U.S. Holocaust Museum curator offers April 13 lecture
Susan Bachrach, curator of special exhibitions at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C., will speak at 4 p.m., April 13 in the Smith Student Center Ballroom.
April 4, 2016
SLIPPERY ROCK, Pa. - Slippery Rock University's April 13 Holocaust Remembrance 2016 Program will include a keynote lecture by one of the leading authorities on Nazi Germany and its mass murder of millions more than 70 years ago.
Susan Bachrach, curator of special exhibitions at the U.S. Holocaust Museum in Washington, D.C., will present "Some Were Neighbors: Collaboration and Complicity in the Holocaust," at 4 p.m. in the Smith Student Center Ballroom.
"My program focuses on the role ordinary people played in the events, including young people who succumbed to the pressures and temptations of the moment in a range of ways, from actively participating in to tolerating the persecution of Jews and other victims of Nazi racial policies," she said.
The Holocaust, which took place in the early 1940s, resulted in the genocide of European Jews, the mentally ill, gypsies, homosexuals and other groups. Bachrach said what happened then serves as a warning for current events.
"It is important to remember the history of the Holocaust, more than ever in a world filled with sectarian conflicts, refugee crises that promote fear of 'the other,' and other related events," she said.
Bachrach said her presentation would incorporate elements of the "Some Were Neighbors" exhibition currently on display at the Holocaust Museum, which was dedicated in 1993 as a "living memorial" to those who were killed in the Holocaust.
Bachrach, who joined the museum in 1992, oversees all phases of temporary exhibitions, including the historical research, identification of artifacts, and the design and creation of accompanying publications. Her exhibitions include "Deadly Medicine: Creating the Master Race;" "Liberation 1945;" "Nazi Olympics: Berlin 1936; and "Oskar Schindler: An Unlikely Hero."
Her books include "Tell Them We Remember: The Story of the Holocaust" and "The Nazi Olympics, Berlin 1936." Her first book draws on the Holocaust Museum's collection of artifacts, photographs and documents to explain the rise of the Nazi party ideology. Her second book covers the 1936 Olympics, when Hitler tried to use the games as a propaganda vehicle.
Bachrach received her bachelor's degree from Wellesley College and her doctorate in modern European history from the University of Wisconsin at Madison.
SRU's department of political science and College of Liberal Arts are sponsoring the SRU Holocaust Remembrance 2016 program.
MEDIA CONTACT: Gordon Ovenshine | 724.738.4854 | gordon.ovenshine@sru.edu