For the last 37 years, Sonoma State University has taken the time to remember the 6 million lives lost during one of the most tragic events of our history by hosting the Holocaust and Genocide Lecture Series. In 1983, The Alliance for the Study of the Holocaust and Genocide was created at Sonoma State to share the stories of survivors, thus this lecture series was born. This year, the lectures are being held every Tuesday from January 26th to May 11th at 5:00 p.m. to 6:50 p.m. via Zoom.

“Those who began this collaborative effort between the community and members of the Sonoma State University faculty promised to let the world know of the atrocities that had occurred,” President of the Alliance, Dr. Barbara Lesch McCaffry stated at the beginning of the February 2nd lecture. “The initial intention was primarily to learn the facts, act on them, and never forget.”

For political science professor Diane Parness, the Academic Coordinator for the Holocaust & Genocide Lecture Series, remembering these incidents is imperative now more than ever.

“I think there’s no question that this relates completely to what’s been going in this country for many years,” Parness said. “It can become a part of [Sonoma State students] lives all too quickly. Certain segments of our country are facing this sort of repression or attack every day. We might not be completely aware of it, but we need to be!”

The lecture series also doubles as a General Education course in the D5 section, so students may take one of the three discussion sections and earn credit for attending as well. One of the main takeaways from the course, Parness says, is how these tragedies come to be.

“That’s one of the objectives of the course,” Parness said, “that students will be mindful of what circumstances lead up to a holocaust, what leads up to a genocide, and what creates what we call the ‘dry tinder’, what allows those stresses to ignite.”

Parness, a professor at SSU for 30 years, has been Academic Coordinator for the series for 7 years now, and even with a new online format, she is very optimistic for the future of the series.

“Typically, we can’t afford to bring in people from outside of the country, but now that we have Zoom, the expenses go down, so if this goes on, we’ll probably have a hybrid format.” Parness said. “We’ll have people coming physically to campus… and I hope we’ll always have this Zoom component so we can bring international scholars in.”

These guest speakers are some of the most knowledgable people in the field, as they’ve either studied the history of the Holocaust and genocides for a large portion of their lives, or they lived through it, and are survivors themselves.

“What we originally did in this Holocaust series was have as many survivors as possible come and speak about their experience,” Parness said. “Sadly, they’re passing on and there aren’t that many survivors left. Now we’re shifting to the second generation and many of them feel it’s imperative that they carry on the message.” That message has been retold throughout multiple generations and will continue to be told for those in the future.

The Alliance for the Study of the Holocaust and Genocide is encouraging students to attend this incredibly informative lecture series by making it as accessible as possible.

“If anyone is interested in receiving a Zoom link for any of the lectures, they need to send an email request to [email protected] by no later than 5 p.m. the day prior to the lecture.” McCaffry said in an email.

As those on campus and around the world remember those lives lost to these heinous acts, one must also remember to retain the information on how to prevent this and inform others, so something like this never happens again.

“I think that’s really one of the main and most important elements of this course,” Parness said, “to alert people to how imperative it is to take a stand and to not shy away from the news. Find out what’s going on. Read about what’s happening today, as well as 75 years ago.”