A monthly audio series and podcast service, hosted by Committee on Conscience Project Director Bridget Conley-Zilkic, that brings you the voices of human rights defenders, experts, advocates, and government officials. Vital voices addressing one of humanity's most vital issues. The opinions expressed in these interviews do not necessarily represent those of the Museum.
Michael Ignatieff on Raphael Lemkin and the word "genocide."
Dragan Popovic, program coordinator with the Serbian non-governmental organization, Youth Initiative for Human Rights, discusses youth involvement in human rights issues and the impending final status decision for Kosovo.
Having spent the majority of his career teaching about the Holocaust and genocide, Claremont McKenna College Professor of Philosophy, John Roth, shares his thoughts on the ethical responsibility that memory imposes upon human beings. As discussed in "The Holocaust and the Common Good," an essay in his book, "Ethics During and After the Holocaust: In the Shadow of Birkenau," John discusses how memory shapes our values and our choices.
Do war crimes trials help create a shared historical understanding? Historian Donald Bloxham, this year’s J.B. and Maurice C. Shapiro Senior Scholar-in-Residence at the Holocaust Memorial Museum, speaks with Jerry Fowler about the effect of the Nuremberg trials of top Nazis on attitudes of the German public and of post-World War I trials of top Ottoman officials on attitudes of the Turkish public.
Nobel Peace Laureate Elie Wiesel discusses the importance of remembering and bearing witness.
Ambassador Morton Abramowitz, Senior Fellow at the Century Foundation and a former president of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, speaks with Jerry Folwer about the current situation in Kosovo and the United Nations’ Special Envoy for Kosovo, Martti Ahtisaari's, drafted plan to resolve the region’s so called final status. Ambassador Abramowitz recently had an article in Newsweek International arguing that it is time to decide about Kosovo.
Omer Bartov, John P. Birkelund Distinguished Professor of European History at Brown University, details the legacy of Raphael Lemkin, the Jewish lawyer from Poland who coined the term genocide. He also discusses whether mass violence is different today than earlier in human existence as well as the significance of the codification since the Holocaust of international prohibitions against genocide.
This interview is the first of three that Voices on Genocide Prevention is producing in conjunction with Facing History and Ourselves. Professor Bartov will participate in an online discussion on March 12th and 13th which you can join by registering here.
Howard Wolpe, Director of the Africa Program and Leadership Project at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, speaks with Bridget Conley-Zilkic about the a post conflict training program he has instituted in Burundi, and plans to continue with in Congo and Liberia. By working with both political leaders and civil society, Howard believes this program will create lasting peace and stability in areas of past and current conflict.
Peter Balakian, Professor of English at Colgate University, is author of the best-selling book, "Burning Tigris: The Armenian Genocide and America's Response." He discusses the grassroots movement to end the genocide, the media's coverage of the events, the political responses, and the relevance it has to the crises our world faces today.
Award-winning playwright, Catherine Filloux, discusses her latest play, "Lemkin's House," with Jerry Fowler. Catherine imparts her connection with Raphael Lemkin and his legacy, and she talks about how she first got involved with the subject of mass violence.
Museum