Holocaust

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• SOURCE: New York Times
  1/3/2021
  

  The Holocaust Stole My Youth. COVID-19 Is Stealing My Last Years

  "I am trying not to give up. But what is getting me down is that I am losing a year. And this bothers me terribly. I’m 87 years old, and I lost almost a full year."

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• SOURCE: Haaretz
  12/6/2020
  

  How Hanukkah Returned to Amsterdam’s Royal Concert Hall Decades After the Holocaust

  The annual Hanukkah concert at the Royal Concert Hall in Amsterdam resumed in 2015 after a hiatus that began with Nazi occupation of the Netherlands. Many Dutch Jews hope that the event will support unity in a community that is diverse in terms of observance and smaller in number than it was in 1946.

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• SOURCE: Algemeiner
  12/6/2020
  

  US Supreme Court to Hear Two Cases Related to Holocaust Restitution

  Two cases test the doctrine of foreign sovereign immunity to determine whether U.S. courts have jurisdiction to return works of art to heirs of Jewish art dealers dispossessed by Nazis in 1935.

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• 12/6/2020
  

  Is There Anything Left to Learn about Hitler?

  by James Thornton Harris

  Volker Ullrich presents a picture of a leader whose "egocentrism... inability to self-criticize…tendency to overestimate himself... contempt for others and lack of empathy" made him willing to destroy his nation along with himself, but warns that the Third Reich was "a dictatorship of consent." 

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• SOURCE: New York Times
  11/28/2020
  

  Israel’s Pick to Head Holocaust Memorial Stirs International Uproar

  “You don’t play politics with the Shoah, and this is playing politics with the Shoah,” Professor [Deborah] Lipstadt said. She is one of 750 historians, Jewish studies experts and cultural figures who signed a petition protesting the appointment of Effie Eitam to head Israel's national Holocaust memorial.

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• SOURCE: Forward
  11/19/2020
  

  Effi Eitam Leading Yad Vashem Disgraces the Memory of the 6 Million

  by Derek Penslar and Susannah Heschel

  "The politicization and radicalization of the institution will rob it of its legitimacy. Yad Vashem cannot fulfill its responsibilities with Effi Eitam at its helm."

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• SOURCE: Voice of America
  11/17/2020
  

  German Historians on Frontlines of Politics

  German historians have faced lawsuits for writing about World War II-era crimes by the Wehrmacht, part of a growing culture war in which right-wing Germans seek to deny or diminish the Holocaust and Nazi war crimes.

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• SOURCE: Jerusalem Post
  11/15/2020
  

  Dozens Of Academics Oppose New Controversial Yad Vashem Chair

  Holocaust historian Deborah Lipstadt is among the academics criticizing the appointment of a right-wing politician to head the Israeli Holocaust memorial and educational center, arguing that his remarks toward Palestinians and Arab Israelis are disqualifying. 

• 
• SOURCE: Haaretz
  11/8/2020
  

  Revered Polish Jew, Holocaust Survivor Joins Protests Over Top Appointment at Yad Vashem

  A prominent Polish Holocaust survivor has objected to the appointment of Effi Eitam, an Israeli politician and former military commander, to chair the directorate of the Holocaust memorial because of inflammatory statements calling for the deportation of Palestinans from the West Bank and calling Arab Israelis a "fifth column." 

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• SOURCE: ABC News
  11/8/2020
  

  Dutch Protestant Church Admits Failing Jews in World War II

  René de Reuver, speaking on behalf of the General Synod of the Protestant Church in the Netherlands, said the church’s role began long before Adolf Hitler came to power in Germany.

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• SOURCE: The New Yorker
  11/2/2020
  

  Searching for Refuge After the Second World War

  New books by David Nasaw and Paul Betts examine the uncertain fate of Jewish Holocaust survivors in postwar Europe, the problem of massive human displacement, and the tension between interpreting Europe's refugee problem in universal terms or focusing on the specific consequences of anti-Jewish policies and prejudice. 

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• SOURCE: KJZZ
  10/26/2020
  

  Arizona Education Board Votes To Require Students Learn About The Holocaust, Other Genocides

  Esther Basch, a Holocaust survivor, and her daughter Rachel Basch Turet told the board that many of the people they speak with know about World War II, but have no idea of "the extent of horrors that happened to the Jews in Europe.”

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• SOURCE: Forward
  10/19/2020
  

  Sacha Baron Cohen Interviewed a Holocaust Survivor for the New ‘Borat;’ Now Her Daughter’s Suing

  The producers of the "Borat" sequel insist the interview was used to mock Holocaust deniers; surviving relatives argue the use of her story for satirical purposes was deceptive and inappropriate.

• 
• SOURCE: The Guardian
  10/8/2020
  

  Holocaust Survivor's Daughter in Legal Battle With Historian over Claim of Lesbian Liaison with Nazi Guard

  Hájková, who is researching the queer history of the Holocaust, said testimonies by survivors of the camps and legal documents from the guard’s trial led her to conclude that the two women might have had a lesbian relationship, either coercive or consensual. However, she acknowledged that there was no definite proof of this.

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• 10/18/2020
  

  Fraught Family Reunification After the Holocaust

  by Rebecca Clifford

  "A tenth of Europe's pre-war population of Jewish children survived the Holocaust. Many sought and achieved reunification with their families, but reunification did not usually end the trauma endured by this "fragment of an entire generation."

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• SOURCE: Vox
  10/5/2020
  

  The German Model for America

  West German society intially sought to repress evidence of the Holocaust and Nazi crimes, preserving a myth that German civilians were also victims. The work of owning up to those crimes took decades and encountered bitter resistance. 

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• SOURCE: Slate
  10/1/2020
  

  “Shocking Levels of Ignorance”? A Closer Look at the Survey of Millennials' Holocaust Awareness

  A recent survey claimed to show widespread ignorance about the Holocaust among young American adults, but its methods may not support its most sensational conclusions. Regardless, other surveys show that Americans value learning about the history of the Holocaust. Educators should capitalize by encouraging students to go beyond memorizing facts to understanding the processes of ethnic vilification, political violence and genocide.

• 
• SOURCE: Patheos
  9/22/2020
  

  RBG, Historian: Why Justice Requires Memory

  by Chris Gehrz

  Ruth Bader Ginsburg's sense of justice was informed by a clear view of the path of American history and the knowledge that change toward equality was neither automatic nor unidirectional.

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• SOURCE: Washington Post
  9/19/2020
  

  How Jewish History and the Holocaust Fueled Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s Quest for Justice

  by Gillian Brockell

  The passing of the Supreme Court Justice is occasion to review her 2004 address to the U.S. Holocaust Museum. 

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• 9/20/2020
  

  Unlike the Germans We Have Failed to Recognize and Atone for Our Holocausts

  by Walter G. Moss

  Reconciling America's racial divisions requires honest reckoning with the past, and teaching history as a search for the truth, not an effort to inclulcate patriotism, placate parents, or pander to censorious textbook commissions.