UNC Asheville to Host Talk by Leading Holocaust Expert Christopher Browning

UNC Asheville’s Center for Jewish Studies will host a talk on “Holocaust Denial in the Courtroom: The Historian as Expert Witness” by leading Holocaust expert Christopher Browning at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, March 23, at UNC Asheville’s Reuter Center. During the talk, Browning will describe his experience as an expert witness in recent high-profile court cases involving Holocaust deniers, including David Irving and Ernst Zuendel. The event is free and open to the public.

Browning, the UNC Chapel Hill Frank Porter Graham Distinguished Professor of History, specializes in the history of the Holocaust and of Nazi Germany. His research has focused on the decision-making process that launched the Final Solution and the motivation of the perpetrators. He has published seven critically acclaimed books in the field, including two that have been awarded the National Jewish Book Award in the Holocaust category: “Ordinary Men: Reserve Police Battalion 101 and the Final Solution in Poland” and “The Origins of the Final Solution: The Evolution of Nazi Jewish Policy, September 1939-1942.” He is currently working on a history of Nazi factory slave labor camps in a Polish town, based on 250 survivor interviews.

The event is sponsored by UNC Asheville’s Center for Jewish Studies with support from the North Carolina Center for Jewish Studies’ Revson Lectureship.

For more information, call UNC Asheville’s Center for Jewish Studies at 828/251-6576.

Media Contacts:

• Dr. Richard Chess, UNC Asheville Center for Jewish Studies Director, 828/251-6576

• Jill Yarnall, UNC Asheville Public Information Assistant Director, 828/251-6526