The Stanley Burton Centre for Holocaust and Genocide Studies has been extremely active in the past month, with a second highly successful conference organised in conjunction with the School of Law on genocide and a further series of lectures next week. ‘A Contextual View of Genocidal Intent’ explored the concept of intent from a variety of perspectives, and saw experts in law, social sciences, history and beyond come together to debate the topic.

The conference included the Sixth Aubrey Newman Lecture, provocatively titled ‘Proving Genocidal Intent - Is it really so difficult?’, and from the intense debates throughout the organisers conclude that more dialogue between disciplines is needed. A full report on the conference is available online.

The Centre’s work in researching and promoting awareness of genocide and the Holocaust continues apace next week with a series of talks by Holocaust survivors and a noted expert during the Centre’s Holocaust Awareness Week.

Holocaust Awareness Week lecture series

The Week opens on Monday 24 October, with ‘A Young Girl’s Flight from the Holocaust’, Ruth David’s experience of Kindertransport after the horror of Kristallnacht in 1938 (5.30pm in Ken Edwards Lecture Theatre 3).

On Tuesday 25 October is a presentation of Imre Rochlitz’s book ‘Accident of Fate – A Personal Account’. The author discusses the twisted paths on which he survived the Holocaust. His book tells of his escape from Austria to Yugoslavia in 1938, and from German Nazis and Croatian Fascists during WWII. It also pays tribute to the people who helped him to survive. After a discussion between the author and Dr Alexander Korb clips from the film ‘The Righteous Enemy’ will be shown, in which Joseph Rochlitz, the author’s son, documented his father’s survival (5.30pm, Ken Edwards Lecture Theatre 2).

Finally, on Thursday 27 October Professor David Cesarani, Research Professor of History and Director of the Holocaust Research Centre at Royal Holloway, University of London, will look at the impact of survivor writers and historians on early post war responses to the destruction of European Jewry, and will challenge conventional perceptions that Holocaust survivors kept silent. His lecture ‘Challenging the Myth of Silence’ takes place at 5.30pm in Ken Edwards Lecture Theatre 2.

• University press release