Fighting Antisemitism and Preserving the Memory of the Holocaust: Advances in Greece and Europe?

Lecture by Leon Saltiel, Director of Diplomacy, Representative at UN Geneva and UNESCO, and
Coordinator on Countering Antisemitism for the World Jewish Congress

Sunday, February 2, 2025
4:00 p.m.
The Harry and Yvonne Lenart Auditorium, The Fowler Museum at UCLA
Reception to follow

Event is free but advanced registration is requested.
RSVP: https://forms.gle/qeSd5APvr7EewWAG6

Description: This year marks the 80th anniversary from the liberation of the Auschwitz-Birkenau death camp and the end of the Second World War, which resulted in the Holocaust of 6 million Jews in Europe and North Africa by the Germans and their collaborators. Since then, countries have been grappling with how to deal with this past but also with antisemitism, which is scarily showing its ugly face again, threatening democracy, the rule of law and peaceful coexistence. Eighty percent of Jews in Europe feel that antisemitism has grown in their country in recent years. This lecture will focus on these challenges, and a way forward, using Greece as a case study, a country with a turbulent past which is trying to heal its wounds.

Bio: Dr. Leon Saltiel is a historian specializing on the Holocaust in Thessaloniki, Greece. He holds a Ph.D. in Contemporary Greek History from the University of Macedonia, in Thessaloniki, Greece, and has been a post-doctoral researcher at the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies in Geneva, Switzerland and the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki. His publications include The Holocaust in Thessaloniki: Reactions to the Anti-Jewish Persecution, 1942–1943 (Routledge 2020), which won the 2021 Yad Vashem International Book Prize for Holocaust Research, and ‘Do Not Forget Me’: Three Jewish Mothers Write to their Sons from the Thessaloniki Ghetto in Greek (Alexandria 2018), English (Berghahn 2021) and French (Denoël 2023). He also serves as Director of Diplomacy, and Representative at UN Geneva and UNESCO, for the World Jewish Congress.

This event is held under the auspices of the Embassy of Greece in the USA, Consulate General of Greece in Los Angeles and made possible thanks to the Stavros Niarchos Foundation (SNF).

Gefyra (Bridge) is a collaborative program established by the UCLA SNF Center for the Study of Hellenic Culture and the SNF Centre for Hellenic Studies at Simon Fraser University with support from the Stavros Niarchos Foundation (SNF). Gefyra’s mission is to connect students, faculty, and communities along the West Coast of North America with Greek scholars, artists, and other creators, so that they can together explore expansive and imaginative approaches to Greek culture and knowledge production. The program additionally supports academic conferences and cultural projects that bridge the West Coast and Greece.

Presented by:

For inquiries, please contact hellenic@humnet.ucla.edu

Parking information to be provided.