Conference Announcement: Fourth Annual Powell and Heller Holocaust Conference, March 17-19, 2011

ACCH Quarterly Vol. 17, No. 1, March 2011

Conference Announcement: Fourth Annual Powell and Heller Holocaust Conference, March 17-19, 2011, Pacific Lutheran University, Tacoma, WA.

By Robert Ericksen, Pacific Lutheran University

Robert Ericksen, one of our ACCH editors and the Kurt Mayer Chair in Holocaust Studies at Pacific Lutheran University, Tacoma,WA, will host the Fourth Annual Powell and Heller Holocaust Conference at Pacific Lutheran University on March 17-19, 2011.

This year’s conference will focus on broad issues of genocide, beginning the evening of March 17 with a film, The Last Survivor. Both co-directors and one of the survivors depicted in the film will lead a discussion of genocide as it occurred in Rwanda, in the Congo, in Bosnia, and in the Holocaust. Friday will include a presentation on the Rwandan Genocide by Carl Wilkens, an American who defied advice and stayed in Rwanda throughout the killing. It will also include a presentation on “Conscience and Rescue,” with Patrick Henry speaking about his book on rescue at Le Chambon. Nelly Trocmé Hewett will also speak during that session, commenting on her experience as a teenager while her parents, Pastor André and Magda Trocmé, led the successful Huguenot rescue of some 5000 Jews in that French village. Saturday will be devoted to the arts and the Holocaust, with presentations on both visual arts and poetry. The dramatic group, Living Voices, will give a presentation on Anne Frank “Through the Eyes of a Friend;” and two colleagues from Concordia University in Portland, Kevin Simpson (Psychology) and Joel Davis (History), will speak on “Explaining Evil: Cross-disciplinary Approaches to Teaching the Holocaust.”

The conference is free and open to the public. Further information can be found at www.plu.edu, or by contacting Robert Ericksen,ericksrp@plu.edu.