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Podcast Lecture Series
►Dr.
David Silberklang-
The Allies and the Holocaust
►Professor Walter Zwi Bacharach-
-The Holocaust Reflected Through Personal
Experience
-The Protocols-Fueling Antisemitic Myths
►Dr.
Robert Rozett-
Contemporary Antisemitism
►Prof.
Michael J. Bazyler-
Holocaust Denial Laws and Other Legislation Criminalizing Promotion of
Nazism
From Recent Symposium: “Holocaust
Denial: Paving the Way to Genocide” Denial: Paving the Way to Genocide:
►Prof.
Yehuda Bauer-
Some Thoughts on Radical Islam
►Yigal
Carmon-
The Role of Holocaust Denial in the Ideology and Strategy
of the Iranian Regime
From Recent Conference: 60 Years
Marking the Nuremberg Trials:
►Michael
Marrus-
Different Perspectives: Lawyers and Historians Looking at the
Holocaust
►Lisa
Yavnai-
Vengeance or Justice? Trials of Kapos
►Hanna
Yablonka-
The Eichmann Trial: The Jewish Nuremberg?
►Serge
Klarsfeld-
The Primary Role of the Trials: Informing the French People About the Fate
of the Jews in France
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The Holocaust Reflected Through Personal
Experience
A glimpse of the personal experiences of
individuals during the Holocaust reveals the inner world of the victims.
This lecture focuses on the honest and direct emotions expressed by the
victims, testifying to the fact that they maintained their human dignity.
“Last Letters from the Shoah” shows us deep despair alongside expressions
of hope. Strange as it may sound, both hope and despair were sources of
faith and inner strength, as explained in the article.
The concern of parents for their children is another experience. This
concern is a sweeping testimony to the failure of Nazism to dehumanize
Jews. This concern was simply human, and no evil force on earth could ever
destroy it. Another issue dealt with in the lecture is the problem of
faith in G-d. Two possibilities for coming to terms with Providence
existed. One – to devote oneself to one’s faith, despite everything. The
other – to become a skeptic, turning away from G-d. Both options were a
legitimate human response, to be respected under those circumstances.
All these personal testimonies, all these personal experiences confirm
with awe the saying:
“Look, it has happened – we were there – but we don’t understand”.
The Protocols-Fueling Antisemitic
Myths and Lies
This lecture focuses on lies and myths as
substance in every kind of antisemitism. These lies could be easily
disseminated since, being prejudices rather than fact-based, nobody had to
verify them.
The founding of the Jewish State has forced antisemites to change tactics.
From that point on, they had to deal with a factual event and not with
fictitious inventions. Slogans such as: “The International Jew”, “The
Wandering Jew”, “Jewish World Domination” – all those myths that composed
traditional antisemitism – have been shaken by new recognized historical
facts. As a result, their antisemitic impact and effect have been
weakened.
Even so, this lecture is aware that modern antisemitism around the world
has not lost ground. All it asserts is that traditional antisemitism has
had to change its content and its allegations against Jews and the State
of Israel.
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Professor Walter Zwi Bacharach
Professor Walter Zwi Bacharach, a Holocaust survivor, is
Professor Emeritus of General History at Bar-Ilan University and Head of
the Leo Baeck Institute in Jerusalem, Israel, and a researcher affiliated
with the International Institute for Holocaust Research – Yad Vashem. Zwi
Bacharach was born in 1928 in Hanau, Germany. His family later fled to the
Netherlands after the rise of Nazism in Germany. During World War II, he
was interned for 36 months in the Nazi Concentration Camps of Westerbork,
Theresienstadt, Buchenwald, Taucha, and Auschwitz. He was liberated from
Auschwitz on 27 January 1945. Afterwards, he returned to the Netherlands
for a short period of time and came to Israel at the end of 1946 with the
Youth Aliyah Movement. He became a member of the religious kibbutz, Beerot-Yitzhak,
and now lives in Tel Aviv. Zwi Bacharach received his MA in general
history from Hebrew University in 1967 and his PhD in 1975 from Tel Aviv
University. His main focus was the history of antisemitism from the
perspective of general history rather than Jewish history. He became a
lecturer at Bar-Ilan University upon graduation and retired as full
professor in 1996. Professor Bacharach has written numerous books and
articles on antisemitism and the Holocaust. His most recent publication is
entitled Last Letters from the Shoah (2002). Originally published in
Hebrew, this book has been translated into English, Spanish, and German. A
collection of selected articles by Professor Bacharach’s articles is
forthcoming.
Related Links:
Publication
Last Letters
from the Shoah
Online Exhibition
To Live With Honor and to Die With Honor
Video Testimony from Prof. Bacharach
German Jewish life on the Eve of WWII
Daily Life in Concentration Camps
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