Oakton Jewish Studies Events Focus on the Holocaust

Join Jewish Studies at Oakton this month for two free presentations that focus on one of the darkest chapters in human history: the Holocaust. Both events take place at the College’s Skokie campus, 7701 North Lincoln Avenue.

• Rescue Fantasies: Imagining the Holocaust for Young Audiences and Readers, Thursday, November 14, at 11 a.m. (Rooms P103/104). More than six million Jewish people perished at the hands of the Nazi regime during the Holocaust. The “Final Solution” also targeted gypsies, homosexuals, Jehovah's Witnesses, and the disabled. Since the end of World War II, several authors have used fantasy fiction to retell this grim story. But does the use of fantasy undermine the reality of the Holocaust?  Join Phyllis Lassner, Ph.D., professor at Northwestern University’s Crown Family Center for Jewish Studies, as she explores this issue. Lassner specializes in Holocaust education and research, including representation of the Holocaust in literature and film.
• Rumbula’s Echo: An Incredible Story of Holocaust Survival, Thursday, November 21, at 11 a.m. (Rooms A145/152). During the winter of 1941, 25,000 Jews were marched into “murder pits” in the Rumbula Forest near Riga, Latvia and killed. A new film, Rumbula’s Echo, traces this two-day massacre and Oakton will host an early preview of the documentary, a work in progress. Director Mitchell Lieber will be on hand to introduce excerpts, followed by a Q & A session with Sia Hertsberg, a massacre survivor. Although the documentary is incomplete, Rumbula’s Echo has received high praise at screenings in Chicago, Germany, Israel, Latvia, New York, and Washington D.C., as well as from genocide, Holocaust, and film experts.

These presentations are made possible with generous grants from the College’s Educational Foundation. For more information, contact Wendy Maier-Sarti, Oakton professor of history and coordinator of Jewish Studies, at (847) 635-1458 or jewishstudies@oakton.edu.