Purdue News

March 6, 1998

Holocaust conference at Purdue promotes human rights

The conference this year will be March 21 and 22 at Purdue University and various Greater Lafayette locations. The theme is "Collaborating With Evil -- Boundaries of Tolerance."

By bringing people together to remember the Holocaust, the conference focuses attention on intergroup cooperation as a means to creative unity, said Rabbi Gedalyah Engel, conference coordinator.

"We are here to remember and learn from what happened and to try to help right the human rights wrongs that continue to go on throughout the world," he said.

Engel said he is particularly pleased and encouraged by the relationship that has developed in recent years with schools in the Greater Lafayette area.

"We are reaching out to young people, and that is what is so important," he said. "We need these youth to understand the need for human rights and the need to be involved in solving problems worldwide, beyond their own."

Area teachers have become involved in learning to teach about the Holocaust and human rights through taking part in the conference and, beginning last year, by being part of a preconference workshop conducted by the Ackerman Center for Democratic Citizenship at Purdue.

This year, the preconference workshop for teachers and students will be Friday, March 20, and includes sessions on "The Holocaust in Children's Literature," "American Indian Literature and History," "Teaching the Holocaust: Content and Methodology," and "Using the Internet and Children's Literature to Study the Holocaust." Sessions will be in Stewart Center. For information, call the Ackerman Center at (765) 494-4755.

Featured speakers at the Holocaust Remembrance Conference include:

• Richard Weisberg, New York, professor of law at Cardozo Law School of Yeshiva University and author of "Vichy Law," will discuss the Vichy French participation in the Holocaust.
  
• Mel Mermelstein, Torrance, Calif., survivor of Auschwitz-Birkenau and Buchenwald concentration camps, and author of "By Bread Alone," will relate his Holocaust experiences and share his victory over Holocaust revisionists in legally proving that the Holocaust happened.
  
• Ken Mochizuki, Seattle, author of "Passage to Freedom," a children's book about a Japanese diplomat in Lithuania who saved as many as 10,000 Jewish refugees, will share his knowledge of Japanese internment camps during World War II.
  
• Charlotte Opfermann, Houston, a Holocaust survivor and author of the play "Lambs at Play -- For Time," will participate in panel discussions.
  
• Angela Jaime, West Lafayette, an American Indian, will discuss the history of her people.
  
• William Small, professor at the University of Maine at Orono and Fulbright scholar, will talk about German communities' efforts in teaching about the Holocaust.

Sponsored by the Greater Lafayette Holocaust Remembrance Committee, the conference receives funding from individuals, Purdue University, Eli Lilly and Co. Tippecanoe Laboratories, the Gannett Foundation and Journal and Courier, Cinergy, and various local institutions.

The schedule of events:

SATURDAY, March 21

Class of 1950 Lecture Hall

1 p.m. Registration.
1:30 p.m. "Vichy Collaboration With Nazis and Swiss." Speaker: Richard Weisberg.
2:30 p.m. "Fighting the Holocaust Deniers." Speaker: Mel Mermelstein.
3:30 p.m. "Passage to Freedom -- Escaping the Nazis." Speaker: Ken Mochizuki.
4 p.m. Panel discussion: "Diversity on Campus." Moderator: Alan Manifold. Participants: Joe Bennett, Denise Driscoll, Michael Gordon, Miles Green and Jason Nierman.

5 p.m. Concurrent workshops:

• "Jewish Communities in Germany Today." Speaker: William Small.
  
• "Native American Genocide." Speaker: Angela Jaime.
  
• "Teaching the Holocaust." Speakers: Charlotte Guthmann Opfermann and Trudy Nelson.
  
• "U.S. Internment Camps." Speaker: Ken Mochizuki.

Hillel Foundation , 912 W. State St.

6:30 p.m. Supper. Registration necessary. Call (765) 743-1716.

Class of 1950 Lecture Hall

8 p.m. "Surviving the Death Camps." Speakers: Charlotte Guthmann Opfermann, Theresienstadt survivor, and Mel Mermelstein, Auschwitz survivor.

9 p.m. Frontline film, "Nazi Gold," the Swiss connection. Discussion will follow.

SUNDAY, March 22

Hillel Foundation

10:30 a.m. "Collaborating for Peace: Arab-Jewish Dialogue." Facilitator: Ralph Webb. Participants: George Horwich, Earl Prohofsky and B. Frederique Samuel.

Dayton Memorial Presbyterian Church, 731 Walnut St., (Indiana 38), Dayton.

10:30 a.m. "Rejoining Humanity." Speaker: Charlotte Guthmann Opfermann.

Hillel Foundation

Noon. Brunch. Registration necessary. Call (765) 743-1716.

Class of 1950 Lecture Hall

1:30 p.m. Proclamation presentation: Mayors of Lafayette and West Lafayette. Flame of Remembrance -- Candle of Hope.

2 p.m. "The Phenomenon of Hatred and Persecution." Speaker: Robert Segal, reader in the theory of religion, Lancaster University, England.

2:45 p.m. "The French Response -- 50 Years Later." Speaker: Richard Weisberg.

3:30 p.m. Panel: "Responsibility in Times of Oppression and Freedom." Introductory remarks: Marvin Blade. Moderator: Margaret Rowe. Panelists: Mel Mermelstein, Ken Mochizuki, Robert Segal, Richard Weisberg and students Kimberly Jirkovsky, Stacie Meier, Chris Scott and Umang Sharma. Closing remarks: Rick Humphrey.

4:30 p.m. Resolutions.

RELATED EVENTS:

TUESDAY, March 17

2 p.m. Mayors of Lafayette and West Lafayette read a proclamation in support of the Holocaust Remembrance Conference. West Lafayette City Hall.

FRIDAY, March 20

9 a.m.-noon. Purdue Educators' Conference.

3:30 p.m. "Law and Literature: The Merchant of Venice." Speaker: Richard Weisberg. Room 1255, Liberal Arts and Education Building.

6:45 p.m. Shabbat services and dinner at Hillel Foundation, sponsored by Alpha Epsilon Pi. Speaker: Charlotte Guthmann Opfermann. To register, call Hillel, (765) 743-1293.

8 p.m. Conversation Oneg, "Holocaust Memories." Speaker: Mel Mermelstein. Sons of Abraham, 661 N. Seventh St., Lafayette.

8 p.m. "Holocaust -- 50 Years Later." Speaker: Richard Weisberg. Temple Israel, 620 Cumberland Ave., West Lafayette.

MONDAY, March 23

8:30 a.m. "Overcoming Hate." Speakers: Angela and Luis Jaime, Mel Mermelstein and Robert Segal. Christian Ministry Center, 1000 W. State St., West Lafayette.

1:30 p.m. "Life in Nazi Concentration Camps." Speaker: Mel Mermelstein. Room 1245, Liberal Arts and Education Building.

Source: Rabbi Gedalyah Engel (765) 743-1716
Writer: Beth Forbes, (765) 494-9723; e-mail, beth_forbes@uns.purdue.edu
Purdue News Service: (765) 494-2096; e-mail, purduenews@uns.purdue.edu

NOTE TO JOURNALISTS: Participants in the Holocaust Remembrance Conference, including Mel Mermelstein, Charlotte Opfermann and Richard Weisberg, will be introduced and available for comment at 3 p.m. Friday, March 20, at the Hillel Foundation, 912 W. State St., West Lafayette.

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