Colorado Mesa University’s 15th annual Holocaust Awareness Series sponsored by CMU’s Social and Behavioral Sciences Department will take place March 26-31.
The Holocaust Awareness Series is an interdisciplinary series of events and seminars that investigates aspects of modern genocide and roughly coincides with the commemorations surrounding the Days of Remembrance of the Victims of the Holocaust.
The events focus on the origins, events and experiences of the Holocaust, as well as genocide in the modern era. Guest speakers will give presentations on the groups systematically targeted by the Nazi regime and discuss government-sponsored genocides such as the Armenian and Cambodian genocides; ethnic cleansing and genocide in Rwanda, Iraq and the Balkan region as well as current genocides in Myanmar, Nigeria and the Sudan.
The week will open with the dedication of the Field of Flags and a moment of silence on Monday, March 26, at 10:50am. Located on the field southwest of the University Center, the Field of Flags display represents the different groups targeted by the Nazis during World War II. Flags will be on display through March 31.
At 5:30pm on Monday in Houston Hall, Room 138, there will be a screening of the film What Our Fathers Did. This documentary is about the meeting of three men - a human rights lawyer researching the Nuremberg trials who has lost members of his family to the Holocaust; the son of “the Butcher of Poland,” a convicted Nazi who was responsible for the slaughter of millions; and the son of a high-ranking Nazi official. Discussion will follow.
All events are free and open to the public.
