by Staci I. Shipp

The annual Holocaust Lecture Series, the longest sustained lecture series about the Holocaust at any college or university, will celebrate its 20th year at Vanderbilt Oct. 20 through Nov. 5.

The series, focusing on "The Holocaust: What Does It Mean?," will feature a reading and discussion by Holocaust survivor and writer Chava Rosenfarb; a lecture by Paul B. Miller, assistant editor of a leading journal in Holocaust studies; films about the Holocaust including "The Trial of Adolf Eichmann" and a concert hosted by the Blair School of Music. All events are free and open to the public. Vanderbilt Associate Professor of History Michael D. Bess and Associate Professor of Composition Michael Alec Rose chair this year's series.

In 1977 the Holocaust Lecture Series was prompted by overwhelming student interest following a lecture Bev Asbury, then University chaplain, had given on the Holocaust. The students wanted to learn more about the genocide of six million Jews in Nazi Germany during World War II. With the help of Lou Silberman, who was chairman of the Department of Religious Studies at the time, and Marty Kraar, director of the Jewish Federation, Asbury set out to raise funds from the University and community to host four nights of lectures and discussions on the Holocaust.

Asbury had not expected its success to lead to an annual event, but over the past 20 years the series' success has brought to campus renowned speakers such as Nazi-hunter and Holocaust survivor Simon Wiesenthal and has resulted in the University's acquisition of a collection of artwork by Holocaust survivor Gyorgy Kadar.

"The 20th century has been an age of atrocity with so much violence and so many murders. The Holocaust is a paradigm of that atrocity. It is a strange century in which we live with such marvelous accomplishments, technological advancements and all the violence," said Asbury, University chaplain emeritus.

"The Holocaust happened in the heart of European and Christian civilization and it is forever now a possibility in every nation state," said the Presbyterian minister. "In order to come to terms with it and prevent it, it's got to be a part of education."

Michael C. Steinlauf, senior research fellow at the YIVO Institute for Jewish Research in New York, will open the lecture series by focusing on the vibrant cultural life of the pre-Holocaust Jewish community during his presentation, "The World that was Lost." Steinlauf, the son of Holocaust survivors, was one of the first students officially permitted to study Jewish history in Poland following the Holocaust. The lecture will take place at 7:30 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 19, in Room 103 of Wilson Hall.

Chava Rosenfarb, an award-winning writer of Yiddish poems, stories and plays, will share her memories of Jewish life before the war Monday, Oct. 20. A Holocaust survivor, Rosenfarb used a contraband pencil to write poems on the ceiling of a concentration camp barracks. Those poems survive in her novel, "The Tree of Life." Rosenfarb will present some of her writing as well as address the ethics of art in the presence of atrocity at 7:30 p.m. in Room 133 of the School of Law.

A multi-media presentation and discussion on Nazi propaganda and contemporary political campaigns will be presented Tuesday, Oct. 28, by John E. Splaine. An associate professor of education at the University of Maryland, Splaine teaches critical viewing and also serves as a consultant to CNN. The presentation, co-sponsored by Sarratt Film Committee, will be shown at 7:30 p.m. in Sarratt Cinema.

A student discussion titled "Holocaust: What's in a Word" will be held at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 30, in Room 118 of Sarratt. Jay Geller, lecturer in religious studies, will moderate the session.

The week's events will conclude with a performance at the Blair School of Music featuring music closely associated with Eastern European Jews who died in the Holocaust. "The Musical Life that was Lost" will be presented at 8 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 2, in Blair Recital Hall. The program will be performed by members of the Blair faculty and narrated by Rose.

"The Trial of Adolf Eichmann," an ABC documentary showing videotaped footage of the original trial, including interviews with witnesses and prosecutors, will be shown at 7 p.m. Monday, Nov. 3, at Sarratt Cinema. The film's producers, Daniel Polin and Kenneth Mandel, will lead a discussion immediately following the screening.

On Tuesday, Nov. 4, Paul B. Miller will address "Accounting for Genocide: Swiss Banks and the Holocaust." The lecture will begin at 7:30 p.m. in Room 103 Wilson Hall.

A student discussion titled "Why should a non-Jew care about the Holocaust?" will close the series Wednesday, Nov. 5. The session, moderated by Asbury, will begin at 6:30 p.m. in Room 118 of Sarratt.

Sponsors of this year's Holocaust Lecture Series include the Jewish Federation of Nashville and Middle Tennessee; American Jewish Committee, Nashville Unit; National Conference, Nashville Chapter and the Anti-Defamation League.

Vanderbilt University sponsors include the Divinity School, College of Arts and Science: departments of comparative literature, English, history and religious studies; the School of Law, Office of the Provost, Office of Student Affairs, Sarratt Student Center, Margaret Cuninggim Women's Center, The Freedom Forum First Amendment Center, Project Dialogue, Office of the University Chaplain and Vanderbilt Affiliated Ministries: Baptist Student Center, Presbyterian Campus Ministry, Reformed University Fellowship, Saint Augustine's Episcopal Chapel, United Methodist Ministry, Vanderbilt Catholic Community and Vanderbilt Jewish Community.

The Holocaust Lecture Series is held in conjunction with the Educational Outreach Project, a conference for high school students and teachers. It is sponsored by the Tennessee Holocaust Commission and will be held at Vanderbilt Oct. 27-28. For more information about the Educational Outreach Project, call Ruth Tanner.