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Holocaust
Expert to Speak on Thursday
by Ariel Duncan
Raul Hilberg, Professor Emeritus at the University of Vermont and
legendary Holocaust scholar, will teach a mini-course entitled “Moral
Problems in Hitler’s Europe: Perpetrators and Victims” that
begins this Sunday and culminates with a public lecture on Thursday
in Hallock Auditorium. An internationally recognized historian, Hilberg
has served on the President’s Commission on the Holocaust and
the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Council. His landmark work, The Destruction
of the European Jews, was the first historical analysis of the Holocaust
to utilize extensive Nazi documentation. His comprehensive knowledge
has given him preeminence in the field, where he has frequently testified
as an expert witness. “He piles up fact after fact until it’s
a mountain. It’s a tremendous scholarly service, and in a way,
a moral statement. The facts speak for themselves,” Professor
of Politics Marc Blecher said of Hilberg’s work method.
Type “Raul Hilberg” into an internet search engine and .18
seconds later, roughly 6,000 matches appear. His name stands out from
site summaries in French and German; his factual statements stand
out among the absurd claims of Holocaust-deniers who frequently cite
him as a major opponent. Known for his extensive work with thousands
of Nazi documents, Hilberg has a reputation among his contemporaries
for meticulousness.
About a year ago, when Jewish Studies department chair Shulamit Magnus
invited Hilberg to teach a mini-course in spring 2002, he responded
“Well, if I’m alive.” At 75, Hilberg is very much alive
and well — and in demand. Four years ago, Magnus heard him speak
at Stanford. “It’s one thing to read someone’s book;
it’s another to encounter them as a lecturer,” she said.
His “combination of scholarship and teaching presence” prompted
the decision to invite him to Oberlin. It will not be his first time
in Oberlin; he was invited to teach here in the late fifties, but
declined. Always the archivist, he sent Magnus a copy of the 1956
letter offering him the position.
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