130 Holocaust Scholars Urge: Prosecute Sudan’s President for Genocide

News Release
September 15, 2008

Washington, D.C. – One hundred and thirty leading Holocaust scholars from around the world have signed a petition urging the International Criminal Court to proceed with the prosecution of Sudanese president Omar al-Bashir for his role in the Darfur genocide.

The ICC’s chief prosecutor recently announced plans to seek al-Bashir’s arrest, but the Arab League, African Union, China, and Russia are trying to prevent action against al-Bashir.

“Prosecuting al-Bashir will help stop the Darfur genocide and will send a powerful warning to future would-be killers,” said Dr. Rafael Medoff, director of the Washington-based David S. Wyman Institute for Holocaust Studies, which organized the petition. “The governments that are trying to protect al-Bashir should be ashamed of themselves.”

The petition marks the first time that an organized group of Holocaust and genocide scholars is getting involved in the escalating controversy over the attempts to rescue Bashir from prosecution.

The signatories, who come from the United States, Russia, Canada, Israel, England, Germany, and Australia, include the most distinguished figures in the field of Holocaust and genocide studies, many of whom seldom take part in public protests. The 130 signatories include:

* Rabbi Dr. Irving (Yitz) Greenberg, past chairman of the United States Holocaust Memorial Council; and Dr. Michael Berenbaum, former research director of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.

* Dr. Eugene J. Fisher, longtime associate director of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, and Dr. Gemma Del Duca, co-director of the National Catholic Center for Holocaust Education.

* Dr. Gregory H. Stanton, president of the International Association of Genocide Scholars and the watchdog group Genocide Watch; Prof. Henry R. Huttenbach, founder and editor of the Journal of Genocide Research; and Prof. Israel W. Charny , editor of the Encyclopedia of Genocide.

* Prof. David Bankier, head of Yad Vashem’s International Center for Holocaust Studies; Prof. Yehuda Bauer, former director of Yad Vashem’s International Center for Holocaust Studies; and Prof. Zeev Mankowitz, director of Yad Vashem’s Center for the Study of the Aftermath of the Holocaust.

* Dr. Ilya Altman, co-chair of Russia’s Research and Educational Holocaust Center.

The petition also compares the efforts by Bashir’s allies to the position of the U.S. State Department in the 1940s, which advocated prosecuting only a limited number of Nazi war criminals.

The controversy surrounding the State Department’s position on prosecuting Nazi war criminals is discussed in Dr. Medoff’s new book, Blowing the Whistle on Genocide: Josiah E. DuBois, Jr. and the Struggle for a U.S. Response to the Holocaust, which was published this week by Purdue University Press.

The complete text of the petition, with all the signatories, follows below.

======================

The David S. Wyman Institute for Holocaust Studies

September 15, 2008

Hon. Luis Moreno-Ocampo
International Criminal Court
The Hague

Dear Mr. Moreno-Ocampo:

As scholars who write or teach about the Holocaust, we strongly support your efforts to prosecute Sudanese president Omar Hassan al-Bashir for his role in the Darfur genocide.

We are concerned by recent media reports that the Arab League, the African Union, and the governments of China and Russia, are pressuring you and the International Criminal Court to refrain from indicting al-Bashir, because of their political, economic, and military relationships with the Sudanese regime.

During the years of the Nazi genocide, too, there were those who put politics ahead of justice. The U.S. State Department and the British Foreign Office advocated prosecuting only a limited number of Nazi war criminals, in order to improve prospects for postwar relations with Germany. They were wrong then, and those who are seeking to protect Omar al-Bashir are wrong now.

We urge you to resist pressure from al-Bashir’s allies. Prosecuting genocide is not always popular–but it is necessary to deter future atrocities.

Sincerely,

Prof. David S. Wyman
Josiah E. DuBois, Jr. Professor of History (emer.)
University of Massachusetts at Amherst
Author, The Abandonment of the Jews: America and the Holocaust 1941-1945

Prof. Irving Abella
Shiff Professor of Canadian Jewish History
York University, Toronto
Author, None Is Too Many: Canada and the Jews of Europe, 1933-1948

Prof. Mark J. Allman
Merrimack College
Author, Who Would Jesus Kill? War, Peace and the Christian Tradition

Dr. Ilya Altman
Co-chairman, Russian Research and Educational Holocaust Center
Co-editor, The Unknown Black Book: The Holocaust in the German-Occupied Soviet Territories

Prof. Alex Alvarez
Department of Criminology & Criminal Justice
Northern Arizona University
Author, Governments, Citizens, and Genocide

