Workshop on Holocaust and Rwanda Genocide Testimonies Returns to UM-Flint this Summer
July 13th through July 17th this summer, UM-Flint will once again offer a unique Holocaust Workshop on our campus.

Presenting again this year will be Dr Kenneth Waltzer, a past Winegarden Visiting Professor at UM-Flint and Professor Emeritus and former Director of Jewish Studies at MSU and our own Dr Theodosia Robertson, Associate Professor Emerita of History. Joining them this you will be Dr Dauda Abubakar, Assistant Professor of Africana Studies and Political Science, also of UM-Flint.

Attendees will include local and visiting educators, graduate students, and community members interested in studying or teaching genocide materials. Participants may choose the three-day secondary educator track or the five-day intensive research track. SCECH credits are available for teachers. Attendance at the workshop conveys 20 continuing education credits (20 CE) to all participants.

Africana Studies
Assistant Professor
Thompson Library is proud to support the annual workshop presentations through our library resources, and in particular through our access to the Shoah Foundation Visual History Archive.
Per a recent post in the College of Arts & Sciences blog:
Much of the workshop will focus on UM-Flint’s access to the USC Shoah Foundation‘s database of audio and visual testimonies from survivors and witnesses of genocides. Over 52,000 video testimonies of the Holocaust alone are housed within the database.
According to Emily Newberry, Web Services Coordinator and Reference Librarian at the Thompson Library, “We are one of the few institutions in the world who subscribe to the Shoah Visual History Archive through our subscription with Ann Arbor.
Participants will have full access while they are here, to use the archive and learn how to use testimonies with the full database. After they leave, they may either come back and use it as a guest, or they can access a subset of freely available videos called VHA Online. Secondary educators have access to an educational module tool called iWitness, which also uses this free subset of videos in a format where they are included within modules for classroom use.”

As always, Emily is available to help anyone who would like to use these resources from our library.
We would like to thank the CAS bloggers for their support of this program, and for including mention of the Thompson Library participation.
To read the complete blog post, see the University of Michigan-Flint, College of Arts & Sciences blog, or click here: CAS article
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For more information, or to register for the workshop, visit the Summer Workshop website. If you have questions, email ENewberr@umflint.edu or call (810) 424-5302.
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(Click any image to enlarge)


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Georg Wippern statement to the Court, after the Second World War, confirmed his role in the economic plunder of Jewish valuables:
“In this context I want to mention that in the beginning I had nothing to do with jewellery and valuables. But then I was asked to come to Pohl in Berlin, who from then on put me in charge for the registration and delivery of valuables and jewellery. On this occasion I learned they that they were Jewish property. Because of that I wanted to refuse handling this task, but finally in a fierce battle of words was referred by Pohl to the Bruning Emergency decree from the year 1932.
According to the Heinrich Bruning Emergency Decree where there was given an order that non-registered foreign currency and precious metal were due for confiscation. Enforcement of this law was an obligation of the Reich’s finance authorities.
At this meeting I heard for the first time the name Wirth. Because Wirth initially delivered the confiscated jewellery and valuables in a disorderly condition at the Reichsbank in Berlin, now this work should be done by me, nothing but as a purely administration specialist
In this context I refer to the statements which I made at the Public Prosecutors Office in Hamburg. According to this, Wirth was obliged to deliver the valuables to me. This way I came to know Wirth. I want to emphasise that those jewels and valuables delivered to me not only came from the extermination camps but also from SS and Police Leaders in Warsaw and other places.”
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Photo taken during the official visit of US Rep. Frank Wolf.
This United States Congress image is in the public domain. This may be because it is an official Congressional portrait, because it was taken by an employee of the Congress as part of that person’s official duties, or because it has been released into the public domain and posted on the official websites of a member of Congress. As a work of the U.S. federal government, the image is in the public domain.


By The Dilly Lama and used under Creative Commons license.
See Tweet from CAS about the upcoming Workshop:
#UMFlint summer #holocaust & #genocide testimony workshop. #SCECH credit. http://t.co/CJT6N28NvT #research #michigan pic.twitter.com/J4RXShSgqe
— UM-Flint CAS (@UMflintCAS) May 19, 2015