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American Experience: America and the Holocaust Series

Lectures curated around American Experience: America and the Holocaust Series, which examines the complex social and political factors shaped America's response to the Holocaust.

For a short time, the US had an opportunity to open its doors, but instead erected a "paper wall," a bureaucratic maze that prevented all but a few Jewish refugees from entering the country. It was not until 1944, that a small band of Treasury Department employees forced the government to respond.

On April 12, 1951, the Knesset (Israel's parliament) proclaimed Yom Hashoah U'Mered HaGetaot (Holocaust and Ghetto Revolt Remembrance Day) to be the 27th of Nissan, which falls beyond Passover but within the time span of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising. The name later became known as Yom Hashoah Ve Hagevurah (Devastation and Heroism Day) and even later simplified to Yom Hashoah. Holocaust Remembrance Day, an opportunity to commemorate all the martyrs and survivors of the Holocaust, is observed in April every year.

This series also includes lectures curated around the impact and legacy of the Holocaust, as well as other incidents of genocide still going on in our world today.

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