EVENT NEWS: An Interfaith Service of Remembrance for Kristallnacht, Nov. 11

 The Rodgers Center for Holocaust Education presents...

 

An Interfaith Service of Remembrance for Kristallnacht 

November 11, 2011 at 7:00 p.m.

Wallace All Faiths Chapel at the Fish Interfaith Center

 The guest speaker will be, Engelina Billauer, survivor of the Holocaust and witness to Kristallnacht.

 This event is free and open to the public. For more information, please contact Ashley Bloomfield at (714) 532-7760 or E-mail her at ambloom@chapman.edu.

EVENT NEWS: One Survivor Remembers, Nov. 8

Loss, Liberation, and Love: One Survivor Remembers with Gerda Weissman Klein, Tuesday, November 8

      The Rodgers Center for Holocaust Education presents a screening of the Academy Award-winning documentary One Survivor Remembers followed by a talk with Gerda Weismann Klein, recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom and Holocaust Survivor. This is part of the Joyce and Saul Brandman Distinguished Lecture Series. Books will be available for purchase.

 

ADMISSION: Free
TIME: 7 p.m.
LOCATION: Chapman Auditorium, Memorial Hall

This event is free and open to the public. For more information, please contact Ashley Bloomfield at (714) 532-7760 or E-mail her at ambloom@chapman.edu.

EVENT NEWS: A Journey of Discovery w/ Rabbi Aiello, Oct. 18

The Rodgers Center for Holocaust Education presents The Secret Jews of Italy: A Journey of Discovery, a lecture by Rabbi Barbara Aiello as part of the Jerry and Sally Schwartz Holocaust Lecture Series, Tuesday, October 18, 7 p.m. in the Wallace All Faiths Chapel, Fish Interfaith Center. 

This event is free and open to the public. For more information, please contact Ashley Bloomfield at (714) 532-7760 or E-mail her at ambloom@chapman.edu.

EVENT NEWS: Antisemitism and Homophobia in Nazi Germany: Commonalities and Differences, Oct. 11

The Rodgers Center for Holocaust Education presents Antisemitism and Homophobia in Nazi Germany: Commonalities and Differences, a lecture by Peter Hayes, Ph.D. Professor of History, Tuesday, October 11, 7 p.m. in the Wallace All Faiths Chapel, Fish Interfaith Center. 

Dr. Hayes is the co-Editor of "The Oxford Handbook of Holocaust Studies"

At Nazism's very core was its hierarchy of human beings. At the top of the racial ladder, the only people deemed fully human, were the "Aryans." On the bottom rung were the Jews, portrayed as less than human and fit only for extermination, either through forced labor or in the death camps of Poland. "Aryan" homosexuals threatened the Nazi dream of a racial utopia. By failing to father children, these males impeded the Nazi plan to one day rule the world. As a result, they were labeled enemies of the Fatherland, subjected to brutal persecution, and sent to concentration or slave labor camps. The Nazis believed that lesbians could be physically compelled to bear children.

In this lecture, on National Coming Out Day, distinguished historian Peter Hayes examines antisemitism and homophobia as central components of Nazi racism and explores their commonalities and differences. Peter Hayes is the author or editor of ten books, including "The Oxford Handbook of Holocaust Studies" (2010) and a prize-winning study of the IG Farben corporation in the Nazi era. He is currently at work on two books, "Profits and Persecution: German Big Business and the Holocaust" and "The Failure of a Generation: German Elites and National Socialism." Professor Hayes is the recipient of Northwestern University's highest honor for outstanding teaching, the Charles Deering McCormick Professorship of Teaching Excellence. He holds a Ph.D. in history from Yale University.

This event is free and open to the public. For more information, please contact Ashley Bloomfield at (714) 532-7760 or E-mail her at ambloom@chapman.edu.

EVENT NEWS: Corporate Complicity in the Holocaust: German Business and Nazi Crimes, Oct. 10

The Rodgers Center for Holocaust Education presents Corporate Complicity in the Holocaust: German Business and Nazi Crimes, a lecture by Peter Hayes, Ph.D. Professor of History, Monday, October 10, 7 p.m. in the Wallace All Faiths Chapel, Fish Interfaith Center. 

