The Quadrangle

Issue date: 11/15/06 Section: Arts & Entertainment

Professor Frederick Schweitzer, Director of Manhattan College's Holocaust Resource Center, introduced Dr. Debórah Dwork before she addressed students, faculty, and Bronx residents on November 7. Her discussion of Auschwitz's role in the Holocaust in Smith Auditorium reflected her extensive research and her passion for spreading awareness through education.
Dwork is a Rose Professor in Holocaust Studies and Modern Jewish History at Clark University, and Schweitzer briefly discussed her scholastic accomplishments, among which are authoring a number of books that focus on different aspects of the Holocaust. She also participates in public service projects also to spread genocidal awareness and education.
Dwork's book, Children With a Star: Jewish Youth in Nazi Europe was published in 1993 and describes experiences of children and adolescents involved in the Holocaust. According to Clark University's History Department, Dwork's work has been translated into German, Italian, Dutch, and Japanese, and the Canadian Broadcasting Company aired a documentary based on her book in 1993.
In 1996 Dwork and historian Robert Jan van Pelt collaboratively wrote Auschwitz, a study of how the town of Auschwitz evolved into a concentration camp that destroyed the Jews. Dwork and van Pelt suggest that Auschwitz was central to the Nazis' attempt to rebuild Central Europe according to their "Edenic vision" of a German Europe. According to Clark University, Auschwitz examines the town's origins in 1270, traces its development into a killing center, and discusses Nazi architectural plans and political decisions.
Auschwitz influenced PBS and BBC's production of two documentaries entitled "Blueprints of Genocide" and "Nazi Designers of Death." Dwork and van Pelt's work also inspired "Auschwitz: Inside the Nazi State," a seven part series broadcasted in January 2005. The book also received the National Jewish Book Award in 1996.
In 2002 Dwork and van Pelt also coauthored Holocaust: A History. Holocaust traces the tragedy's development from the middle ages to modernity and describes Jewish history in the Western Hemisphere. According to Clark University, Dwork and van Pelt confront social, political, and cultural aspects of German atrocities, as well as World War II's connection to genocide. Holocaust also raises questions of asylum and examines Jewish reactions and global attitudes toward Nazi terror.
Dwork and van Pelt's next collaboration, Flight From the Reich: A History of Jewish Refugees, will be available in 2007. Their project discusses refugee experiences during the Holocaust and integrates historical evidence of public events and personal memory--it reveals public violence's effect on individual lives.
In addition to publishing, Dwork's other academic credentials further demonstrate her dedication to education. Dwork was a Guggenheim Fellow, a Fellow of the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, and a Fellow of the American Council of Learned Societies. She delivers lectures to students at all educational levels and conducts workshops to increase teachers' knowledge of the Holocaust.
Dwork is also the founder and director of the Strassler Family Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies at Clark University. The Center conducts research and educates historians, Holocaust museum curators, government agencies, non-government organizations, and students. The Center uses scholarship to combat genocide and sponsors public lectures and activities to educate individuals of various backgrounds.

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