Prof. Shlomo Aronson
Hebrew University and University of Arizona, Tucson
Author, Hitler, the Allies, and the Jews

Prof. Marie L. Baird
Associate Professor of Theology & Director of Graduate Studies
Duquesne University
Author, On The Side of the Angels: Ethics and Post-Holocaust Spirituality

Prof. David Bankier
Professor of Holocaust Studies, Hebrew University of Jerusalem
Head of International Research Center of Holocaust Studies, Yad Vashem
Author, Hitler, the Holocaust and German Society

Prof. Omer Bartov
John P. Birkelund Distinguished Professor of European History and
Professor of German Studies, Brown University
Author, The Holocaust: Origins, Implementation, Aftermath

Dr. Paul R. Bartrop
Honorary Fellow, Faculty of Arts
Deakin University, Australia
Author, Dictionary of Genocide (2 vols)

Prof. Yehuda Bauer
Professor of Holocaust Studies (Emer.), Hebrew University
Academic Adviser, International Center for Holocaust Studies, Yad Vashem
Author, A History of the Holocaust

William Bemister
Recipient of Emmy and CINE Golden Eagle Awards
Producer-Correspondent, The Search for Mengele

Prof. Doron Ben-Atar
Chair, Department of History
Fordham University
Co-author, What Time and Sadness Spared: Mother and Son Confront the Holocaust

Dr. Michael Berenbaum
American Jewish University
Executive Editor, Encyclopedia Judaica
Author, The World Must Know

Prof. Alan L. Berger
Raddock Family Eminent Scholar Chair of Holocaust Studies
Florida Atlantic University
Co-editor, Encyclopedia of Holocaust Literature

Prof. Aaron Berman
Dean, Hampshire College
Author, Nazism, the Jews, and American Zionism 1933-1948

Thomas Bluger
Chaplain, St. Joseph’s Villa
Author, Following the Virgin Mary Through Auschwitz

Dr. Ron Bombardi
Professor of Philosophy
Middle Tennessee State University

Dr. Harold Brackman
Simon Wiesenthal Center
Author, “The Holocaust in the Thought of W.E.B. DuBois”

Prof. Christopher R. Browning
Frank Porter Graham Professor of History
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Author, Ordinary Men

Prof. James P. Buchanan
University Professor and Director
The Edward B. Brueggeman Center for Dialogue
Xavier University

Dr. Daniel Burston
Associate Professor and Chair
Psychology Department
Duquesne University

Prof. David Cesarani
Research Professor in History
Royal Holloway, University of London
Author, Genocide and Rescue

Prof. Israel W. Charny
Editor, Encyclopedia of Genocide
Executive Director, Institute on the Holocaust and Genocide
Past President, International Association of Genocide Scholars

Prof. Vivian Grosswald Curran
Professor of Law, University of Pittsburgh
Author, “The Legalization of Racism in a Constitutional State: Democracy’s Suicide in Vichy France”

Frances Cutler
Holocaust Educator
Contributor, “Children Who Survived the Final Solution”

Dr. Gemma Del Duca, S.C.
Co-Director (Israel)
The National Catholic Center for Holocaust Education
Seton Hill University

Prof. Rebecca I. Denova
Dept. of Religious Studies
University of Pittsburgh

Dr. Audrey Doetzel, NDS
Associate Director, Center for Christian-Jewish Learning
Department of Theology, Boston College
Managing Editor, Studies in Christian-Jewish Relations

Prof. Doris Donnelly
Director, The Cardinal Suenens Center
John Carroll University

Prof. Deborah Dwork
Rose Professor of Holocaust History
Director, Strassler Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies
Clark University
Author, Holocaust: A History

Prof. Liba H. Engel
Dept. of Elementary Education, Jewish Studies
Queens College CUNY

Stuart G. Erdheim
Director, They Looked Away
Author, “Could the Allies Have Bombed Auschwitz-Birkenau?”

