Holocaust Scholar Michael Berenbaum to Speak at Western Washington University

Press Release

Acclaimed Holocaust Studies scholar and Academy Award-winning film producer Michael Berenbaum will visit Western Washington University and deliver the inaugural lecture for the Ray Wolpow Institute for the Study of the Holocaust, Genocide, and Crimes Against Humanity at 7:30 p.m. on Wednesday, Oct.19, in Arntzen Hall 100 on Western’s campus.

The presentation is free and open to the public; free public event parking will be available in Lot 12A – formerly the “gravel lot,” but now paved - on South Campus.

Berenbaum is a writer, lecturer, and teacher consulting in the conceptual development of museums and the development of historical films. Currently, he is director of the “Sigi Ziering Institute: Exploring the Ethical and Religious Implications of the Holocaust” at the American Jewish University in Los Angeles, where he holds a professorship in Jewish Studies.

Berenbaum is the author of more than 20 books, scores of scholarly articles, and hundreds of journalistic pieces and has been in leadership positions at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington D.C. and the Survivors of the Shoah Visual History Foundation at the University of Southern California. In film, his work as co-producer of “One Survivor Remembers: The Gerda Weissman Klein Story” was recognized with an Academy Award, an Emmy Award and the Cable Ace Award. Berenbaum was the historical consultant on The Shoah Foundation’s documentary “The Last Days” that won an Academy Award for the best feature-length documentary of 1998.

His lecture will focus on the importance of international Holocaust education, exploring why and how it is relevant in our contemporary world. 

This event is made possible with the generous support from the Friends of the Ray Wolpow Institute Fund, the Kohlmeier Mikulencak Fund for Holocaust & Genocide Studies, the President’s Office, the Equal Opportunity Office, the Graduate School, the College of Business and Economics, the College of Fine and Performing Arts, the College of Humanities and Social Sciences, the College of Science and Technology, the Western Libraries, the Institute for Global Engagement, the Karen W. Morse Institute for Leadership, the departments of English, History, and Modern & Classical Languages, and Sociology, as well as the AATG Center of Excellence German program.

For more information, contact Sandra Alfers, director, Western Washington University’s Ray Wolpow Institute for the Study of the Holocaust, Genocide, and Crimes Against Humanity, at (360) 650-7427, or sandra.alfers@wwu.edu.