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Santa Clara Educational Forum: Representations of Persecution in Nazi Germany and Northern California

Public Program
A young child wears an identification tag in Salinas, California, in 1942 before being sent to an incarceration center for Japanese and Japanese Americans during World War II. Library of Congress

A young child wears an identification tag in Salinas, California, in 1942 before being sent to an incarceration center for Japanese and Japanese Americans during World War II. Library of Congress

Please join us for the 2020 Joseph and Rebecca Meyerhoff Annual Lecture on February 19 at 5 p.m. and a pedagogy roundtable on February 20 at 10 a.m. at Santa Clara University, as well as a panel discussion on February 20 at 6 p.m. at the Triton Museum of Art.

Although different in many ways, the history of racism in Nazi Germany and Northern California illuminates some universal phenomena that manifested in the distinct historic persecution of groups considered “others” in society. By exploring emerging research in different historical disciplines on the representation of historical persecution, this educational forum seeks to examine the lasting impact of persecution on memory and identity for targeted communities. Drawing upon historical examples of persecution of communities in Northern California, as well as victims of National Socialism in the Third Reich and Nazi-occupied and allied Europe, participants and audiences will grapple with how, when, and why governments and ordinary people supported, complied with, ignored, or resisted targeted oppression and racial violence in different historical contexts. This program aims to enrich campus dialogue while forging connections with diverse audiences that will ensure the vitality of Holocaust studies in an increasingly interdisciplinary and multicultural academic landscape.

Keynote Lecture and Panel Discussion: The 2020 Joseph and Rebecca Meyerhoff Annual Lecture, Holocaust Archaeologies: Materiality, Methods, and Representation, delivered by Caroline Sturdy Colls. Sites of Trauma, Sites of Memory: Understanding Victims’ Experiences of Persecution panel to follow.

This keynote lecture and panel discussion will examine the archaeological exhumations of sites of trauma relating to the Holocaust, Japanese incarceration, and the persecution of Indigenous Peoples as well as efforts to memorialize these locations of suffering. Academics from the United Kingdom and universities around the Bay Area will discuss what is discovered when scholars look below the surface in areas where historical trauma was erased and forgotten.

Pedagogy Roundtable
Teaching Challenging Topics in the College Classroom

Scholars renowned for their pedagogy and excellence in teaching will discuss teaching challenging topics in the college classroom. This roundtable asks these scholars to share topics that shut down conversations among their students and the tools they use to navigate these obstacles to ensure that students can comfortably talk about the histories and issues that make them uncomfortable. This roundtable is open to the public, but is especially tailored to faculty, teachers, and students. The conversation will be followed by a question-and-answer session where audience members can gather tools for use in their own classes.

Panel Discussion
Citizenship, Belonging, and the Trauma of Exile

By looking at three distinct historical experiences of forced displacement, this panel discussion will analyze how racially-motivated persecution and removal affected minority groups in Europe and the United States. It will explore the similarities, differences, and intersections between these histories to facilitate larger conversations about persecution and racism. 

The keynote, roundtable, and panel discussion are free and open to the public.

For more information, please contact kcrago-schneider@ushmm.org.

Co-presented with Santa Clara University, Triton Museum of Art, and the following entities of Santa Clara University: the Office for Diversity and Inclusion; the Center for Arts and Humanities; the Department of Art and Art History; and the de Saisset Museum

The Museum will be recording and photographing this event. By your presence, you consent to the Museum’s use of your image.

Related

  • Eugenics

    A significant number of Nazi persecutory policies stemmed from theories of racial hygiene, or eugenics. Eugenics was a scientific movement of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. While today eugenics may be regarded as a pseudoscience, it was seen as cutting edge science in the early decades of the twentieth century. Eugenics societies sprang up throughout most of the industrialized world, particularly in the United States, Great Britain, and Germany.

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  • Nazi Imperialism

    Some scholars have examined Nazi ideology and policies towards Eastern Europe within the context of imperialism and colonialism. In the modern era, many states have pursued policies of imperialism and colonialism that were based in part on racist assumptions about the indigenous people they sought to control. 

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  • How and Why Did Ordinary People Contribute to the Persecution of Their Jewish Neighbors?

    Many Europeans witnessed acts of persecution, including violence against Jews and, later, deportations. While few were aware of the full extent of the Nazi "Final Solution," this history poses difficult and fundamental questions about human behavior and the context within which individual decisions are made. Understanding more about how and why the Holocaust was possible raises challenging questions about modern society and the ease with which people can become complicit in human rights violations.

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