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Strassler Center for Holocaust & Genocide STRASSLER CENTER FOR HOLOCAUST & GENOCIDE STUDIES AT CLARK UNIVERSITY STRASSLER CENTER FOR HOLOCAUST & GENOCIDE STUDIES AT CLARK UNIVERSITY AT & GENOCIDE STUDIES HOLOCAUST CENTER FOR STRASSLER 2017 - 2018 YEAR END REPORT YEAR END REPORT 2017 2018 YEAR END REPORT 831670.indd 1 12/14/18 6:16 PM Whoever fails to increase knowledge, decreases knowledge. – the wisdom of the sages DIRECTORS’ MESSAGE American Civil War. According to Stefan Ihrig, in the aftermath of World War I, racialized discourse in Germany excused mass vio- lence against Armenians, prompting the Nazis to justify their plans for genocide. In order to provide a theoretical framework that deepens appre- ciation for similarities and differences, we envision a professorship in human rights. The modern history of human rights arose in con- nection to the genocides and political violence of the 20th and 21st centuries. Expanding human rights education will forge dynamic connections between academia, pedagogy, and engaged scholarship. Such an approach offers the best hope for Thomas Kühne, Director and Mary Jane Rein, Executive Director understanding possible strategies for prevention, steps toward intervention, and insights into promoting democracy and justice in “Men are accomplices to that which leaves them indifferent,” the aftermath of violence. according to the literary critic George Steiner. Our students and With our focus on training scholars, our program remains future faculty dedicate their careers to studying genocide and mass vio- oriented. The international graduate student conference we orga- lence; exemplars for those who seek to understand the past and nize triennially gathers an international cohort of PhD students. give shape to a better tomorrow, they appreciate that we cannot Participants travelled from seven countries to present their research overlook violent histories, neglect past injustices, ignore painful leg- at the fourth iteration of this signature event in April 2018. Orga- acies, and disregard continuing consequences. Thus, we opened nized in cooperation with Hebrew University colleagues Daniel the 2017-18 academic year with a conference, Children and Mass Blatman and Amos Goldberg, the conference included excellent Violence that examined the experiences of the most vulnerable student work and provoked lively discussion. Victoria Sanford’s victims in the Holocaust, the Armenian Genocide, and Native keynote address highlighted anthropological approaches that have American history. The Strassler Center has been at the forefront in contributed to the search for justice in the aftermath of the Guate- institutionalizing scholarship about the Holocaust and the Arme- malan Genocide. Her inspiring work provides a counterweight to nian Genocide. Turning our attention to genocide and mass atroci- indifference and is a model for engaged scholarship. ties perpetrated against Native Peoples in the Americas is a logical Fall 2018 marks twenty years since we welcomed our first cohort next step. Other genocides also beckon our attention, chiefly the of PhD students. As we celebrate this milestone anniversary, we are 1994 Genocide in Rwanda and the 1971 Genocide in Bangladesh, delighted by the construction of the Colin Flug Graduate Study subjects of current dissertation research. These projects challenge Wing. This addition, encompassing a book annex, student offices, indifference and inspire hope for a just and peaceful future. and study commons, will open in early 2019; it is a physical mani- As doctoral research, lectures, and conferences held at the festation of our expanded vision and mandate. We look forward to Strassler Center grow more diverse, common structures, themes, inaugurating the new wing just as founding director and Rose Pro- and connections emerge. Scholars who participated in our 2017- fessor Debórah Dwork transitions to a new role as Senior Research 18 lecture series revealed insights that emerged as they examined Scholar. The Strassler Center achieved international prominence cases in a shared framework. Thus, Wolf Gruner described the under her steady leadership. The next Rose Professor will carry on importance of oral testimonies in the Shoah Visual History archive, the legacy of research and teaching she established. now enriched by eyewitness materials collected about several We are growing thanks to the support of our many friends and genocides. Hamit Bozarslan uncovered connections between the supporters, whose contributions advance our mission and con- Hamidian massacres, the Armenian Genocide and ongoing pat- tribute to the struggle against indifference. Anne Frank wrote, terns of violence in the present-day Middle East. In discussing the “Look at how a single candle can both defy and define