2008 Woodie Awards
Holocaust takes on historical perspective
Joe Thomas, Staff Writer
Issue date: 3/1/06 Section: News
On Feb. 21, students gathered in Warren Auditorium in Ives hall to hear a lecture about the Holocaust. The Holocaust Lecture series is a community-wide program, and SSU students may also take it for credit by enrolling in Sociology 305. The theme for spring 2006 is "Living with Genocide: Past, Present, Future," and it is facilitated by Myrna Goodman, Ilka Hartmann, and Barbara Lesch McCaffry.
Steve Bittner, from the History department, was this week's speaker. Bittner is currently on leave from the history department. Bittner is a fellow member of the National Council of Eurasian and East European Research. He received his BA from University of Michigan, Ann Arbor and his master's degree is from the University of Chicago. He recently finished editing the memoirs of Dmitri Sheperah, who was a colleague of the late soviet leader Joseph Stalin. His book is going to be published by Yale University Press later this year.
"I like to watch the ticker tape go across the screen, it convinces me even though I am always alone, there is always something important going on," Bittner said at the beginning of the lecture.
"During my four years at Sonoma State I have come to miss the vitality of the bigger university. This lecture series is an exception; this is exactly the sort of thing you would find at Berkeley or UCLA," Bittner said.
Bittner claims "There is an overlap in the scholarship of Stalinism and the scholarship of Nazism. They are joined by this concept we call totalitarianism." Bittner stressed that the word "totalitarianism" has almost been used as much as the word terrorism, to the point where it's meaning is void. "In regards to Stalinism and Nazism, despite all its flaws, I don't think the Soviet Union was ever genocidal."
Bittner says that "the Holocaust was a primarily Eastern European and Soviet event." The American view of the holocaust, according to Bittner, is that of "Anne Frank curled up in the attic of her apartment building in Amsterdam." Bittner points out that "three million Soviet Jews vanished in the holocaust."
Steve Bittner, from the History department, was this week's speaker. Bittner is currently on leave from the history department. Bittner is a fellow member of the National Council of Eurasian and East European Research. He received his BA from University of Michigan, Ann Arbor and his master's degree is from the University of Chicago. He recently finished editing the memoirs of Dmitri Sheperah, who was a colleague of the late soviet leader Joseph Stalin. His book is going to be published by Yale University Press later this year.
"I like to watch the ticker tape go across the screen, it convinces me even though I am always alone, there is always something important going on," Bittner said at the beginning of the lecture.
"During my four years at Sonoma State I have come to miss the vitality of the bigger university. This lecture series is an exception; this is exactly the sort of thing you would find at Berkeley or UCLA," Bittner said.
Bittner claims "There is an overlap in the scholarship of Stalinism and the scholarship of Nazism. They are joined by this concept we call totalitarianism." Bittner stressed that the word "totalitarianism" has almost been used as much as the word terrorism, to the point where it's meaning is void. "In regards to Stalinism and Nazism, despite all its flaws, I don't think the Soviet Union was ever genocidal."
Bittner says that "the Holocaust was a primarily Eastern European and Soviet event." The American view of the holocaust, according to Bittner, is that of "Anne Frank curled up in the attic of her apartment building in Amsterdam." Bittner points out that "three million Soviet Jews vanished in the holocaust."