The Jews They Knew: Nazi Violence among Friends & Neighbors

Every Jewish person murdered in Auschwitz-Birkenau had been friends or neighbors with at least some non-Jewish people at one time. This talk will take a step back to the communities in which Jews had lived before deportation or Nazi occupation. It will explore the topic of violence among people who had previously coexisted in a civil society. How did friends and neighbors turn into Aryans and Jews? Why did some communities begin killing their Jewish neighbors? What made others more resilient, such that they did not join in these mass atrocities? How might we build those more resilient communities?

Dr. Andrew Stuart Bergerson, Professor of History, University of Missouri-Kansas City

Presented by the Midwest Center for Holocaust Education and Union Station Kansas City  in support of the exhibition Auschwitz: Not long ago. Not far away.