Primo Levi and the Germans: After the Holocaust how is forgiveness possible?

A talk by Alvin Rosenfeld, Jewish Studies, Indiana University.
7:00 PM Monday, May 15th, 2006,
Stevenson College, Fireside LoungeUCSC.

Is forgiveness possible after the Holocaust? Some say "yes"; Levi, however, implicitly says "no." His goal was to understand the Germans and, equally if not more importantly, to do what he could to get them to understand themselves. He tried over 40 years to do just that and came to the conclusion that he failed on both counts. Professor Rosenfeld's lecture will try to explain the nature of his quest and why, in the end, it did not succeed.

Alvin Rosenfeld is the author of Imagining Hitler and A Double Dying: Reflections on Holocaust Literature, and has edited Thinking About the Holocaust: After Half a Century and co-edited Confronting the Holocaust: The Impact of Elie Wiesel. He has served as scholarly consultant to many Jewish institutions and organizations including the Anti-Defamation League and the American Jewish Committee, and he was appointed by the President of the United States to a five-year term as a member of the United States Holocaust Memorial Council.

This talk is sponsored by the UCSC Jewish Studies Program and Humanities Division.