Spring 2013 Holocaust Workshop

A Landscape of Graves: the Wehrmacht and the Holocaust

In leading his workshop on the Holocaust, Dr. Beorn will focus on answering educators’ questions about teaching the sensitive curricula that focuses on that era. Recent Holocaust studies have shed light on the experiences of residents in the small villages of Eastern Europe – those well beyond the borders of Nazi Germany. In the Soviet Union, for instance, open-air shootings resulted in the murder of 1.5 million Jews. Although Holocaust horrors in this region of Eastern Europe have received comparatively less attention in teaching and scholarship, Dr. Beorn’s research into those incidents enable him to relate personal experiences that shed new light on yet another component of Holocaust history.

Although Dr. Beorn will begin his workshop with a broad historical overview of the Holocaust and a general discussion of the research done over the past seventy years, his discussion will offer information related to the most recent studies of the Holocaust era. To facilitate the inclusion of this newest aspect of Holocaust history into current curricula, Dr. Beorn has selected The Diary of Samuel Golfard as the foundation of his workshop discussion.

A specialist in Modern German History and the Holocaust, Dr Beorn’s historical research and publications have focused on the history of Nazi Germany, as well as the ways in which that era impacted those living in Eastern Europe. He is exploring the study of subjects tangentially related to the Holocaust as well, such as that of the sexual violence perpetrated against Holocaust victims, and the genocide committed against other minority groups in recent decades. In that context, Dr. Beorn is working with a group of geographers and historians – all specialists in the field of Holocaust studies – who use geographic tools, specifically Geographic Information Systems, that permit better visualization of the Holocaust. Their research studies the physical landscape of the concentration camps, natural resources in the areas, camp proximity to the villages of victims, transportation into the camps, and other related camp components for which much documented data exists, but about which, heretofore, little has been written.

Dr. Beorn teaches a variety of courses on topics related to European History, such as 20th Century European History, Medieval History, History of the Holocaust, Eastern European History, European Jewish History, and the History of World Civilizations from antiquity to present. He is currently an Assistant Professor of History and the Louis and Frances Blumkin Professor of Holocaust and Genocide Studies at the University of Nebraska, Omaha. Additionally, he consults with programs at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C. and the Museum of Jewish Heritage in New York City.

Please contact Prof. Jo Behrens to register by 4 PM, February 11, 2013.

Dr. Beorn's Faculty webpage