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The Strassler Family Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies reaches out to the community in a variety of ways, including through public lectures and events, teacher training, and consultation with media on related issues. Year end reports provide detailed information about the Center's past activities.
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Year End Activities and 2008 Gift Report
Read the full report (PDF)
Letter from the Director
August 2007
Dear Friends,
“Human history becomes more and more
a race between education and catastrophe,”
H.G. Wells wrote in 1920. As Nazi
Germany stomped across Europe in 1941,
Wells reminded readers of his prediction.
“Is there anything to add? Nothing except:
. . . ‘I told you so. You damned fools.’”
And he added: “(The italics are mine.)”
The aim of the Strassler Center is to shape
human history by increasing the odds of
education over catastrophe. And our doctoral
students lead the way. “Your book
should be required reading for social
workers who deal with immigration,”
Jonathan Sarna, Braun Professor of American
Jewish History and Director of the
Hornstein Jewish Professional Leadership
Program at Brandeis University, wrote to
Beth Cohen about Case Closed. Based on
her dissertation, Case Closed investigates
the lives of Holocaust survivors upon their
arrival in America. Identifying the challenges
they faced and the help they
received, Cohen trains our eye on the
dilemmas of immigrants in America today.
Each student’s work provides a lens on the
world in which we live — and the world we
seek to create. Through Sarah Cushman’s
analysis of women perpetrators at Auschwitz-
Birkenau we understand the rise of
Pauline Nyiramasuhuko, accused of crimes
against humanity during the Rwandan
genocide. Tiberiu Galis’s study of transitional
justice casts light on the social
dynamics of post-totalitarian regimes. Jeff
on either side of the Polish-Soviet border
lays bare multi-levels of ethnic conflict.
Dottie Stone’s work on Jewish refugees
in South Africa foregrounds the issue of
race — how white are Jews? — and the
ever-changing politics of race. The subjects
these students probe — immigration,
gender and violence, tools of genocide,
ethnic conflict, race — elucidate the past,
and illuminate patterns, possibilities, and
options for the future. And these are but a
few of the topics our students tackle.
Every facet of our mandate — research,
teaching, and public service — increases
the odds of education over catastrophe.
Our public lecture series shone bright
with thoughtful perspectives on compelling
problems. Contrary to New York Times
columnist David Brooks’s worry that “people
are quick to decide that longstanding
problems are intractable and not really
worth taking on,” stood Elizabeth English
on the subject of Hurricane Katrina,
Edward Kissi on the parameters of genocide,
and Joanna Michlic on the memory
of the Holocaust in Poland today.
“The great aim of education is not
knowledge but action,” British social
philosopher Herbert Spencer asserted.
We at the Center would correct him: The
great aim of education is knowledge and
action. (This time, the italics are mine.)
We look to you for support, as we move
forward together.
Debórah Dwork
Rose Professor of Holocaust History
Director, Strassler Family Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies
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