Indiana University of Pennsylvania will present programs by two Holocaust scholars and two Holocaust survivors on October 16 at IUP's Eberly College of Business and Information Technology auditorium. The theme of the programs is “Police During the Nazi Era: Why Is It Relevant to Study This Today?”
The presentations, all free and open to the community, are as follows:
“Policing in the Weimar Republic and the Nazi Era”
2:00 to 3:30 p.m.
Presented by Dr. Peter Black, retired senior historian and director of the Division of the Senior Historian at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
Dr. Black will speak about policing during the Weimar Republic and Nazi period and will discuss Germany between the years 1918 and 1938, with a brief look ahead to the war years (1939-1942) for German police officials, involving awareness of policing within an emergency wartime context. Dr. Black will also discuss his work as a historian with the Department of Justice. During his time with the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, he was a volume editor for The Encyclopedia of Camps and Ghettos. His publications include Ernst Kaltenbrunner: Ideological Soldier of the Third Reich (1984); Collaboration in the Holocaust (2000); and Robbing the Jews (2008), which won a National Jewish Book Award in 2009. He currently works as a Historical Consultant for Babi Yar Holocaust Memorial Center and is a film documentary advisor. Dr. Black has held various teaching positions at George Mason University, Catholic University, American University, and Columbia University.
“The Investigation of Nazi War Crimes Conducted by Scotland Yard”
3:45 to 4:45 p.m.
Presented by Dr. Martin C. Dean
Dr. Dean, born in London, is a former researcher for the Special Investigations Unit in Sydney, Australia; former senior historian for the Metropolitan Police War Crimes Unit in London; and is an author and former Applied Research Scholar at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. Dr. Dean will discuss his work for the Scotland Yard and Australian Special Investigations, which led to five Nazi collaborators appearing in court in the 1990's. As an historian, he conducted research with the KGB and other archives to document hands-on participation in the Holocaust. He worked closely with detectives and lawyers to uncover evidence that would stand up in court 50 years after events.
“Two Holocaust Survivors Recount Their Stories of Survival”
5:00 to 6:00 p.m.
Presented by Moshe Baran and Harry Schneider
Baran will discuss his experiences during his 1920's escaping from a forced labor camp into the Belorussian forest to join a partisan fighting unit. He will show his documentary film, A Look into the Eyes of Resistance.
Schneider, a child Holocaust survivor who hid in the forests of Poland and Russia, will discuss his experiences and will show his documentary film, On the Run: One Man's Struggle for Survival. Schneider is the chair of the Holocaust Survivors Speakers Bureau in Pittsburgh.
The presentations are sponsored by IUP's Holocaust Remembrance Events Organization Committee, which is chaired by Shannon Phillips-Shyrock. The committee membership includes Dennis Marsili, director, IUP Criminal Justice Training Center; Pearl Berman, chair, Department of Psychology; Joe Shyrock, IUP IT Services senior systems analyst; and Schneider. Cadets studying in IUP's Municipal Police Academy will be attending the programs.
“While our current time is different than what happened in Germany at the time of the Nazis, it is always relevant for us to study and remember this time period,” Dr. Phillips-Shyrock said. “For example, police are trained to follow commands, but what happens when these commands become unethical? There were laws in Germany to protect human rights but somehow, they turned into laws that directed police to round up certain segments of the population deemed to be ‘racially inferior.' Mr. Marsili has been actively involved in planning this program, and we are very pleased to have the IUP cadets to take part in this programming.”
IUP's Municipal Police Academy offers full- and part-time programs for individuals to complete Act 120 training, which is required for persons wishing to be a police officer in Pennsylvania.
“We have a holistic approach to training our cadets,” Marsili said. “We want our cadets to have top-notch practical training, but we want them to have empathy and an understanding about current events and the perceptions that the public has about police,” Marsili said. “Cadets needs to be well educated, and part of that education is an understanding of past events, including examples of how police powers can be abused as they were during the Holocaust,” Marsili said.
For more information about the presentation or about IUP's Holocaust Remembrance Events Organization Committee, contact Dr. Shyrock at s.shyrock@iup.edu. For more information about the IUP Municipal Police Academy, contact Marsili at dmarsili@iup.edu or call the Academy at (724) 357-6943.