HOLOCAUST SURVIVORS WILL BE AT UNIVERSITY

Five survivors of the Holocaust will participate in a panel discussion, and one of them will make an individual presentation as part of Southeast Missouri State University's observance of Holocaust Remembrance Week.

Harry Burger, author of the book "Biancastella: A Jewish Partisan in World War II" will make a keynote Common Hour presentation from 12:15 to 1:15 p.m. on April 21. The presentation is titled, "Resistance, Rescue and Remembrance."

Burger's book tells the story of his journey as a young man through the horrors of the Holocaust. Burger was an Austrian Jew whose father was imprisoned and sent to Auschwitz. The younger Burger and his mother went into hiding.

The title of the book, "Biancastella," is Italian for "white star," a title that Burger and others later assumed, sabotaging German operations, mounting defense attacks and capturing Nazis.

Burger serves on the board of the Holocaust Commission of St. Louis.

Following his lecture, Burger will join four other Holocaust survivors for a panel discussion from 3-5:30 p.m. in Crisp Hall's Dempster Auditorium. Joining him on the panel will be Jerry Koenig, Rudolf Oppenheim, Marylou Ruhe, and Jacques Braitberg. The panel discussion is free and open to the public.

Koenig and his family were forced to move into the Warsaw Ghetto. Confronting deportation to the Treblinka concentration camp, Koenig and his family hid on a small farm in Poland.

Oppenheim, as a German Jew, was forced to leave an "Aryan" school as a child. Oppenheim and his family emigrated to Shanghai, China, with 20,000 other German and Austrian Jews.

Ruhe survived the Lodz Ghetto in Poland, the Auschwitz death camp and several forced labor camps. She writes short stories based upon her memories of the Holocaust.

Other events scheduled during Holocaust Remembrance Week include a showing of the film, "Weapons of the Spirit," at 7 p.m. on April 19 in Dempster Auditorium. Dr. Mitchel Gerber, a Southeast professor of political science, will make a presentation on April 20 at 7 p.m. in Myers Hall.

Gerber will discuss his research on the French Resistance. He also will show and discuss the film, "Night in Fog."

Closing out the week will be a faculty forum titled, "Legacy of the Holocaust," which will be held at 3:15 p.m. on April 22 in Dempster Auditorium.

Several Southeast faculty members, including Gerber; Dr. Hamner Hill, professor of philosophy and religion; Dr. David Cameron, assistant professor of history; and Dr. Lynne Margolies, assistant professor of foreign languages, will discuss issues surrounding the Holocaust.