Strassler Family Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies YEAR END ACTIVITIES AND 2004 GIFT REPORT JUNE 2003 THROUGH MAY 2004 The people, programs, and events advancing scholarship in the field of Holocaust and genocide studies Whoever fails to increase knowledge, decreases knowledge — The Ethics of the Fathers STRASSLER FAMILY CENTER 1 FOR HOLOCAUST AND GENOCIDE STUDIES Letter from the Director August 2004 Dear Friends, “Forward, forward let us range,/ Let the great world We watch with joy as these freshly minted scholars go spin for ever down/ the ringing grooves of change.” on to shape the education of others, and we turn to our Thus wrote Lord Tennyson in “Locksley Hall,” and ever-growing cadre of doctoral students. I am delighted thus we experienced the year 2003-04 at the Strassler to report that the Center was awarded a grant by the Family Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies. Claims Conference to support four graduate students in 2003-04. Our students are the first to receive such We bade farewell to our beloved colleague Professor a grant. Established in 1951, the Claims Conference Edward Kissi, and to the first incumbent of the serves survivors. Its decision to support the Center’s Strassler Chair for Holocaust History, Robert Gellately. students reflects its confidence in the mission and Now, at the conclusion of an international search, we work of the Center. welcome Thomas Kuehne, our new Strassler Professor. Dr. Kuehne comes to us from the Institute for Advanced Support takes many forms. A brilliant rostrum of Study at Princeton and, previously, Bielefeld University internationally renowned scholars enriched us and in Germany. From his first book, which won him the the community we serve. Barbara Harff (fall 2003), prestigious Bundestag Prize, through another eight, to Robert Melson (spring 2004), and Robert Jan van his current pathbreaking work that addresses the broad Pelt (spring 2004) joined us as Distinguished Visiting question of how a society becomes a genocidal society, Professors at the Center, and a glittering array of Dr. Kuehne demonstrates (as one reviewer put it) thinkers shared their knowledge and experience with “the difference between excellence and brilliance.” Center students and in public lectures: Peter Balakian; Yehuda Bauer; Melvin Jules Bukiet; Abe Foxman; We aspire to both. In September 2003 we celebrated Samantha Power; Ervin Staub; and Ruth Thomasian. the awarding of the first doctoral degrees — anywhere, ever — in Holocaust history. All three of the students Yet there is always more to do. The need is great, in our inaugural Ph.D. class are now and our mandate grows. As always, I making their mark in the field — Beth thank you for your help as we range Lilach at Florida Atlantic University; forward together. Christine van der Zanden at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C.; and Beth Cohen at Debórah Dwork the Holocaust Museum too, as she takes Rose Professor of Holocaust History up a post-doctoral fellowship. Director, Strassler Family Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies Dr. Kuehne demonstrates (as one reviewer put it) “the difference between excellence and brilliance.” We aspire to both. — Debórah Dwork 2 STRASSLER FAMILY CENTER FOR HOLOCAUST AND GENOCIDE STUDIES Dr. Barbara Harff: Strassler Distinguished Visiting Professor Professor Harff visited the Center for the first time International Forum on the when she agreed to participate in our symposium on Prevention of Genocide, held 26-28 Genocide in the Twentieth Century in October 2001. It January 2004 (see page 15). Dr. Barbara Harff was immediately apparent that the mind that shaped her books and articles belonged to a powerful intellec- Harff taught two courses while at Clark; an under- tual who swept the room away with her vision of both graduate lecture/discussion course, “Genocide in the the problems with which she deals and the solutions Twentieth Century: Cases, Causes, and Prevention,” she has devised for them. and a graduate seminar, “Genocide in the Twentieth Century: Explanation and Prevention.” The undergrad- Harff is Professor of Political Science at the U.S. Naval uates’ evaluations praised Harff’s clarity and breadth; Academy and serves as senior consultant to the White her ability to explain complicated concepts and her House-initiated State Failure Task Force. She designed ability, too, to prompt them to think more widely and data-based analyses of the preconditions and accelera- deeply about a range of new issues. For the graduate tors of genocide and politicide for use by the Clinton students she served as a model. A model professor, Administration’s Center for Early Warning of Humanita- and a model citizen. For Dr. Harff is an academic, a rian Crisis. Much of her work explores the relationship top-notch intellectual, who engages with the world in between ethnic conflict and political mass murder, and which she lives, using her knowledge and skills and analyzes how to respond to and constrain intra-national