Albert M. Tapper Annual Lecture
Reception at 5:00pm
Speaker: Doris Bergen (Professor; Chancellor Rose and Ray Wolfe Chair in Holocaust Studies, University of Toronto)
Religious conversion during the Holocaust, specifically conversion from Judaism to Christianity, is an uncomfortable topic that has received little scholarly attention. Two widespread assumptions are that conversion was rare (at least official conversion, as opposed to “passing”) and that it made no difference, since Nazi antisemitism was based on “race”. This talk revisits those assumptions using a wide array of sources, most of them personal accounts, from the time and since, by Jews and non-Jews. Conversion, it turns out, was not rare, and in certain places and circumstances, it was a significant factor in the survival of individuals and even families. Should conversion to Christianity therefore be considered as an aspect of rescue? Or is it more appropriately understood as a component of genocide (intentional destruction of a religious or ethnic group “as such”)?
Sponsored by the Albert M. Tapper Charitable Foundation
