of expression, both within the region and in connection with the study of the region in North America and elsewhere.
Until recently, as part of its educational mission, the website of the University of Minnesota's Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies apparently included a section listing websites and web-based resources that scholars associated with the Center deemed to be "unreliable." Presumably, those scholars felt that assertions made on these websites and in these resources were not in keeping with accepted scholarly standards or the consensus among scholars and should therefore be treated with skepticism.
We believe that the principles of academic freedom protect the right of the Center, and of scholars associated with it, to share their assessment of various perspectives with the public in this way. In any event, that section of the website was removed several days before your organization filed suit.
Your organization, and those who hold perspectives different from those expressed by scholars associated with the Center, certainly have the right to participate in open scholarly exchange on the history of the Armenians in the late Ottoman Empire or any other issue, by presenting their views at academic conferences, in the pages of peer-reviewed scholarly journals or by other means, thereby opening them up to debate and challenge. We are distressed that you instead chose to take legal action against the University of Minnesota and its Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies, apparently for having at one point characterized views expressed on your website in a certain way.
We fear that legal action of this kind may have a chilling effect on the ability of scholars and academic institutions to carry out their work freely and to have their work assessed on its merits, in conformity with standards and procedures long established in the world of scholarship. Your lawsuit may thus serve to stifle the free expression of ideas among scholars and academic institutions regarding the history of Armenians in the later Ottoman Empire, and thereby undermine the principles of academic freedom.
We do not believe that disagreements about historical issues should be addressed by lawsuits. We therefore call on you to reconsider and withdraw the legal action you have initiated against the University of Minnesota and its Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies, and we urge you to instead devote your organization's energies to fostering scholarly debate and exchange on this as on all other issues, in a manner that conforms to the standards and procedures adhered to by scholars and academic institutions and that respects their academic freedom.
Sincerely,
Suad Joseph
MESA President
Professor of Anthropology & Women's Studies, University of California, Daviscc: Bruno Chaouat, Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies, University of Minnesota
Original letter in (PDF)
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Bruno Chaouat Response to "Unreliable Websites" November 30, 2010
For news and links about the lawsuitPalin's 'Blood Libel' Video Fans Flames
CHGS director Bruno Chaouat interviewed on Palin's use of the term "blood libel" on
Fox 9 News.
Updated: Wednesday, 12 Jan 2011, 9:46 PM CST
Published : Wednesday, 12 Jan 2011, 9:45 PM CST
by Maury Glover / FOX 9 NewsMINNEAPOLIS - Since the Tucson shooting, pundits and politicians have been pointing fingers at everything from lax guns laws to political rhetoric . But the national war of words escalated Wednesday when Sarah Palin entered the fray with the term "blood libel."
The term blood libel isn't common in the United States - it was used mostly in Eastern Europe as a way of blaming Jews for the death of Jesus Christ. And Sarah Palin calling herself the victim of blood libel has upset some Jewish leaders.
In a nearly 8-minute video on her Facebook page, Palin said she is being persecuted by political commentators and the media in the wake of the Tucson shooting .
"Journalists and pundits should not manufacture a blood libel that severs only to incite the very violence it claims to condemn," Palin said.Bruno Chouat, director of the Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies at the University of Minnesota, says the term blood libel refers to the false belief that Jews use the blood of Christian children for religious rituals, and has been used as an excuse for anti-Semitism since the Middle Ages.
(Continue Reading)"Alternative Narratives or Denial?"
The 'Jew' of cinema
Haaretz
December 17, 2010
By Ariel SchweitzerThe recent announcement that filmmaker Jean-Luc Godard's is to receive an honorary Oscar has ignited the controversy over his allegedly anti-Semitic and anti-American views, and his unwillingness to see the Jews in any position but that of the victim.
Professor Philip Watts from Columbia University will speak in April about Godard, WWII, the Jews and the Holocaust at CHGS's lecture series, "Alternative Narratives or Denial?" Professor Watts will examine portions of Godard's work and discuss how his history may have shaped and informed his cinematographic choices which have led to the anti-Semitic charges. More information about the lecture series coming in January.
(Continue Reading)Response to "Unreliable Websites"
This statement is in response to articles published in the Pioneer Press on 11-19-2010 and in the Minnesota Daily on 11-23-10 regarding the removal of "unreliable websites" from the website of the Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies (CHGS) at the University of Minnesota.
I assumed directorship of CHGS in July 2010. Since then, I have focused on promoting the Center's mission of research, education and outreach. I have been speaking with the community and with colleagues on campus to communicate the new initiatives and intellectual orientation of the Center.
My staff and I have invested much effort in trying to update the Center's website. Part of this updating process bears on the educational section, and its listing of websites that CHGS perceives as unreliable sources of information for students and researchers. I decided to remove the section providing links to "unreliable websites." My rationale was quite simple: never promote, even negatively, sources of illegitimate information.During almost twenty years working in higher education, I have never put a dubious source on a syllabus for my students, not even for the purpose of delegitimizing the source. The decision to remove the links to "unreliable websites" was made before the Turkish Coalition of America began its efforts to intimidate CHGS into removing the links. The links were replaced with legitimate information devoted to the history, ideology and psychology of Holocaust and genocide denial.
