Jan 31, 2023 Reflecting on Germany’s War Against the Jews from an American Perspective
Photo Credit: Jews from Subcarpathian Rus who have been selected for forced labor at Auschwitz-Birkenau, are marched to another section of the camp. United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Archive #77306. Courtesy of Yad Vashem. Copyright: Public Domain.
On Holocaust Memorial Day we remember Germany’s war against the Jews. Here a modern, industrialized state transcended its national borders to commit the mass murder of innocent people. In the end, two-thirds of Europe’s Jews and one-third of the world’s Jewish population were slaughtered. Although thousands of miles away, Americans proved less than innocent bystanders to these events.
This discussion will explore the beliefs and values of the perpetrators of genocide, to realize the roles of leaders and opinion makers in shaping the perceptions of those who followed. Yet, in remembering the past, we must weigh our responsibilities in the present. What does the increasing normalization of anti-Semitism in the United States portend for American Jews and the core values and institutions of our country?
Reflecting on Germany’s War Against the Jews
from an American Perspective
Tuesday, April 18, Noon – 1:00 P.M.
J. Willard Marriott Library
Gould Auditorium, Level 1
Broadcasted Live
Related reading: 5 Books About Common Humanity selected by librarian Allyson Mower
Amos Guiora J.D., Ph.D., Panelist
Amos N. Guiora is Professor of Law at the S.J. Quinney College of Law, the University of Utah. He is a Distinguished Fellow at The Consortium for the Research and Study of Holocaust and the Law at Chicago-Kent College of Law, and a Distinguished Fellow and Counselor at the International Center for Conflict Resolution, Katz School of Business, University of Pittsburgh. For the past 10 years Guiora has been researching-writing-lecturing on the question of bystanders (originally in the Holocaust) resulting in his book The Crime of Complicity: The Bystander in the Holocaust.He also has written Armies of Enablers: Survivor Stories of Complicity and Betrayal in Sexual Assaults, and he spearheaded the Bystander Initiative, designed to address the problems when nothing is done to stop abuse. Professor Guiora has an A.B. in history from Kenyon College, a J.D. from Case Western Reserve University School of Law, and a Ph.D. from Leiden University.
Bob Goldberg, Ph.D., Panelist
Bob Goldberg received his Ph.D. from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and came to Utah in 1980. He was Professor of History at the University of Utah until his retirement in 2021. Bob is the author of eight books with his last two, Barry Goldwater and Enemies Within: The Culture of Conspiracy in Modern America published by Yale University Press. Bob Goldberg has won twelve teaching honors, including the University of Utah Distinguished Teaching Award. In 2003, he held the Fulbright Distinguished Chair in American Studies at the Swedish Institute for North American Studies, Uppsala University. In 2008, he received the Rosenblatt Prize for Excellence, the University of Utah’s highest award.
Hollis Robbins, Ph.D., Moderator
Hollis Robbins, Dean of the College of Humanities at the University of Utah, is a noted scholar of nineteenth-century American and African American literature, newspapers, film, and poetry. Her sixth and most recent book, Forms of Contention: Influence and the African American Sonnet Tradition (2020), explores the interrelationship of influence, double consciousness, canon-formation, and poetic form. Dean Robbins has been since 2004 the Co-Director/Managing Editor of the Black Periodical Literature Project at Harvard University and has won or been involved with numerous Mellon and NEH Digital Humanities grants in support of Black Press research. She holds a Ph.D. in English from Princeton University (2003); an M.A. in English from the University of Colorado, Boulder (1998); an M.P.P. from Harvard University (1990); and a B.A. from Johns Hopkins University (1983).
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