Prof. Emeritus Henry L. Feingold
Graduate Center and Baruch College of CUNY
Author, Silent No More: Saving the Jews of Russia

Dr. Helen Fein
Executive Director, Institute for the Study of Genocide
Founder and President Emeritus, International Association of Genocide Scholars
Author, Accounting for Genocide

Dr. Eugene J. Fisher
Associate Director (Ret.), Secretariat for Ecumenical and Interreligious Affairs
U. S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, Washington, DC
Editor, Catholics Remember the Holocaust

Prof. Allon Gal
Ben-Gurion University
Author, David Ben-Gurion and the American Alignment for a Jewish State

Prof. Zev Garber
Professor Emeritus, Jewish Studies, Los Angeles Valley College
Author, Shoah: The Paradigmatic Genocide
Series Editor, Studies in the Shoah

Prof. Jay Geller
Associate Professor of Modern Jewish Culture, Vanderbilt Divinity School
President, Tennesseans Against Genocide
Editor, Postmemories of the Holocaust

Prof.Sharon Gillerman
Associate Professor of Jewish History
Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion

Prof. Myrna Goldenberg (Emer.)
Montgomery (MD) College
Ida E. King Distinguished Visiting Professor in Holocaust Studies, 2005-206
Richard Stockton College of New Jersey
Co-Editor, Experience and Expression: Women, the Nazis and the Holocaust

Rabbi Prof. David Golinkin
President, Schechter Institute of Jewish Studies, Jerusalem
Editor, Megillat HaShoah

Prof. Henry Gonshak
Professor of English, Montana Tech
Author, “Does ‘Judgment at Nuremberg’ Accurately Depict the War Crimes Trials?”

Prof. Gershon Greenberg
Department of Philosophy and Religion
Co-Editor, Wrestling with God: Jewish Theological Responses During and After the Holocaust

Rabbi Dr. Irving Greenberg
Past Chairman, United States Holocaust Memorial Council
Author, Cloud of Smoke, Pillar of Fire: Judaism, Christianity, Modernity After the Holocaust

Dr. Alex Grobman
Brenn Institute
Author, Rekindling the Flame

Dr. Elvira Groezinger
Freie Universitaet Berlin/ SPME Germany
Author, Die jiddische Kultur im Schatten der Diktaturen

Prof. Wendy C. Hamblet
North Carolina A&T State University
Author, The Sacred Monstrous: Reflections on Violence in Human Communities

Prof. Susannah Heschel
Eli Black Professor of Jewish Studies, Dartmouth College
Author, The Aryan Jesus: Christian Theologians and the Bible in Nazi Germany

Prof. Herb Hirsch
Professor of Political Science
Virginia Commonwealth University
Co-editor, Genocide Studies and Prevention
Author, Genocide and the Politics of Memory

Prof. Ron Hollander
Montclair State University
Contributor, Why Didn’t the Press Shout?

Prof. Henry R. Huttenbach
City Colllege of New York
Director, Center for the Study of Ethnopolitics and Ethnonationalism
Founder / Editor, Journal of Genocide Research

Dr. Steven Leonard Jacobs
Aaron Aronov Endowed Chair of Judaic Studies
The University of Alabama
Associate Editor, The Encyclopedia of Genocide (2 vos.)

William Kahane
Filmmaker
Auschwitz Memories; Rimalev, The Seventh House

Prof. Marty J. Kalb
Professor Emeritus of Fine Arts/Artist
Ohio Wesleyan University

Dr. Wilda Kaylor
The National Catholic Center for Holocaust Education
Seton Hill University

Prof. Katharina von Kellenbach
St. Mary’s College of Maryland
Author, Mit Blick auf die Täter

Prof. Paul F. Knitter
Paul Tillich Professor of Theology, World Religions and Culture
Union Theological Seminary

Dr. Neil J. Kressel
William Patterson University
Author, Mass Hate: The Global Rise of Genocide and Terror

Prof. Thomas Kühne
Strassler Family Professor in the Study of Holocaust History
Clark University

Prof. Michael Kuelker
St. Charles Community College
Council Member, St. Louis Holocaust Museum & Learning Center

Rev. Vincent A. Lapomarda, S. J., Ph. D
Coordinator, Hiatt Holocaust Collection
The College of the Holy Cross
Author, The Jesuits and the Third Reich

Dr. Tom Lawson
Lecturer in Modern History, University of Winchester
Editor, Holocaust Studies: A Journal of Culture and History
Author, The Church of England and the Holocaust

Prof. Fred A. Lazin
Lynn and Lloyd Hurst Family Professor of Local Government
Chair, Department of Politics & Government, Ben Gurion University
Author, The Struggle for Soviet Jewry in American Politics

Prof. Laurel Leff
Northeastern University
Author, Buried by ‘The Times’: The Holocaust and
America’s Most Important Newspaper

Prof. Richard Libowitz
Intellectual Heritage Program
Temple University
Co-editor, The Genocidal Mind

Prof. Deborah E. Lipstadt
Dorot Professor of Modern Jewish and Holocaust Studies, Emory University
Author, Beyond Belief: The American Press & the Coming of the Holocaust

