Holocaust Conference events scheduled April 6-16

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. — The 33rd Greater Lafayette Holocaust Remembrance Conference (GLHRC), running April 6-16, will focus on the theme "From Living Memory to Historical Memory: The Holocaust in Transition."

The April 6 event will be a showing of "Paragraph 175," a documentary about the Nazi persecution of gays during World War II. Discussion will follow with University of Colorado Jewish history professor David Shneer, author of "Queer Jews."

The conference officially opens April 7 with its traditional full-day commemorative and academic session at Purdue University's Stewart Center.

Shneer will give the keynote address on  "Through Soviet Eyes: Photography, War and the Holocaust." He was nominated for the National Book Award for his 2011 book of the same title. He is the conference's seventh Rabbi Gedalyah Engel Lecturer. The lecture is named in honor of the late Hillel Foundation director who founded the conference in 1981.

Before Shneer speaks, a candlelighting ceremony will be held with area residents who are Holocaust survivors and the children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren of survivors.

Other events during the 10-day conference include workshops, discussions, films and a presentation of the play "Anne Frank and Me."

All events are free and open to the public. A complete schedule of events can be found at http://www.glhrc.org/

The conference is sponsored by the Diocese of Lafayette, St. Thomas Aquinas Catholic Center; Hillel Foundation; Jewish Federation of Greater Lafayette; Purdue LGBTQ Center; Purdue College of Education, James F. Ackerman Center for Democratic Citizenship; Purdue College of Liberal Arts, Department of History and the Jewish Studies Program; the Sons of Abraham Synagogue; Temple Israel; and West Lafayette Public Library.

Funding is provided by the Sam and Edith Chosnek Memorial Fund, Ackerman Center, Association of Jewish Studies, Gannett Foundation and Evonik.

Writer: Judith Barra Austin, 765-494-2432, jbaustin@purdue.edu