University of Leicester's Holocaust Awareness Week Series

The University of Leicester Stanley Burton Centre for Holocaust and Genocide Studies is holding a series of three lectures and linked discussions as part of Holocaust Awareness Week from 24-27 October.

"A Young Girl's Flight from the Holocaust," Ruth David's experience of Kindertransport after the horror of Kristallnacht in 1938, will follow the opening of Holocaust Week at the University by Professor Douglas Tallack, Head of the College of Arts, Humanities and Law, on Monday, 24 October at 17:30pm (Lecture Theatre 3).

A presentation of Imre Rochlitz's book "Accident of Fate - A Personal Account" will take place on Tuesday, 25 October at 17:30 (Lecture Theatre 2).  The author discusses the twisted paths on which he survived the Holocaust.  His book tells of his escape from Austria to Yugoslavia in 1938, and from German Nazis and Croatian Fascists during WWII.  It also pays tribute to the people who helped him to survive. After a discussion between the author and Dr. Alexander Korb of the Stanley Burton Centre, clips from the film "The Righteous Enemy" will be shown, in which Joseph Rochlitz, the author's son, documented his father's survival.

"Challenging the Myth of Silence," a talk by Professor David Cesarani, will look at the impact of survivor writers and historians on early post war responses to the destruction of European Jewry, and will challenge conventional perceptions that Holocaust survivors kept silent.  His lecture takes place on Thursday 27 October at 17:30pm (Lecture Theatre 2).

Professor Cesarani is the Research Professor of History and Director of the Holocaust Research Centre at Royal Holloway, University of London.  He is the former director of research at the Wiener Library, the UK's largest Holocaust research centre, and was awarded the Order of the British Empire for his services to Holocaust Education in 2005.

The Holocaust Awareness Week lecture series at the University of Leicester is free of charge and open to the public.  More information can be found in the official leaflet and poster.