MONTREAL/November 12, 2004—
http://peace.concordia.ca
http://publicaffairs.concordia.ca
As part of the ongoing Peace and Conflict Resolution series, Concordia University presents three lectures to be given by Berit Reisel on the theme of The Struggle for Reconciliation in Norway. The lectures will be given on November 17th, 18th and 19th 2004.
The first lecture, titled Remedying Injustice and Nurturing Diversity: The Struggle for Post-Holocaust Reconciliation in Norway, will take place on Wednesday, November 17 at 6 p.m. in the D.B. Clarke Theatre, located in the basement of the Henry F. Hall Building (1455 de Maisonneuve Blvd. W). The second lecture is titled The History of the Holocaust in Norway and will be held on Thursday, November 18 at 4:15 p.m. in room H-415, located on the forth floor of the Henry F. Hall Building. The third event will be a workshop for the Montreal Institute for Genocide and Human Rights Studies, which is housed at Concordia, on the subject of Planning Oslo's New Holocaust Museum: Issues and Dilemmas in Human Rights Education, to be held on Friday, November 19 at 12:00 p.m. in the History Department Seminar Room (LB-608) in the J.W. McConnell Building (1400 de Maisonneuve Blvd. W).
In the horrors of the Holocaust, some 735 members of the small Norwegian Jewish community were gassed to death at Auschwitz, and 1800 were robbed of all their property by Norwegian Quislings and the German occupiers. After the Second World War, Norwegian civil servants and government ministers compounded the injury by withholding from Jewish survivors the rightful restoration of their assets and just compensation for their losses.
In 1997, the Norwegian government established a commission to trace Jewish property confiscated in Norway during World War II. Berit Reisel will explain how the minority report which she and Bjarte Bruland wrote not only compelled the Norwegian government to reject the recommendations of the majority of the commission members, but energized the government to initiate a ìhistorical and moral settlementî, advancing the integration of Jews and other religious minorities as equals in Norwegian civil society. Despite the its longstanding denial of the post-war injustices it had inflicted on survivors, Reisel, a Jewish psychologist, and Bruland, a Christian historian, prompted the Norwegian government to reverse its position.
Reisel will also expound on the design of the new Norwegian Holocaust history museum, soon to be opened in Oslo, the strategy for educating Norwegians about religious minorities in their midst adopted by the teaching arm of the museum, and the research agenda adopted by its educational centre. But most important of all, she will tell the story of Norwegians' struggle to confront their past and, by rendering justice, build a peaceful, harmonious and diverse civil society that will serve as an inspiration to all.
For more information about this symposium, contact Coordinated by Dr. Frank Chalk, Department of History, at (514) 848-2424 ext. 2404, or at drfrank@alcor.concordia.ca.
For updates about the series, please contact Laurie Lamoureux-Scholes at peace@alcor.concordia.ca.
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