Max Eisen Lecture on Holocaust Studies
You and yours are warmly invited to attend Trent University’s inaugural Max Eisen Lecture in Holocaust Studies, on Monday, September 23 at 7 p.m. at Market Hall Performing Arts Centre (140 Charlotte St., Peterborough). The Shattering of the Assumptive World: A Family Story will be presented by Dr. Peter Suedfeld, Dean and Professor Emeritus, University of British Columbia. This event is free and open to the public, but you are asked to pre-register here to attend. More information on Dr. Suedfeld and a lecture abstract can be found here.
Lecture Abstract:
Two families, joined in marriage, lived as ordinary Hungarian citizens for several centuries. Their accustomed way of life changed drastically when in the 1940s the Holocaust focused on the Jews of Hungary. Over the next few years, they lost all rights, possessions, and protection from the state. Eventually, all younger men became slave labourers for the army; other family members were deported to concentration camps, mostly to Auschwitz, where many were murdered; and most of the rest were crammed into the ghetto. Peter, the sole child in both families, was hidden in an orphanage. The talk describes the diverse nature of their experiences and of how the survivors rebuilt their lives, with new homes, new work, and in some cases new families.
