Newswise — "From Liberation to Life: 60 Years After Auschwitz" is the theme of the 7th biennial MTSU Holocaust Studies Conference, which will be held Thursday, Oct. 27, through Saturday, Oct. 29, on the Middle Tennessee State University campus.
Throughout the weekend-long event, which will get under way at 8:30 a.m. daily in MTSU's James Union Building (JUB), the conference will feature back-to-back presentations commemorating the Holocaust experience from cultural, educational and historical perspectives. University educators, authors and historians from throughout the United States, as well as from the Ukraine and Poland, among other locales, will lead conference sessions.
Sponsored by MTSU's Holocaust Studies Committee, Dr. Lon Nuell, art professor, says, "The 2005 Holocaust conference will include American liberators of various concentration camps and one Russian Jewish liberator who will join us from Moscow. That part of the program, along with a panel of Holocaust survivors, creates a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for the public to meet those who experienced the reality of the brutality of German Nazi policies.
"Such meetings seem to create vivid and lasting memories for the participant," he adds.
Although those who wish to attend all of the weekend event's sessions may register to do so, many of the three-day conference's discussion and panels are free and open to the public, including a viewing and discussion of "Hitler's Plan," a cable television documentary originally shown on the History Channel, which explores the contents of a once-secret book penned by Adolph Hitler wherein he outlines his plans for continuous war and demonstrates his racial hatred.
Author and Holocaust historian Dr. Gerhard Weinberg, one of the event's guest speakers, came across Hitler's unpublished book in 1958 when he was combing through massive stacks of documents that the U.S. had captured from Nazi Germany. Hitler dictated the secret book, which includes his plans for global domination and an American invasion, in 1928. Since its discovery, the book has been authenticated and the documents are considered legitimate, as outlined in the television documentary.
"Hitler's Plan," the television program about Weinberg's prize Hitler-dictated discovery, and a discussion about the historical document led by Weinberg will be held 1:30-3:30 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 29, in the James Union Building's (JUB) Tennessee Room.
In addition to Weinberg's Oct. 29 presentation, he also will present another free and open session titled "Two Separate Subjects? Thinking About World War II and the Holocaust" at 7 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 27, in the JUB's Tennessee Room.
Aside from Weinberg's free and open sessions, on the conference's opening day, Dr. Rochelle Saidel, founder and executive director of New York's Remember the Women Institute, will deliver a free and open presentation, "Ravensbruch 60 Years After Liberation: The Politics of Memory," at 12:45-1:30 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 27, in the Hazelwood Room of the JUB.
Then, on Friday, Oct. 28, featured speaker Dr. Myra Goldenberg will deliver a free and open session titled "Sex in the Service of Survival: Women and the Holocaust" at 1-1:45 p.m. in the JUB's Hazelwood Room. Goldenberg, who is the Ida E. King Distinguished Visiting Scholar of Holocaust Studies at New Jersey's Richard Stockton College, is the author of numerous articles and essays, and co-editor of the forthcoming book, "Tensions, Testimony and Tikkun: Teaching the Holocaust in Colleges and Universities."
Also on Oct. 28, the conference will serve as host for a military honor guard and a number of panel discussions to commemorate the heroes and survivors of the Holocaust beginning at 1:45 through 5 p.m. As part of this day's discussions, American and Russian liberators will remember 1945; Holocaust survivors will remember 1945, excerpts from the film, "D-Day to Berlin," featuring footage shot by George Stevens of American troops liberating Dachau in 1944-45, will be shown; and Susan Lee Pentlin of Central Missouri Statue University will present "A Journey in Pictures: 60 Years Later American Liberators Return to Danube Valley." All of these sessions will be free and open to those who wish to attend.
REGISTRATION/SESSION INFO: For more information on the conference, including a full schedule of programming events, or to download a registration form, please visit its Web site at http://www.mtsu.edu/~holoed/ and click on a related link.
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