competencies to effect positive change. aggression. Her books include Genocide and Human Rights: International Legal and Political Issues (1984) “I learned more from Dr. Harff in one semester than I and, with Ted Gurr, Ethnic Conflict in World Politics ever imagined could be possible,” said graduate student (1994). She also has explored international compara- Naama Haviv. “Her expertise in genocide prevention – tive dimensions of massive human rights violations in to say nothing of her generosity in sharing it – was fun- numerous articles and monographs. damental to my education. I am incredibly excited that I will be able to work with her for the next four years.” With extraordinary generosity and energy, Harff shared her cutting-edge research as well as her wide knowledge Harff returned the sentiment, offering her praise for and sharp insights with students and faculty alike. In the Center and its students.“The Center is a congenial so doing, she helped shape the mandate and the mis- and supportive place for scholars, and the graduate sion of the Center. She gave shape, too, to a cadre of students are a delight to work with. They are deeply doctoral students, a number of whom seek her guidance committed to making a difference,” she said. as a dissertation advisor, and all of whom are proud to be the beneficiaries of the education and opportunities During her tenure at the Center, Harff also delivered she offered them. She advocated for all nine of the a public lecture on “Genocide in the 21st Century” Center’s graduate students to attend the Stockholm (see page 9). I “I owe professor Barbara Harff extreme gratitude. Her approach to genocide prevention was a remarkable example of how a quantitative model allows for and opens the path to qualitative analysis. Her course induced an academic fervour that inspired my interest in genocide prevention.” — graduate student Tiberiu Galis STRASSLER FAMILY CENTER 3 FOR HOLOCAUST AND GENOCIDE STUDIES Dr. Robert Melson: Robert Weil Distinguished Visiting Professor Dr. Robert Melson returned to the Center by popular thing right,” Melson said. “The students are caring, demand as the Robert Weil Distinguished Visiting informed, and enthusiastic. They are one of the main Professor in spring 2004. Previously a Distinguished reasons I wanted to visit at Clark this semester.” Visiting Scholar at the Center in spring 2003, Melson had spent a week on campus, guest lecturing in under- Resistance and rescue are particular interests for graduate courses and meeting individually with gradu- Melson, who survived the Holocaust with his family ate students. Eager to learn more about his compara- in Poland. In his most recent book, False Papers: tive approach to the study of genocide, and eager, too, Deception and Survival in the Holocaust (2000), Melson for his advice and criticism on their doctoral research explored his family’s history. False Papers was a final- projects, the students urged Melson ist for the National Jewish Book Award. to return for a semester. Melson is a professor of political science and former Happily, Melson agreed. He men- acting director of the Jewish Studies Program at Purdue tored the graduate students and he University. His major area of teaching and research taught an undergraduate/graduate has been ethnic conflict and genocide. His interest seminar on “Holocaust and Geno- in this topic is a result of his family’s experience in cide in Comparative Perspective.” Europe, as well as of his field work in Nigeria in 1964- The course examined the Holocaust, 65, a year before the onset of the Nigerian-Biafran civil the Armenian Genocide of 1915-23, war. His path-breaking book Revolution and Genocide: Professor the self-inflicted genocide in On the Origins of the Armenian Genocide and the Robert Melson Cambodia in 1975, and the geno- Holocaust (1992) won the international PIOOM Award cide in Rwanda in 1994. Resistance emerged as in Human Rights for 1993. a special focus of the course: what made resistance possible in some instances but not in others, and why Melson currently serves as the first vice president of some rescuers risked their lives to save strangers. the International Association of Genocide Scholars. A staunch advocate of community-building in many “Professor Melson helped us understand the need arenas, Melson helped to develop that organization to revise current theories in genocide studies through into the important forum it is today. And he uses his a comparative approach,” noted Tiberiu Galis, then expertise in the public arena, from testifying before a first-year graduate student. “His theory about the the House Subcommittee on International Operations relationship between revolution and genocide was and Human Rights concerning the Armenian Genocide very thought-provoking, encouraging intense debate.” to prevailing — with Peter Balakian and Samantha Power — upon The New York Times to use the word If the students appreciated Melson, he returned the “genocide” in articles that discuss or refer to the mur- compliment.