As part of our “For the People” speakers series, in conjunction with the “Stories of Survival: Object. Image. Memory” exhibit, the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum is proud to present American historian Christopher Browning on Thursday, June 2 at 7pm in the museum’s Union Theater for his presentation on “Holocaust History and Survivor Testimony.”
Drawing on his research of a little-known Nazi labor camp in Poland, Browning will explore how the role of survivor testimony has evolved over the decades since the Holocaust — from the 1950s, when little testimony was given with survivors seeking instead to focus on the future, to the rise of court proceedings in the 1960s, through the 1990s, when the methodology of testimony changed yet again to cover survivors’ entire lives, not just during the Holocaust — to provide not only evidence for the conviction of perpetrators, but an accurate and authentic account of atrocities not to forgotten by future generations.
Doors will open at 6pm. Attendees are invited to visit our new exhibit, "Stories of Survival: Object. Image. Memory." until the program begins at 7pm.
Plus, educators who attend this event and complete an evaluation survey will receive 1.5 CPDUs
The “For the People” speakers series features bold thinkers with unique insights into the people of yesterday, today, and tomorrow.
ABOUT THE SPEAKER: Christopher Robert Browning is an American historian, known best for his works on the Holocaust. Browning received his doctorate from the University of Wisconsin–Madison in 1975. He taught at Pacific Lutheran University from 1974 to 1999, eventually becoming a Distinguished Professor. In 1999, he moved to the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill to accept an appointment as Frank Porter Graham Professor of History. Browning retired from teaching in Spring 2014. His research focuses on the Nazi Germany and the Holocaust. He has written extensively about three issues: first, Nazi decision- and policy-making in regard to the origins of the Final Solution; second, the behavior and motives of various middle- and lower-echelon personnel involved in implementing Nazi Jewish policy; and thirdly, the use of survivor testimony to explore Jewish responses and survival strategies. Some of his most notable publications include Ordinary Men: Reserve Police Battalion 101 and the Final Solution in Poland (HarperCollins, 1992), The Origins of the Final Solution: The Evolution of Nazi Jewish Policy, September 1939–March 1942 (University of Nebraska Press, 2004), and Remembering Survival: Inside a Nazi Slave Labor Camp (W.W. Norton & Co., 2010).
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