PRESS RELEASE
Zoryan Institute of Canada, Inc.
4211 Yonge Street, Suite 230
Toronto, ON, Canada M2P 2A9
Tel: 416-512-8600 Ext. 113
Fax: 416-512-1736
E-mail: pr@zoryaninstitute.org

Nazi Germany: The Armenians and the Jews

A Public Lecture by Prof. Eric D. Weitz

Tuesday Nov. 6, 7:30pm

The Temple Har Zion, 7360 Bayview Avenue West

&

Wednesday Nov. 7, 7:30pm

The Armenian Youth Centre, 50 Hallcrown Place

Toronto, Ontario, Canada

The first two genocides of the 20th century occurred in the German
imperial realm. In German South West Africa between 1904 and 1908, the
Germany military carried out genocide against the Herero and Nama
tribes. In the Ottoman Empire, the Ottoman Turkish Government, a German
ally, committed genocide against the Armenians in 1915 and 1916. The
German officers were integrated with the Turkish forces and consequently
were both unhappy witnesses to the Armenian Genocide and in some cases
were directly involved. Some of these German officials went on to become
Nazi leaders and supporters.

Prof. Weitz will explore the many points of interconnection between the
Armenian Genocide and the Jewish Holocaust, including the following:

The influence of the Armenian Genocide on Raphael Lemkin in his having
genocide declared a crime in international law;

The Nazi reaction to Franz Werfel’s novel, The Forty Days of Musa Dagh
and the novel’s impact on the Yishuv and on Jewish resistance during
World War II;

How the lack of punishment for the perpetrators of the Armenian Genocide
gave confidence to Hitler to declare in August 1939, when justifying to
his generals his plan to kill, oppress, and brutalize the Poles, "Who,
after all, speaks today of the annihilation of the Armenians," and
believe that he could get away with exterminating Jews and committing
other crimes against humanity.

Prof. Weitz, is the Distinguished McKnight University Professor of
History and Arsham and Charlotte Ohanessian Chair in the College of
Liberal Arts, University of Minnesota. His publications include A
Century of Genocide: Utopias of Race and Nation (2003) and Creating
German Communism, 1890-1990: From Popular Protests to Socialist State
(1997), both published by Princeton University Press.

The lectures are part of the United Jewish Association’s Holocaust
Education Week in Toronto, November 1-11, the largest such program in
the world, and are organized by the International Institute for Genocide
and Human Rights Studies (A Division of the Zoryan Institute), with the
participation of the Armenian Community Centre of Toronto, the Armenian
General Benevolent Union of Toronto, and the Canadian Jewish Congress
Ontario Region.

For more information visit or contact the
Zoryan Institute (416-250-9807 or zoryan@zoryaninstitute.org).

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress