WHAT:

 “FDR was the Best: The Best of His Generation in dealing with the Holocaust, the Best of His Successors in Dealing with Genocide; but That is No Compliment!”

This free talk will reevaluate the role of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt in years leading up to the Holocaust, and in the years when Germany was perpetrating the War Against the Jews. It will consider his actions in relationship to the other issues that were pressing on the Presidential agenda and in relationship to the political, economic and war agenda.

Also discussed will be FDR’s role in relationship to other contemporary world leaders, and in dialogue with the actions of American Presidents in the face of genocide. Among the issues to be addressed are:

• The Bombing of Auschwitz question, about which the lecturer has edited a book.
• Zionism and antisemitism, as well as the scope of the economic crisis.
• The events leading up to the war, and the war itself.
• The Presidential election season.

WHEN:

3 p.m., Sunday, May 15, 2016

WHERE:

Holocaust Memorial Center, Zekelman Family Campus, 28123 Orchard Lake Road, Farmington Hills, MI 48334

ABOUT THE SPEAKER:

Michael Berenbaum has worked to ensure the world never forgets the Holocaust or the lessons learned from it. He is director of the Sigi Ziering Institute at the American Jewish University, where he also is a professor of Jewish Studies. Berenbaum was previously president and CEO of the Survivors of the Shoah Visual History Foundation and director of the United States Holocaust Research Institute at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum, which he helped create. He has been involved with the development of Holocaust museums and memorial centers in Illinois, Mexico City, Philadelphia, Macedonia, New York, Arizona, Texas and at Belzec.

SPONSORS: 

Wayne State University’s College of Liberal Arts and Sciences
Guy Stern Endowment in Exile and Holocaust Studies
Holocaust Memorial Center Zekelman Family Campus
MASCO Corporation Foundation
PNC Foundation
Detroit Jewish News
Cohn-Haddow Center for Judaic Studies
Hillel of Metropolitan Detroit