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On behalf of the CHGS, I want to reiterate that in accordance with the vast majority of serious and rigorous historians, the CHGS considers the massacre of the Armenians during World War I as a case of genocide. To insinuate, as the articles published in the newspapers mentioned above, that the mission of CHGS is somehow influenced and biased by donors' money is incorrect.
Genocide and Holocaust denial is an important issue for CHGS. When I took over the direction of the Center, I put together a lecture series on this very question. This series will begin in 2011 and will continue in the academic year of 2011-12. I invite all persons interested in the issue of genocide and Holocaust denial to attend the lectures and participate in our discussions.
Bruno Chaouat
DirectorFollowing the Story
Does Academic Freedom Protect Holocaust Deniers?
Replies from Cary Nelson and Naomi Schaefer Riley
The Chronicle of Higher EducationPlease see the full article at The Chronicle for Higher Education for the complete article and other comments.
Cary Nelson Replies
It is not actually tenure that may shield Kaukab Siddique from sanctions for his public statements about the Holocaust; it is academic freedom, a value that survives only if it protects remarks we despise as well as those we endorse. If Siddique were to be punished, he would no doubt immediately claim that his academic freedom had been violated. That would trigger due process and a hearing before a committee of his peers, whether he was a tenured faculty member, a first-year assistant professor, or an adjunct faculty member teaching a single course.
(Continue Reading)Does Academic Freedom Protect Holocaust Deniers?
This continues the coverage over the debate of Holocaust Denial in an academic setting in the case of Kaukab Siddique, who teaches literature and mass communications at Lincoln University, in Pennsylvania.
Reprinted from the The Chronicle of Higher Education
November 7, 2010
Does Academic Freedom Protect Holocaust Deniers?
Two views on the questionMichael Morgenstern for The Chronicle
Response by Cary Nelson
Response by Naomi Schaefer RileyIt Depends on the Context
By Cary NelsonImagine the following classroom conversations:
Student in a world-literature class: "I'd like to write my final paper on Holocaust poetry. I'm trying to decide whether Yevgeny Yevtushenko's 'Babi Yar,' Paul Celan's 'Todesfuge,' or Jorie Graham's 'Annunciation With a Bullet in It' is the best poem."
Faculty member's answer: "You cannot take up that question unless you recognize that the poems are all flawed fantasies. None are based on fact. The Holocaust never happened."
Student in a political-science or philosophy class: "Which man-made disaster is worse: Bhopal or the Holocaust?"
Faculty member's answer: "There's no excuse for Bhopal. It didn't have to happen. But the Holocaust didn't actually happen at all. Give me a better comparison."
I could generate numerous similar scenarios. A student in a medieval-history course, for example, might contrast a natural catastrophe, the Black Death, with the Holocaust. A student in an art-history class might write about Holocaust painting or sculpture; a student in a music-history course study the role of music in the concentration camps; a student in an ethics class consider the burden the Holocaust has placed on future generations. Nothing in those syllabi might suggest beforehand that the Holocaust will arise, but it can--and does.
(Continue Reading)Holocaust-era mass grave discovered
Find out how this is possible- Come to the final screening of Einsatzgruppen: The Death Brigades. Sunday, November 7, 6:30 p.m. St. Anthony Main Theater. For ticket info Minnesota Film Arts.
(UKPA) - 6 hours ago
A Holocaust-era mass grave containing the bodies of an estimated 100 Jews killed by Romanian troops has been discovered in a forest, researchers have said, offering further evidence of the country's involvement in wartime crimes.The discovery, in a forest near the Romanian town of Popricani, contained the bodies of men, women and children who were shot dead in 1941, the Elie Wiesel National Institute for the Study of the Holocaust in Romania said in a statement on Friday.
(Continue Reading)Einsatzgruppen: The Death Brigades to be shown in its Entirety
Sunday, November 7- Michael Prazan's documentary, Einsatzgruppen: The Death Brigades will be shown in its entirety with a brief intermission. After the screening please join us for a question and answer session with the filmmaker and gain further insights into the making of this important film.St. Anthony Main Theater
115 Main St SE
Minneapolis
Tickets: $6.00 students /senior $8.50 general admissionTo purchase advanced tickets please visit the Minnesota Film Arts site.
(Continue Reading)What Turns "Ordinary" Citizens into Mass Murderers?
This question is often asked when studying the Holocaust and other genocides. This week French filmmaker Michael Prazan will touch on this question with his groundbreaking documentary Einsatzgruppen: The Death Brigades, being shown exclusively in the Twin Cities on Thursday, November 4 and Sunday November 7 at the St. Anthony Main Theater. Prazan and the film are being sponsored by the University of Minnesota's Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies (CHGS) with Minnesota Film Arts.
"Einsatzgruppen: The Death Brigades is an essential film for those eager to understand the mechanics of evil and prevent its recurrence," said, Bruno Chaouat, director for CHGS.
