Pulitzer Winner Friedlander to Deliver Hallie Lecture

Pulitzer Prize winning author, historian and philosopher Saul Friedlander will deliver a presentation titled “Toward an Integrated History of the Holocaust” as the featured speaker at this year’s Hallie Lecture, which will be held at 4:15 p.m. on Thursday, Oct. 23 in Memorial Chapel.

Friedlander is the author of several books, most recently, The Years of Extermination: Nazi Germany and the Jews, 1939-1945, for which he was awarded the Pulitzer Prize. The book was a follow-up to the award-winning Nazi Germany and the Jews: The Years of Persecution 1933-1939, which was published in 1996. Both books rely on extensive analysis of historic documents, diaries, and other established resources to cast an objective eye on the social and political factors that nurtured national policies regarding the Jews in Nazi Germany, and that ultimately led to the practices that created the Holocaust.

“What Friedlander has done in this book is to combine traditional historical sources that chronicle the creation and implementation of Nazi policies regarding the Jews with individual Jewish testimonies in order to present a cohesive narrative that describes the social and political world that led to a national and international ethical blind spot that in turn allowed the Holocaust to happen,” says Ethan Kleinberg, associate professor of history, associate professor of letters, and director of the College of Letters. “It’s a tremendous opportunity to have him give the Hallie Lecture this year.”

Kleinberg says the Hallie Lecture was created by David Rhodes ‘68 to honor the late professor of philosophy, Philip Hallie. The lecture focuses on key ethical questions of our day.

On Oct. 24, Friedlander will conduct a faculty seminar sponsored by President Michael Roth.

The Hallie Lecture is sponsored by the College of Letters free and open to the public; seating in Memorial Chapel is first come, first served. For more information, contact Erinn Savage, secretary in the College of Letters at 860-685-2325 or esavage@wesleyan.edu.