Neighbors Turning Against Neighbors: Holocaust Lecture Series
Neighbors: The Destruction of the Jewish community of Jedwabne, Poland
Tuesday, Oct. 1st at 7 p.m. in the Ben Schulman Center for Jewish Life Assembly Room
Poland was one site of the Holocaust in which Jews and non-Jews had lived side-by-side for centuries, their communities closely interwoven even as they maintained their distinctive traditions. Jan Gross, Professor of History at Princeton University, is the author of the acclaimed book, Neighbors: The Destruction of the Jewish Community of Jedwabne, Poland (2002). In his talk Prof. Gross will describe the reaction his book elicited after its publication in Poland, as well as his more recent research on this important topic.
Film: In Darkness
Wednesday, Oct. 2nd at 7 p.m. in Cohen Memorial 203
From acclaimed director Agnieszka Holland (Europa, Europa), In Darkness is based on a true story. Leopold Socha, a sewer worker and petty thief in Lvov, a Nazi-occupied city in Poland, one day encounters a group of Jews trying to escape the liquidation of the ghetto. He hides them for money in the labyrinth of the town-s sewers beneath the bustling activity of the city above. What starts out as a straightforward and cynical business arrangement turns into something very unexpected; the unlikely alliance between Socha and the Jews as the enterprise seeps deeper into Socha-s conscience. The film is also an extraordinary story of survival as these men, women and children all try to outwit certain death during 14 months of ever increasing and intense danger.