"I think we all have a concept of what we individually believe evil to look like, but as we have found it isn't quite as clear cut as it would seem. Hannah Arendt in her controversial report Eichmann in Jerusalem identified the men who perpetrated the crimes representing what she called the banality of evil. Christopher Browning, in his landmark work Ordinary Men took Arendt's argument one step further focusing on the many so called "normal" Germans who turned into mass murders. Prazan's film, blending Claude Lanzmann's (the director of the acclaimed Holocaust documentary Shoah) method of interviewing witnesses, survivors and perpetrators with archive footage, adds his own, original voice to this descent into the night of human soul."
(Continue Reading)Jean-Luc Godard, anti-Semite?
Bruno Chaouat, director
It was recently announced by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences that Jean-Luc Godard, the Swiss-French filmmaker, will receive an honorary Oscar at this year's ceremony (see article from Jewish Journal posted by CHGS on October 16th, 2010). With this announcement came articles, blog posts and op-eds referring to the filmmaker's real or alleged anti-Semitism.
It is important for the world of scholarship to connect with current events, and we post these articles in order to examine these events with a sense of nuance and depth that the complexity of culture and history requires. While journalism often makes the complexity of the world accessible at the cost of simplifying it, the mission of an academic center such as ours is to approach this complexity with rigor, scientific and intellectual integrity and without sensationalizing.
It is particularly timely that Professor Philip Watts from Columbia University will speak in April about Godard, WWII, the Jews and the Holocaust at CHGS's lecture series, "Alternative Narratives or Denial?" Professor Watts will examine portions of Godard's work and discuss how his history may have shaped and informed his cinematographic choices which have led to the anti-Semitic charges.
We look forward to this exchange, and will continue to look at current events and provide a platform to lead us into deeper inquiry beyond the headlines.
(Continue Reading)The Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies at the University of Minnesota presents the groundbreaking documentary Einsatzgruppen: The Death Brigades
Thursday, November 4 at 7:00p.m.
Sunday, November 7 at 6:30p.m.Followed by a question and answer session with filmmaker Michael Prazan
Moderated by Rembert Hueser
Department of German, Scandinavian & Dutch Studies
and Moving Image StudiesSt. Anthony Main Theater
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115 Main St SE
Minneapolis
Tickets: $6.00 students /senior $8.50 general admissionCHGS to hold Open House October 26
The Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies invites you to an Open House
Tuesday, October 26, 2010 4:00pm-7:00pm Room 760 Social Science Building, 267 19th Ave. S. University of Minnesota.Join us for a tour of our new offices and resource library, learn about upcoming programs, and meet new director Bruno Chaouat and the CHGS staff.
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Wine and light refreshments will be served. We look forward to meeting you.
To RSVP or for more information please contact us at 612-624-0256 or e-mail chgs@umn.edu
Parking is available in the 19th Ave. Ramp (300 19th Ave. S.) and the 21st Ave. Ramp (400 21st Ave. S.)
U of M's College of Liberal Arts Names Bruno Chaouat Director of Holocaust and Genocide Center
French professor envisions increased programming around cultural, historical and philosophical issues regarding the Holocaust and genocide
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The University of Minnesota College of Liberal Arts has named Bruno Chaouat as the new director of the Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies. Chaouat (ôshow-AHTö), an associate professor in French, has been at the University of Minnesota since 2002. His academic research addresses, among other topics, post-Holocaust art and literature. He has written essays in French and in English on the current debates about the representation of the Holocaust in visual arts. His work also examines the ideological, political and philosophical challenges faced by Jews in France. He focuses on the polemics of the new anti-Semitism in relation to the current Middle East conflict.Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies Names Jodi Elowitz as Outreach Coordinator
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Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies has named Jodi Elowitz as their new outreach coordinator. Ms. Elowitz has more than 10 years of experience in the field of Holocaust and diversity education in Minnesota and Tennessee. Elowitz began her career at the Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies in 1997 as an intern and graduate student under the tutelage of former director Dr. Stephen Feinstein."It's a Woman's World" airs
Dr. Ellen Kennedy and Sabina Zimering, Holocaust survivor, appear in the episode "It's a Woman's World". The episode is scheduled to air on February 8th at 9:30 am and 4:30 pm on Metro Cable Network, Channel 6. It will also air on SPNN Channel 15 on February 5th and 12th at 6:30 pm.
(Continue Reading)The Ritchie Boys
Thank you for all that attended our Ritchie Boys event on November 12th at the MN History Center.
To listen to the MPR interview with Dr. Guy Stern and Walter Schwarz click here.
The Film "The Ritchie Boys" can be purchased here from Amazon.com or here from Barnes and Noble.
Dr. Guy Stern referenced additional information that we would be posting to our website. This information can be found here.
You can see photos from the Nov. 12th event and Dr. Stern's visit here.
(Continue Reading)Dr. Ellen Kennedy received the "Outstanding Citizen" award from the Anne Frank foundation
(Continue Reading)CHGS in the News
(Continue Reading)Visual History Archive Subscription
The University of Minnesota Libraries have become subscribers to the Visual History Archive developed by the USC Shoah Foundation institute for Visual History and Education.
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