Prof. Franklin H. Littell
Professor Emeritus. Temple University Dept. of Religion
Professor Emeritus. Richard Stockton College of N.J. School of Graduate Studies
Author, The Crucifixion of the Jews

Prof. Marcia Sachs Littell
Richard Stockton College of New Jersey
Founding Director, MA Program in Holocaust & Genocide Studies
Editor: Women in the Holocaust: Responses, Insights & Perspectives

Dr. Erich H. Loewy
Professor of Medicine and Founding Chair of Bioethics (emer.)
Associate in Philosophy
University of California, Davis

Prof. Hubert G. Locke
Dean and Professor Emeritus, Graduate School of Public Affairs
University of Washington
Author, A Black Christian’s Perspective on the Holocaust

Rabbi Dr. Haskel Lookstein
Kehilath Jeshurun / Ramaz School
Author, Were We Our Brothers’ Keepers?

Prof. Ze’ev Mankowitz
Hebrew University
Director, Diana Zborowski Center for the Study of the Aftermath of the Holocaust, Yad Vashem, Jerusalem
Author, Life between Memory and Hope: Survivors of the Holocaust in Occupied Germany

Dr. Elisabeth Maxwell
Honorary President, Remembering for the Future
Honorary Chair, RFTF Online: Survivor Testimony Database
Member, Executive Council, The Dreyfus Society of Human Rights

Dr. Michael McKale
Professor of Philosophical & Religious Studies
Director, Institute for Ethics
Saint Francis University

Dr. Rafael Medoff
Director, The David S. Wyman Institute for Holocaust Studies
Author, Blowing the Whistle on Genocide

Prof. Robert Melson
Professor Emeritus Purdue University
Cohen-Lasry Distinguished Professor,
Strassler Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies (2006-2008)

Prof. Robert Michael
Professor (Emer.) European History/University of Massachusetts
Graduate Faculty, Florida Gulf Coast University
Author, Holy Hatred

Prof. Joanna B. Michlic
Department of History
Helene and Allen Apter Chair in Holocaust and Ethical Values, Lehigh U.
Author, Poland’s Threatening Other: The Image of the Jew from 1880 to the
Present

Prof. Rochelle L. Millen
Wittenberg University
Editor, New Perspectives on the Holocaust

Prof. Paul Miller
McDaniel College and the International University of Sarajevo
Executive Producer, They Looked Away

Prof. James F. Moore
Valparaiso University
Author, Christian Theology after the Shoah

Prof. Stephen H. Norwood
University of Oklahoma
Coeditor, Encyclopedia of American Jewish History

Prof. David Novak
J. Richard and Dorothy Shiff Professor of Jewish Studies
University of Toronto
Author, The Sanctity of Human Life

Prof. Michael Novak
George Frederick Jewettt Chair in Religion and Public Policy
Director of Social and Political Studies
American Enterprise Institute

Prof. Paul Oppenheimer
City College and Graduate Center, The City University of New Yor
Author, Evil and the Demonic: A New Theory of Monstrous Behavior

Prof. Zsuzsanna Ozsvath
The Leah and Paul Lewis Chair of Holocaust Studies
The University of Texas at Dallas
Author, In the Footsteps of Orpheus: The Times and LIfe of Miklos Radnoti

Prof. Jo Alyson Parker
Chair and Professor of English
Saint Joseph’s University
Book Review Editor, KronoScope: Journal for the Study of Time

Prof. David Patterson
Bornblum Chair in Judaic Studies
The University of Memphis
Author, Open Wounds

Rev. John T. Pawlikowski, OSM, Ph.D
Professor of Social Ethics
Director, Catholic-Jewish Studies Program
Catholic Theological Union

Prof. Monty Noam Penkower
Professor Emeritus of Jewish History
Machon Lander Graduate School of Jewish Studies, Jerusalem
Author, The Jews Were Expendable: Free World Diplomacy and the Holocaust

Dr. Susan Lee Pentlin
Emeritus Professor
University of Central Missouri
Editor, Mary Berg’s Diary: Growing Up in the Warsaw Ghetto

Prof. Eunice G. Pollack
University of North Texas
Coeditor, Encyclopedia of American Jewish History

Dr. Allen Podet
Professor, Philosophy and Humanities
State University College at Buffalo, NY
Author, Success and Failure of the Anglo-American Committee

Prof. Elena G. Procario-Foley
Driscoll Professor of Jewish-Catholic Studies
Chair, Religious Studies Department
Iona College

