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Communication Associate: Public Relations | Lori Melton | lmelton@d.umn.edu | (218) 726-8830
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April 6, 2007
Susan Beasy Latto, Director, UMD Public Relations 218 726-8830 slatto@d.umn.edu
Deborah Petersen-Perlman, Director, UMD Office of Equal Opportunity (218) 726-7528 or 726-6849 dpeters1@d.umn.edu
For more information see:
http://www.d.umn.edu/cla/holocaust/events/2007calendarofevents.php


UMD Baeumler-Kaplan Holocaust Commemoration
Sets Series of April Special Events


Keynote Speech is April 19

Reidar Dittman.

Reidar Dittman, professor emeritus from St. Olaf College, will be the featured keynote speaker for this year's Baeumler-Kaplan Holocaust Commemoration Lecture, Thursday, April 19, at 4p.m. in the UMD Kirby Student Center Ballroom. The title of Professor Dittmann's speech, "Die Vogelein Schweigen im Walde: The Birds Keep Silent in the Forest" comes from one of Goethe's most famous poems, "Wanderers Nachtlied II: Wayfarer's Night Song II." The forest described in the poem is where Buchenwald concentration camp was built.

Professor Dittmann, a member of the Norwegian resistance during WWII, was arrested on at least two separate occasions for his anti-Nazi activities while a student in Norway in the early 1940's - once for leading a song at a rally. He was captured by the Nazis when he was 22 years old and spent a year in Buchenwald concentration camp. Dittmann brings a different history and perspective than previous Baeumler-Kaplan speakers.

The annual Baeumler-Kaplan Holocaust Commemoration this year focuses on Buchenwald concentration camp and will present several additional events about Buchenwald through out month of April. All events are free and the public is cordially invited.

April 1-30
"An Exhibit on Buchenwald"
Displayed at the UMD Library

April 11
"An Introduction to Buchenwald"
4 p.m. UMD Rafters
Leonore Baeumler, originator of the Baeumler-Kaplan Holocaust Commemoration Lecture series, and Karl Bahm, associate professor of European History at the University of Wisconsin, Superior will present this educational session on Buchenwald.

April 18
"Fateless" -a film-
7 p.m. Bohannon Hall, room 90
The film "Fateless", based on the book by Nobel laureate Imre Kertesz, recounts the experiences of a young Jewish teenager who is sent to Buchenwald concentration camp toward the end of the war. There will be a discussion following the film.

April 19
"Die Vogelein Schweigen im Walde: The Birds Keep Silent in the Forest"
4 p.m. in the UMD Kirby Student Center Ballroom
Keynote Speech by Reidar Dittmann

The Baeumler-Kaplan Holocaust Commemoration Program was established by Walter Baeumler, Goldie and Walter Eldot and Mortrud Kaplan to insure that the lessons of the Holocaust could be disseminated to the public at large, and especially to young people, in the Twin Ports Area.

Information about BUCHENWALD concentration camp:
Buchenwald was one of the largest concentration camps established by the Nazis. The camp was constructed in 1937 in a wooded area on the northern slopes of the Ettersberg, about five miles northwest of Weimar in east-central Germany. Before the Nazi takeover of power, Weimar was best known as the home of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, who embodied the German enlightenment of the eighteenth century, and as the birthplace of German constitutional democracy in 1919, the Weimar Republic. During the Nazi regime, "Weimar" became associated with the Buchenwald concentration camp. The SS carried out shootings in the stables and hangings in the crematorium area. Most of the early inmates at Buchenwald were political prisoners. However, in 1938, in the aftermath of Kristallnacht, German SS and police sent almost 10,000 Jews to Buchenwald where they were subjected to extraordinarily cruel treatment.

For more information see:
http://www.d.umn.edu/cla/holocaust/events/2007calendarofevents.php


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