Dr. Hayes is the author of "From Complicity to Compliance: Degussa in the Third Reich" 

In his monograph "From Cooperation to Complicity: Degussa in the Third Reich," he examines a corporation that played a vital role in Nazi industry and was complicit in Nazi crimes, from processing precious metals stolen from Jews, to utilizing slave labor, to furthering genocide through the manufacture and distribution of Zyklon B. As in his earlier, prize-winning study of IG Farben, Hayes turns the sharp lens of historical scholarship on the ways that business furthered the aims of the Third Reich and perpetuated its power. His study raises provocative questions about the guilt of those whose defense after the war was that they had thought Nazism to be "about pageantry, pride, and prosperity, not conquest, oppression, plunder…and ethnic cleansing." (p. 320) Copies of "From Cooperation to Complicity: Degussa in the Third Reich" and "Industry and Ideology: IG Farben in the Nazi Era" will be for sale before and after the event. Book signing follows lecture.

This event is free and open to the public. For more information, please contact Ashley Bloomfield at (714) 532-7760 or E-mail her at ambloom@chapman.edu.

EVENT NEWS: Screening of Paragraph 175, Oct. 4

The Rodgers Center for Holocaust Education presents the screening of "Paragraph 175", a documentary about the Nazi persecution of homosexuals on Tuesday, October 4, 6:30 p.m. in the Sandhu Conference Center. 

Between 1933 and 1945, according to Nazi documents, approximately 100,000 men were arrested for homosexuality. Roughly half were sentenced to prison and approximately 10,000 to 15,000 were incarcerated in concentration camps. The death rate of homosexual prisoners in the camps is estimated to be as high as sixty percent (amongst the highest of non-Jewish prisoners), so that by 1945 only about 4,000 survived. This film is an investigation into the fate of homosexual men who experienced persecution under the Nazis. These are complex individuals- often bitter, but just as often filled with irony and humor; haunted by their memories, but determined to survive. Their collective story fills a crucial gap in the historical record and is a testament to human resilience in the face of unconscionable cruelty.  

This event is free and open to the public. For more information, please contact Ashley Bloomfield at (714) 532-7760 or E-mail her at ambloom@chapman.edu.

FACULTY NEWS: Dr. Marilyn Harran featured in Old Towne Orange Plaza Review, July/August 2011

Chapman's Stern Chair in Holocaust Education and founding Director of the University's Rodgers Center for Holocaust Education was recently featured in the Old Towne Orange Plaza Review.

The article, "Building Character at Chapman University" discusses Dr. Harran's involvement with Holocaust Education and what sparked her interest early on in her career.

Article can be read here on page 14 and continues to page 22.

‘Wicked’ cool moment highlights Rodgers Center study trip to D.C.

The Chapman delegation enjoying a special tour of The Kennedy Center were (l-r) Dana Hollander, Sonali Toppur, Katy Brannigan, Napoleon Gladney ‘08, Dr. Marilyn Harran, Natalie Larson, Victoria Moyzis and Courtney Widerman.

The annual study trip to Washington, D.C., presented to prize winners in Chapman University’s Rodgers Center Holocaust Art and Writing Contest, is always full of special tours, meetings with dignitaries and unique experiences.

But this year’s group enjoyed a particularly special “Chapman moment” on the last night of the capitol tour when a trip to see a musical ended with a backstage tour and meeting with the two leads in the show, arranged by an alumnus who is a member of the cast.

Read more in Happenings ...

EVENT NEWS: An Evening of Holocaust Remembrance, Apr. 28

"An Evening of Holocaust Remembrance" Metaphors of Memory: A Witness Through the Arts Sponsored by The Lodzer Organization of California A Program of Dance, Music, and Documentary Film Presented by Chapman University Holocaust History Minors, Class of 2011 on Thursday, April 28 at 7 p.m. in Chapman Auditorium, Memorial Hall.

Lighting of Candles of Remembrance Musical Tribute Cantor Chayim Frenkel Kehillat Israel Reconstructionist Congregation of Pacific Palisades Accompanied by David Kamenir Words of Reflection Rabbi Heidi Cohen Temple Beth Sholom, Santa Ana Reverend Nancy Brink Director, Office of Church Relations, Chapman University

Admission free.

For information, please contact the Rodgers Center for Holocaust Education, Wilkinson College of Humanities and Social Sciences (714) 628-7377 or www.chapman.edu/holocausteducation/.

 

EVENT NEWS: From Holocaust to World Trade Center, how best to remember?

The complex art of creating memorials and meaningful commemorations will be the topic of The “1939” Club Lecture Series on Sept. 21, when renowned Holocaust scholar and author James E. Young, Ph.D., presents “Stages of Memory: Challenges of Memorialization from the Holocaust to the World Trade Center.” The lecture will begin at 7 p.m. in Memorial Hall’s Chapman Auditorium. Admission is free and open to the public. Read More!