Survivors, scholars will talk on campus

By OSU News Service

Oregon State University is sponsoring a Holocaust Memorial Week program beginning Monday that will bring Holocaust survivors and scholars to Corvallis.

It is the 20th consecutive year the university has hosted a Holocaust memorial program in a cooperative effort with the city of Corvallis and the Corvallis School District.

"While the Shoah is the main focus of the program, we also host an event each year that highlights the broader issue of genocide and mass murder," said Paul Kopperman, an OSU history professor and coordinator of Holocaust Memorial Week. "It is a reminder that there is still an extensive and ongoing problem with governments and nations targeting minorities for elimination."

The OSU program opens Monday with a talk by James E. Waller that will explore violence in the 20th century. His free presentation, "Never Again? Peacekeeping and Peacebuilding in a Genocidal World," begins at 7:30 p.m. in the LaSells Stewart Center's Construction and Engineering Auditorium, at Southwest 26th Street and Western Boulevard.

Waller chairs the psychology department at Whitworth College in Spokane. He is the author of three books, including "Becoming Evil: How Ordinary People Commit Genocide and Mass Killing."

In his OSU talk, Waller will outline how genocide and mass killing increased in the 20th century over the previous 100 years, and how the 21st century already has seen extensive violence prompted by ethnic, national and religious hatred.

On Tuesday, author Laurel Leff will discuss how the Holocaust was consistently under-reported in the American media, despite reports of massacres as early as 1941. Her talk, "Buried by the Times: The Holocaust and America's Most Important Newspaper," begins at 7:30 p.m. in the LaSells Stewart Center's Construction and Engineering Auditorium. It is free.

In her talk, which has the same title as a critically acclaimed book she wrote, Leff will outline why the New York Times devoted so little coverage to reports of Jews being systematically killed - and why the comparative lack of coverage continued even after the defeat of Germany. Leff teaches journalism at Northeastern University.

On Wednesday, April 26, Holocaust survivor Jack Terry will share his experiences also captured in his memoir, published last year. His free presentation, "To Live Again: Memories of Destruction and Renewal," begins at 7:30 p.m. in the Austin Auditorium of LaSells Stewart Center.

Born Jakub Szabmacher, Terry lost his parents, sibling, relatives and friends during the Holocaust, and says he narrowly escaped death on several occasions in the campus of Budzyn and Wieliczka in his native Poland, and in Flossenburg, Bavaria. Now a psychoanalyst in New York City, Terry works with many patients who also are Holocaust survivors.

On Thursday, April 27, Daniel Asa Rose will give a talk titled "Humility and Chutzpah: The Making of a Holocaust Memoir," in which he will discuss how he came to publish a memoir in 2000. His free presentation begins at 7:30 p.m. in the LaSells Stewart Center's Construction and Engineering Auditorium.

In his book, "Hiding Places: A Father and His Sons Retrace their Family's Escape from the Holocaust," Rose recounts a trip he had taken with his young sons on the same path that a cousin had taken during World War II to escape Nazi-occupied Europe. The cousin escaped, but his twin daughters were killed.

This week, OSU is presenting the American premiere of a play titled "Just One More Dance," adapted by a memoir from Ernst Levy, who survived Auschwitz. The play runs through through Friday, April 21, at the Corvallis High School Theater, 1400 N.W. Buchanan Ave. All performances begin at 7:30 p.m. For ticket information, call 737-2784.

At a glance

Additional information on OSU's Holocaust Memorial Week program is available at http://oregonstate.edu/dept/holocaust/index.php