53rd Annual Scholars’ Conference (2023)
The central theme of the 53rd ASC was “(Dis)Continuities in the Third Reich.” 2023 marks the 90th anniversary of Hitler’s rise to power, the 85th anniversary of Kristallnacht in November 1938, and the 80th anniversaries of significant military losses and uprisings against the Nazis in 1943. The aim of this conference is to examine these major turning points in the history of the Third Reich, their impact on the persecution and systematic extermination of European Jews, and their subsequent remembrance.
2023 Keynote Speakers
Michael and Elaine Jaffe Lecture
Dr. Martin Dean, “1933, 1938, and 1943 – Continuity and Change: The Evolution of the Holocaust“
March 5 | There will be a pre-event reception at 8:30am with the lecture starting at 9am.
The years 1933, 1938, and 1943 all witnessed seismic shifts in Nazi policy that had a dramatic impact on the trajectory of the Holocaust. What remained constant was the barrage of anti-Semitic propaganda that intensified, if anything, as the tide of war turned against Nazi Germany after Stalingrad. From book burnings in 1933, to the torching of synagogues in 1938, and the incineration of corpses on a massive scale, the combination of harsh legal measures with all-consuming anti-Jewish violence made the Holocaust a constantly evolving component of Nazi policy from 1933 through 1943, and beyond.
Martin Dean received a PhD in European History from Queens’ College, Cambridge. He has worked as a researcher for the Special Investigations Unit in Sydney, Australia, and as the Senior Historian for the Metropolitan Police War Crimes Unit in London, where he participated as an expert witness and advisor in six Nazi war crimes trials. As a Research Scholar at the US Holocaust Memorial Museum, he was a Volume Editor for The Encyclopedia of Camps and Ghettos. His publications include Collaboration in the Holocaust (2000) and Robbing the Jews (2008), which won a National Jewish Book Award in 2009. He is based in Bethesda, Maryland and works as a Historical Researcher affiliated with the Babyn Yar Holocaust Memorial Center. His recent research projects include a detailed analysis of the Babyn Yar massacre combining aerial photography, ground photographs, and witness testimony. He is also the editor of Survival, by Ita Dimant, a Holocaust diary of the Warsaw and Czestochowa ghettos, which will be published by Academic Studies Press in 2023.
Martin Dean received a PhD in European History from Queens’ College, Cambridge. He has worked as a researcher for the Special Investigations Unit in Sydney, Australia, and as the Senior Historian for the Metropolitan Police War Crimes Unit in London, where he participated as an expert witness and advisor in six Nazi war crimes trials. As a Research Scholar at the US Holocaust Memorial Museum, he was a Volume Editor for The Encyclopedia of Camps and Ghettos. His publications include Collaboration in the Holocaust (2000) and Robbing the Jews (2008), which won a National Jewish Book Award in 2009. He is based in Bethesda, Maryland and works as a Historical Researcher affiliated with the Babyn Yar Holocaust Memorial Center. His recent research projects include a detailed analysis of the Babyn Yar massacre combining aerial photography, ground photographs, and witness testimony. He is also the editor of Survival, by Ita Dimant, a Holocaust diary of the Warsaw and Czestochowa ghettos, which will be published by Academic Studies Press in 2023.
Mitchell L. and Miriam Lewis Barnett Lecture
Glenn Kurtz, “Three Minutes in Poland: Discovering a Lost World in a 1938 Family Film“
March 5 | There will be a pre-event reception at 6:30pm with the lecture starting at 7:15pm
Glenn Kurtz is the author of Three Minutes in Poland: Discovering a Lost World in a 1938 Family Film, which was named a “Best Book of 2014” by The New Yorker, The Boston Globe, and National Public Radio. The Los Angeles Times called the book “breathtaking,” and it has received high critical praise in The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, The Chicago Tribune, and many other publications. A documentary film based on the book, Three Minutes—A Lengthening, directed by Bianca Stigter, co-produced by Academy Award-winner Steve McQueen, and narrated by Helena Bonham Carter, premiered at the Venice Film Festival in September 2021. It was an official selection of the Sundance Film Festival 2022 and was awarded the inaugural Yad Vashem Award for Excellence in Holocaust Documentary Filmmaking.
Mr. Kurtz is a 2019-2023 Presidential Fellow at Chapman University, Orange, CA, and the recipient of a 2016-2017 John Simon Guggenheim Foundation Fellowship.
In conjunction with Mitchell L. and Miriam Lewis Barnett Lecture, the film Three Minutes—A Lengthening was screened ahead of the conference free of charge at Studio Movie Grill in Richardson.
This documentary film is based on the book by Glenn Kurtz, Three Minutes in Poland. It is directed by Bianca Stigter, co-produced by Academy Award-winner Steve McQueen, and narrated by Helena Bonham Carter, premiered at the Venice Film Festival in September 2021. It was an official selection of the Sundance Film Festival 2022 and was awarded the inaugural Yad Vashem Award for Excellence in Holocaust Documentary Filmmaking. View the trailer online here.
For questions about the conference, please contact Cynthia Seton-Rogers at 972-883-2724 or email annualscholarsconference@utdallas.edu.
For questions about sponsorship opportunities, please contact Holly Hull Miori at 972-883-4119 or email hmiori@utdallas.edu.