the dark- trial of the Cambodian perpetrator Duch, Alex Hinton considered ness.” Each friend of the Center is a candle in the darkness. These Hannah Arendt’s notion of the banality of evil. Owen Miller com- candles light the way to a brighter future. pared and linked late Ottoman massacres with mass violence Mary Jane Rein, PhD, Executive Director carried out against African Americans in the period following the Thomas Kühne, Director and Strassler Professor 1 EVENTS & LINKAGES 831670.indd 2 12/14/18 6:16 PM National Holocaust Monument, Ottawa, Canada 3 831670.indd 3 12/14/18 6:16 PM EVENTS AND LINKAGES Wolf Gruner, “Genocide Survivor Testimonies of the USC Visual History Archive” 13 SEPTEMBER 2017 tims spoke about Jewish resistance and physical self-defense during Oral testimonies of victims and eyewitnesses of mass violence and and immediately after the November Pogrom. Again, written sources genocide are crucial sources for researchers. These accounts con- hardly deal with this subject. tribute to our understanding of the dynamics of mass killing, as Wolf The idea for the creation of the USC Shoah Foundation dates back Gruner, Shapell-Guerin Chair in Jewish Studies and Professor of His- to Steven Spielberg’s movie Schindler’s List (1993). While filming, sur- tory at the University of Southern California, Los Angeles, amply vivors asked the director why he wasn’t interested in their stories. In demonstrated in a presentation at the Strassler Center. Gruner also response, Spielberg established the VHA and from 1994 to 1999, directs the USC Shoah Foundation, home to the Visual History Jewish survivors, Roma and Sinti survivors, Jehovah’s Witness survi- Archive (VHA), which he presented in a workshop sponsored by the vors, homosexual survivors, rescuers, liberators and eyewitnesses to William P. Goldman and Brothers Foundation. This growing repository liberation were interviewed and filmed. The interviews document the contains over 54,000 oral testimonies related to the Holocaust, the life histories of the survivors, encompassing their prewar, wartime, Rwandan, Armenian, Cambodian, and Guatemalan and postwar lives. Gruner conceded that the genocides, and the Nanjing Massacre in China. many interviewers needed for this massive Gruner opened with a discussion of how victim tes- undertaking were not evenly prepared. None- timonies about the Holocaust had been neglected by theless, the VHA has become the world’s most most scholars for decades. He admitted that he had important repository for Holocaust survivor tes- been one of the many historians skeptical about their timonies. relevance to historical research. Historians regarded In recent years, the mandate for the USC written sources as objective documents, whereas tes- Shoah Foundation expanded to include victims timonies were deemed too subjective and possibly of other genocides and instances of mass vio- unreliable. His research on forced labor during the lence. The archive is an ever-growing resource, Second World War led Gruner to revise his negative which has acquired other collections of testimo- perspective. He found that documentation about nies, prominent among them those of the Arme- Wolf Gruner some smaller labor camps no longer existed. Yet, oral nian filmmaker Michael Hagopian. In order to testimonies of survivors provided Gruner with detailed and valuable promote usage of the testimonies, the foundation established the information about these particular camps. academic Center for Advanced Genocide Research in 2014, which Continuing along this line, Gruner highlighted the November uses the archive to support interdisciplinary research on the Holo- Pogrom (Night of the Broken Glass) to demonstrate the value of oral caust and other genocides, for example by organizing workshops testimonies. He found that document-based research on the topic and providing fellowships for visiting scholars. mainly yielded mentions of synagogues and Jewish shops as targets Gruner concluded with a demonstration on how to use and search of SA paramilitary forces and German civilians. By studying the testi- the archive. Technological advances continue to improve its usability monies in the VHA, Gruner discovered that the number of private and value. Gruner’s presentation demonstrated the significance of the homes that the SA and German civilians destroyed was actually Visual History Archive and its contribution to historical research. higher than that of shops and synagogues. This had been overlooked Thanks to the foresight and generosity of David H. Strassler, a former in mainstream historiography because few sources describe attacks board member of the Shoah Foundation, the Strassler Center has on private homes, and photographs did not capture this kind of vio- enjoyed access to the full archive
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