With Distinguished Guest Lecturer, Dr. Wolf Gruner — at Soka 10/24/19
Director, Shoah Foundation Center for Advanced Holocaust Research; Shapell-Guerin Chair in Jewish Studies and Professor of History, University of Southern California; Former Fellow, Yad Vashem, Jerusalem and Harvard University
Thursday, October 24, 2019, 7:00 PM
Ikeda Library 4th Floor Reading Room
Soka University of America
1 University Drive
Aliso Viejo, California 92656
Contact: Professor Robert Elliott Allinson- rallinson@soka.edu
It is a common misconception that Jews submitted passively to Nazi persecution. In fact, a significant number of German Jews as well as Jews elsewhere defied anti-Jewish laws, restrictions, and violence on the local and national level, some even going as far as to protest in public. Professor Gruner challenges the simplistic assumption of Jewish inaction in the face of ever-worsening discrimination and oppression. Drawing on various new sources such as the logbooks of Berlin police precincts, trial materials from various German cities, as well as video testimonies held in the Shoah Foundation’s Visual History Archive, he demonstrates the prevalence of individual acts of resistance by German Jews from 1933 to 1945.
Professor Dr. Gruner received his Ph.D. with Habilitation from the Technical University of Berlin. He is internationally renowned and instrumental in enlarging the focus of Holocaust research internationally and in the development and utilization of the Visual Archives of Holocaust testimony for educational purposes. He is the author of 11 books and 80 articles. His most recent publication is Die Judenverfolgung im Protektorat Böhmen und Mähren. Lokale Initiativen, zentrale Entscheidungen, jüdische Antworten 1939-1945, the winner of the Sybil Halpern Milton Memorial Book Prize of the German Studies Association 2017 and finalist for the esteemed Yad Vashem International Book Prize: Berghahn Books (English) and to be published in Czech and Hebrew.
Sponsored by the Humanities Concentration, Soka University of America
Free and Open to the Public
Soka University of America is a private, four-year liberal arts college and graduate school in Aliso Viejo, CA. SUA is ranked in the Top 30 National Liberal Arts Colleges by U.S. News and World Report’s “Best Colleges 2020.” Soka University offers an 8:1 student/faculty ratio and study abroad for every undergraduate student. Founded upon the Buddhist principles of peace, human rights and the sanctity of life, SUA is open to top students of all nationalities and beliefs. About 60% of Soka University’s students come from the US and 40% have come from more than 50 other countries. Admitted students whose annual family income is $60,000 or less may be eligible for full tuition Soka Opportunity Grants. Additional grant opportunities are available for higher income levels.
Wendy Harder
Director, Community Relations
