138 MTSU SERVES AS HOST FOR BIENNIAL HOLOCAUST STUDIES CONFERENCE

MTSU SERVES AS HOST FOR BIENNIAL HOLOCAUST STUDIES CONFERENCE
Internationally Known Holocaust Scholar Gerhard Weinberg Among Featured Speakers

(MURFREESBORO, Tenn.)—Distinguished scholars will join Nazi concentration camp survivors and some of the American military veterans who liberated them as they explore the effects of the Holocaust on Nov. 8-10 during the eighth biennial Holocaust Studies Conference at MTSU in the university’s James Union Building.
“Questions of Memory and Conscience” is the theme of the three-day event, which will include “Countering Holocaust Denial in the Middle East: A New Approach,” a 1:15 p.m. Nov. 8 presentation by Dr. Robert Satloff, among its highlights.
Dr. Nancy E. Rupprecht, chairwoman of the MTSU Holocaust Studies Committee, said, among the many academics participating in the conference will be Gerhard L. Weinberg, an internationally recognized German scholar and expert on World War II, who will present the keynote address, “The Nuremberg Trials and the Holocaust,” at 7 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 8, in addition to participating in two other featured conference presentations.
A professor emeritus of history at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, Weinberg is the scholar who discovered the secret, unpublished sequel to Hitler’s Mein Kampf among the reams of German documents captured by the Allies during World War
II.
Additionally, Weinberg is the subject of the History Channel’s acclaimed 2004 documentary titled “Hitler’s Lost Plan.” This documentary will be shown at 2 p.m. Wednesday, Nov. 7, as part of a preconference Holocaust exhibit at the Linebaugh Library in Murfreesboro. Admission to the showing is free and open to the general public.
Rupprecht, MTSU history professor, said the 4:15 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 10, conference panel discussion, ”Survivors and Liberators,” will get under way with a military color guard, then honor Holocaust survivors and the Allied troops who freed them.
“For this event, U. S. Army veterans, and Holocaust survivors will tell the audience about a variety of extraordinary experiences,” she explained, “including what it was like to liberate a death camp, what it was like to attempt to survive in concentration, work and extermination camps, what it was like to be a hidden child or an émigré during the Holocaust and how terrifying it was to attempt to live ‘underground’ by passing as Aryan.”
New to this year’s conference will be an entire day, Nov. 12, aimed at K-12 teachers, Rupprecht added. In addition to the Survivors/Liberators session, the day’s activities will include a 2:30 p.m. performance by nationally known pianist Claudia Stevens, who will read the words of Fanya Fenelon, director of the Auschwitz Women’s Orchestra, and play the music of the orchestra she directed. Both the performance by Stevens and the Survivors/Liberators session will be free and open to the general public.
“This year’s conference will be a truly notable event, (and) a powerful and poignant experience is in store for both the participants and the audiences,” Rupprecht remarked. “ In addition to the public session described above, the academic sessions include scholarship in a rich variety of forms—papers, discussions and exhibits, as well as film, music and a live dance performance.”
For more information on the 2007 Holocaust conference, including a detailed schedule that lists conference events that are open to the public, please access its Web site at www.mtsu.edu/~holostu. Those interested in attending the academic sessions sponsored by conference organizers may find registration forms and information on the site.
For additional information by phone or via e-mail, please contact Connie Huddleston, associate conference chairwoman, at 615-494-7628 or chudd@mtsu.edu.


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• ATTENTION, MEDIA: To request interviews with Holocaust conference organizers or speakers, please contact Lisa L. Rollins in the Office of News and Public Affairs at MTSU at lrollins@mtsu.edu or by calling 615-898-2919.