As part of Holocaust Memorial Week, speakers present the power of movies telling history

In "The Devil's Arithmetic," a 1999 film starring Kirsten Dunst and Brittany Murphy and produced by Dustin Hoffman, a modern Jewish teen finds herself magically transported from a Seder feast to a concentration camp during World War II.

A different take on "The Wizard of Oz," the movie explores travel through time and space, friendship and values. By drawing on a well-known story, the film tells the story of the Holocaust through a framework most children can understand, according to Lawrence Baron, Nasatir Professor of Modern Jewish History at San Diego State University.

As part of the 2007 Holocaust Memorial Week at Oregon State University, Baron will visit Corvallis on Monday giving talks on how the Holocaust is portrayed in movies.

During his afternoon presentation, "Not in Kansas Anymore: Holocaust Movies for Children," Baron will draw from research conducted for his latest book. He'll also show film clips.

As the Holocaust is increasingly incorporated into public education, and is sometimes introduced as early as fourth grade, the film industry has responded by making age-appropriate movies that tell the story of what happened to Jews during World War II.

Children get the most out of movies where the main characters are their own age and are dealing with some of the same issues they are, according to Baron.

Disney has made three Holocaust-themed movies: "A Friendship in Vienna," "Swing Kids" and "Miracle at Midnight."

Baron's favorite Holocaust movie appropriate for younger audiences is "The Island on Bird Street," which he describes as "'The Pianist' for kids."

"A child is left in the ghetto with one book, 'Robinson Crusoe,' and uses that as his model to survive and create his own island," Baron said.

On Monday evening, Baron will examine how the Holocaust is portrayed in adult movies.

"General trends in Holocaust films follow general trends in television, cable and feature films," he said.

Prior to the 1980s, most Holocaust films were fictionalized stories, and the central characters were perpetrators or collaborators, rather than Jews.

More recently, there's been a shift toward autobiographical and biographical movies that focus on an individual's story, according to Baron, who cited "Schindler's List," "Europa Europa," "Fateless" and "The Pianist" as examples.

The love story is a very common theme in Holocaust movies, particularly love between a Jew and a non-Jew.

"It's Romeo and Juliet except set in the Nazi period," Baron said.

Examples of this type of conflicted romance can be seen in "Marriage in the Shadows" and "The Last Metro."

Increasingly, multicultural characters such as gypsies are appearing in Holocaust movies, as are homosexuals, Baron said.

The 1999 film "Amiee and Jaguar," for example, centers around two women, one German and one Jewish, who fall in love during World War II.

Since 1987, OSU has sponsored a week of Holocaust Memorial programs each spring, in partnership with the City of Corvallis and the Corvallis School District. While most events take place on campus, others are at local middle and high schools.

In addition to the Holocaust, programming spotlights a different example of ongoing genocide each year. This week OSU will bring Stephanie Nyombayire, a representative of the Genocide Intervention Network, to campus to discuss the situation in Darfur. (See below.)

Central to the week's programming is testimony given by Holocaust survivors, according to event organizers. Last year Jack Terry spoke about his experience in concentration camps, and this year Portland husband and wife Leslie and Eva Aigner will talk about how they survived internment.

The theme of week's events is "Remember the past, change the future," which Tom Sherry says is key to preventing another Holocaust.

"Unfortunately, genocidal events around the world continue to occur," said Sherry, a member of the Holocaust Memorial Committee. Sherry is an adjunct faculty member in the history department at OSU. He's also the director of the Corvallis Institute of Religion sponsored by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

"Learning from the Holocaust requires active remembering," he said. "If we really want to make a difference in how people treat each other and react to each other, education is the best way."

Rwanda native to speak of Darfurian genocide

In her Thursday presentation, Rwanda native Stephanie Nyombayire will examine the situation in Darfur, including the murders, rapes and other human-rights violations that have engulfed the region since 2003.

The death toll is estimated to be in the hundreds of thousands, and several million Darfurians have been displaced. Famine and disease are widespread.

Nyombayire personally lost 100 family members in the genocidal campaign in Rwanda in 1994.

She has visited Darfurian refugee camps and heard the testimony of victims. Her 2005 trip to Chad was documented in the film "Translating Genocide."

Also in 2005 Nyombayire introduced former President Bill Clinton at the Campus Progress National Student Conference on behalf of Genocide Intervention Network, where she urged the audience to "always follow our words with action."

She often speaks on American campuses as a representative of the Genocide Intervention Network, an organization founded in 2004 at Swarthmore College (where Nyombayire is a student) to combat genocide in general and the Darfurian genocide in particular.

"Stephanie's visit to campus marks enormous progress in raising awareness at OSU for Darfur," said Talia Filipek, a sophomore studying recreation resource management in the College of Forestry.

Filipek founded the OSU chapter of STAND, a nationwide student anti-genocide coalition.

"Not only is she a remarkable speaker from her firsthand experience in Darfur, Rwanda and peacekeeping work, but she is a college student," Filipek said. "To see someone our own age making such a difference, especially after her life-altering experiences, will be very inspirational."

More information about the Genocide Intervention Network is available online at www.genocideintervention.net

To learn more about STAND, see www.standnow.org

Mary Ann Albright covers higher education. She can be reached at maryann.albright@lee.net or 758-9518.