News Center

Meadville, Pa. – March 21, 2005 – Allegheny College has scheduled a series of events to commemorate Holocaust Remembrance Month, which this year will take as its theme “Memory as Art.”

Friday, April 1, 7:30 p.m., Ford Chapel: The College’s Silberman Recital Series will present Brian Ganz, who will play a program of Chopin pieces as well as two selections by Israeli composers Sergiu Shapira and Ram Da-Oz in observance of Holocaust Remembrance Month. Widely regarded as one of the leading pianists of his generation, Ganz has appeared as soloist with such orchestras as the St. Louis Symphony and the St. Petersburg Philharmonic. His work has been described by one critic as “note-perfect cascades, melodies soaring into space and microscopically sculpted phrases.”

Tuesday, April 5: Allegheny College will sponsor a bus trip to Slippery Rock University for Dr. Leon Bass’s presentation “Racism, Anti-Semitism and the Holocaust.” As a 19-year-old African-American sergeant, Bass was one of the soldiers who liberated the infamous Buchenwald concentration camp. He will speak about his experiences in a segregated combat engineers battalion training in Texas and Arkansas, the Battle of the Bulge, and the liberation of Buchenwald, which took place 60 years ago this April. The program will begin at 4 p.m. in Miller Auditorium. For more information, contact the Office of Religious Life at Allegheny College, 814-332-2800.

Tuesday, April 12, noon, Schultz East Alcove: Krzysztof Antonczyk, director of archives at the Auschwitz Museum in Poland, will share his extensive knowledge of art and artists during a lunchtime discussion on “The Artists of Auschwitz.” The presentation will focus on paintings and other art objects created by prisoners of Auschwitz. To make reservations to attend, contact the Office of Religious Life at 814-332-2800.

Tuesday, April 19, 7 p.m., Quigley Hall, Room 101: Local scholars will describe the historical and cultural context and reflect on the moral failures in the Darfur Genocide in Africa. Panelists are Dr. Edmund Abegg, Edinboro University; Dr. Eric Boynton, Allegheny College; Dr. Christine Colin-Burns, Mercyhurst College; Dr. Dennis Hickey, Edinboro University; Dr. Barry Jackisch, Gannon University; and Dr. Ali Mohamed, Edinboro University.

All events are free and open to the public. The events at Allegheny College are part of a larger series of Holocaust Remembrance Month events presented by the Holocaust Remembrance Network, which also includes Edinboro University, Gannon University, the Jewish Community Council of Erie, Mercyhurst College and Penn State Behrend. For more information about Holocaust Remembrance Month events in the region, visit www.thehrn.org.
– AC –
Where 2,000 students with unusual combinations of interests, skills and talents excel.