Prof. Elihu Richter
Associate Director
Institute on the Holocaust and Genocide

Dr. Carol Rittner RSM
Distinguished Professor of Holocaust & Genocide Studies
The Richard Stockton College of New Jersey
Co-Editor, The Holocaust & the Christian World

Prof. Paul Lawrence Rose
Mitrani Professor of European History, The Pennsylvania State University
Author, Archives of the Holocaust, vol. XIV

Dr. Peter I. Rose
Sophia Smith Professor Emeritus of Sociology and Anthropology
Smith College
Editor, The Dispossessed: An Anatomy of Exile

Prof. Thane Rosenbaum
John Whelan Distinguished Lecturer in Law
Director of the Forum on Law, Culture & Society
Fordham University School of Law / Author, The Myth of Moral Justice

Prof. Alvin H. Rosenfeld
Professor of English and Jewish Studies
Indiana University
Author, Imagining Hitler

Prof. John K. Roth
Edward J. Sexton Professor Emeritus of Philosophy
Founding Director, The Center for the Study of the Holocaust, Genocide, and Human Rights
Claremont McKenna College

Dr. Nancy E. Rupprecht
Professor of History
Chair, Holocaust Studies Committee
Middle Tennessee State University
Author, An Overview of the Holocaust

Dr. Rochelle G. Saidel
Remember the Women Institute
Author, The Jewish Women of Ravensbruck Concentration Camp

Dr. Ofer Schiff
Ben Gurion Research Institute
Ben Gurion University
Author, Assimilation in Pride: Anti-Semitism, Holocaust and Zionism

Sr. Lois Sculco
The National Catholic Center for Holocaust Education
Seton Hill University

Dr. Zohar Segev
Department of Jewish History, Haifa University
Author, From Ethnic Politicians to National Leaders: American Zionist Leadership, the Holocaust and the Establishment of Israel

Prof. Robert Moses Shapiro
Judaic Studies Department
Brooklyn College of the City University of New York
Translator and Editor, Lodz Ghetto: A History

Dr. Baila Shargel
Manhattanville College
Author, Female Leadership in the American Jewish Community

Jerry Silverman
Musicologist, Author, Concert Artist
Author: The Undying Flame: Ballads And Songs Of The Holocaust

Prof. Melvin Small
Distinguished Professor of History, Wayne State University
Co-editor, Appeasing Fascism

Prof. Gerald Sorin
American and Jewish Studies
State University of New York, New Paltz

Dr. Gregory H. Stanton
President, Genocide Watch
President, International Association of Genocide Scholars

Prof. Leon Stein
Professor of History (emer.)
Roosevelt University, Chicago and Holocaust Memorial Foundation of Ilinois

Dr. Mark Stern
Vice President for Academic Affairs
Shepherd University

Prof. Leonard J. Swidler
Temple University
Editor, Journal of Ecumenical Studies

Prof. Norton S. Taichman
Professor Emeritus of Pathology
University of Pennsylvania
Editor, The Ivansk Project e-Newsletter

Prof. Peter Tarjan
Professor Emeritus, University of Miami
Editor, Children Who Survived The Final Solution

Prof. Samuel Totten
University of Arkansas, Fayetteville
Co-editor, Genocide in Darfur: Investigating Atrocities in the Sudan

Dr. James E. Waller
Whitworth College
Author, Becoming Evil: How Ordinary People Commit Genocide and Mass Killing

Prof. Kenneth Waltzer
Professor & Director, Jewish Studies
Michigan State University

Prof. Chaim I. Waxman
Professor Emeritus of Sociology and Jewish Studies, Rutgers University
Senior Fellow, Jewish People Policy Planning Institute

Dr. Racelle R. Weiman
Executive Director, Global Dialogue Institute, Temple University
Founding Director, Center for Holocaust and Humanities Education,
Hebrew Union College

Barbara Wind
Director, Holocaust Council of MetroWest
Founder, Global Association of Holocaust/Genocide Educators

Prof. Jack B. Winget
Baldwin-Wallace College
Author, Nightmare of Crime

Prof. Victoria Saker Woeste
Research Professor, American Bar Foundation
Contributor, Encyclopedia of Antisemitism, Anti-Jewish Prejudice, and Persecution

Prof. Randall C. Zachman
Professor of Reformation Studies
University of Notre Dame

Prof. Bat-Ami Zucker
Bar Ilan University
Author, In Search of Refuge

(Institutions listed for identification purposes only.)