Join our special guest speaker, Dr. Elizabeth Bryant Denham, for a 4-part series on The Holocaust. 

All talks at 11:00am  |  December 4, 11, 18 & January 8  |  Includes light breakfast

December 4:  Background to the Holocaust

In the first talk in the series, we will look at what occurred in Europe in the aftermath of World War I and the signing of the Treaty of Versailles.  This allowed Adolf Hitler to be democratically elected into power on a campaign of restoring traditional German morals and bringing Germany back to its former glory.  It will explore his earliest campaigns of terror and how these are going to be accepted by the German people.

December 11:  The Holocaust

This week we will explore how and why Hitler became so focused on eradicating Europe’s Jewish population.  We will look at why the German population supported his goals, how this campaign of terror started, the antisemitism that the Jewish population in the Third Reich faced, and the crimes that occurred in the death camps built in Poland once the so-called Final Solution had commenced.

December 18:  The United States and World War II

In our third talk, we will look at the United States during the Second World War, moving from the isolationist mentality of the 1930s to becoming involved in the war following the bombing of Pearl Harbor.  It will look at the war goals that the United States had and why Roosevelt chose to focus on a “Europe First Strategy” even though Japan was the power that attacked us.  We will look at both the Atlantic and Pacific fronts to explore how the strategy of the United States differed on each.

January 8:  US Responses to the Holocaust

Finally, we will discuss the response of the United States to the Holocaust, focusing on when governmental and Jewish leaders knew about the atrocities and what actions were and were not taken and explore why these choices were made.  We will also trace the role that antisemitism played during this era, as well as the other events that took US attention during this time.

More about our Guest Speaker:

Elizabeth Bryant Denham is a Professor in the History Department at Houston Community College in Houston, Texas.  She earned her Ph.D. from Florida State University in 2012 with her dissertation focusing on the impact of New York based Rabbi Stephen S. Wise on the United States’ response to the Holocaust.  Following graduation, Dr. Bryant spent two years in Poland, under the auspices of a Fulbright Grant, researching Nazi-deemed homosexuals in Auschwitz-Birkenau.  She is currently researching the relationship between the Vatican and the United States during the Second World War and how this impacted Roosevelt’s decisions.