2011 “Holocaust Remains”

“The Future of the Holocaust” with Avraham Burg

Student Life Center Ballroom – Tuesday October 25 – 7pm

Avraham Burg, former speaker of the Israeli parliament and son of a Holocaust survivor, is the author of The Holocaust is Over; We Must Rise From Its Ashes. In his book, Burg argues that it is time to “rise from the ashes” of World War II. Jews, Israelis, and the world community at large, must remember the Holocaust, but not continue to identify Jews as victims for generations to come. Burg passionately write that the oft-stated expression “never again” is not only a response to the genocidal calamity of the Nazi era but for any people who suffer around the globe today.

The Last Survivor

(2010) Directed by Michael Kleiman and Michael Pertnoy with Panelists Jacqueline Murekatete and Justin Semahoro Kimenyerwa

Sarratt Cinema – Thursday October 27th – 7pm

The Last Survivor presents the stories of genocide survivors and their struggle to make sense of tragedy. They work to educate, motivate, and promulgate a civic response to mass atrocity crimes, with a focus on awareness, prevention, and promoting social activism and civic engagement. Following the screening, two of the featured survivors, Jacqueline Murekatte and Justin Semahoro Kimenyerwa, will share how they moved forward with their lives.

Jacqueline Murekatete is internationally recognized for her work as a youth leader and humanitarian, speaking out for victims and survivors of genocide. Born in Rwanda in 1984, Jacqueline was not yet ten when she lost her immediate and extended family in the 1994 genocide.

Justin Semahoro Kimenyerwa is a member of the Banyamulenge tribe of South Kivu in the Democratic Republic of Congo. He was born in the small village of the Minembwe and lived there until 1996 when his village was attacked in the middle of the night. Separated from his family, Justin fled from Congo alone into neighboring Burundi before moving on to Rwanda and Kenya.

Sephardi Jewry and the Holocaust with Dr. Aron Rodrigue

Wilson 103 – Tuesday November 1st – 7pm

Much is known about what happened to the Ashkenazi Jews in Poland, Ukraine, Germany, Holland, and France during the Nazi period. It has also been erroneously assumed that few Sephardi Jews were impacted by the Holocaust. Popular Holocaust literature has done little to alter this view. Dr. Aron Rodrigue – director of the Stanford University Humanities Center, professor in Jewish Studies, and noted authority in Sephardi history – will speak on the Sephardim and the Holocaust in general.

Isaac Nehama: Holocaust Survivor from Greece

The Commons Center Multipurpose Room – Sunday November 13th – 7pm

Isaac Nehama was still in high school when Athens was occupied by the Axis powers in 1941. Because the Italians administered Athens, the Jewish population did not initially suffer. Yet, in September of 1943, when German troops began to occupy the area, the situation for the Jewish population took a turn for the worse. Aware of what had already happened to other Jews, Isaac’s father, mother, brothers, and maternal grandmother went into hiding. Isaac fled to Thessaly and joined the partisan enclave. Upon returning to Athens in November 1944, Isaac learned that only his father had survived in hiding. His mother, brothers, and grandmother had been denounced by an informer and sent to Auschwitz. Only his brother Samuel survived after two concentration camps and a death march.