News Release
July 20, 2009
Washington, D.C. – One hundred leading Holocaust and genocide scholars from around the world have signed a petition praising the Ugandan government for blocking Sudan’s president from attending a conference in Uganda this weekend, because of his role in the Darfur genocide.
“During the Holocaust, the international community failed to act against the Nazi genocide,” said Dr. Rafael Medoff, director of the Washington-based David S. Wyman Institute for Holocaust Studies, which organized the petition. “By contrast, Uganda’s action helps isolate Sudanese president Omar al-Bashir and shames the Arab and African countries that have given him red-carpet treatment.”
Bashir, who has been indicted by the International Criminal Court for his role in Darfur, had planned to attend the Smart Partnership conference in Kampala, the capital of Uganda, on Sunday, July 26–until the recent announcement by Uganda Foreign Minister Henry Okello that Bashir could be arrested if he showed up.
In recent months, Bashir has visited Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Libya, the United Arab Emirates,20Ethiopia, and Eritrea, all of which ignored the ICC warrant for Bashir’s arrest.
The Wyman Institute’s petition, addressed to Ugandan president Yoweri Museveni, stated, in part: “We salute Uganda for making it clear that Bashir is not welcome, and we hope other countries will follow Uganda’s lead. Strong international action is necessary to end the Darfur genocide and bring the murderers to justice. The International Criminal Court’s arrest warrant for Bashir must be implemented.”
The signatories on the petition, who come from the United States, Germany, Canada, Israel, England, and Australia, include the most distinguished figures in the field of Holocaust and genocide studies. The 100 signatories include:
* Dr. Gregory H. Stanton, president of Genocide Watch and immediate past president of the International Association of Genocide Scholars.
* Dr. Henry R. Huttenbach, Chairman of the International Academy for Genocide Prevention, and founder and editor of the Journal of Genocide Research.
* Prof. David S. Wyma n, author of The Abandonment of the Jews: America and the Holocaust 1941-1945.
* Prof. Yehuda Bauer, former director of Yad Vashem’s International Center for Holocaust Studies.
* Dr. Michael Berenbaum, former research director of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.
* Prof. Deborah Lipstadt, author of History on Trial: My Day in Court with David Irving.
* Prof. Christoper Browning, author of Ordinary Men.
The complete text of the petition, with all the signatories, follows below.
* * *
The David S. Wyman Institute for Holocaust Studies
July 24, 2009
Hon. Yoweri Kaguta Museveni
President of Uganda
c/o Embassy of Uganda
5911 16t h St NW
Washington, DC 20011-2816
pkamunanwire@ugandaembassyus.org
Dear Mr. President,
As scholars who have written or taught about the Holocaust or other genocides, we wish to express our support for the announcement by Ugandan Foreign Minister Henry Okello that Sudanese president Omar al-Bashir could be arrested if he attempts to attend the international summit in Kampala later this month.
Uganda’s position against the perpetrators of the Darfur genocide contrasts admirably with the appalling behavior of the governments of Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Libya, the United Arab Emirates, Ethiopia, and Eritrea. As you know, those governments have welcomed Bashir and treated him as a respected international leader instead of as a fugitive mass murderer.
We salut e Uganda for making it clear that Bashir is not welcome, and we hope other countries will follow Uganda’s lead. Strong international action is necessary to end the Darfur genocide and bring the murderers to justice. The International Criminal Court’s arrest warrant for Bashir must be implemented.
Cordially,
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. Franklin Hugh Adler
G. Theodore Mitau Chair of Political Science
Macalester College
Prof. Mark J. Allman
Merrimack College
Author of Who Would Jesus Kill? War, Peace and the Christian Tradition
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
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
Prof. Paul Bookbinder
University of Massachusetts – Boston
Author, Weimar Germany
Dr. Harold Brackman
Simon Wiesenthal Center
Author, “The Holocaust in the Thought of W.E.B. DuBois”
Prof. Christopher R. Browning
Frank Port er 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
Chair, Psychology Department
Duquesne University
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”
Prof. Rebecca I. Denova
Dept. of Religious Studies
University of Pittsburgh
Prof. Hasia R. Diner
Paul S. and Sylvia Steinberg Professor of American Jewish History
Director, Goldstein-Goren Center for American Jewish History
New York University
Prof. Lawrence Douglas
Amherst College
Author: “The Memory of Judgment: Making Law and History in the Trials of the Holocaust”
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
Queens College, CUNY
Stuart G. Erdheim
Director, They Looked Away
Author, “Could the Allies Have Bombed Auschwitz-Birkenau?”
Dr. Helen Fein
Executive Director
Institute for the Study of 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. Saul Friedman
Wayne State University
Author, No Haven for the Oppressed
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. Haim Genizi
Bar Ilan University (emer.)
Author, American Apathy
Prof. Myrna Goldenberg (Emer.)
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
American University
Coeditor, Wrestling with God: Jewish Theological Responses During the Holocaust
Dr. Alex Grobman
Brenn Institute
Author, Re kin dling the Flame
Dr. Elvira Groezinger
Freie Universitaet Berlin/ SPME Germany
Author, Die jiddische Kultur im Schatten der20Diktaturen
Prof. Susannah Heschel
Eli Black Professor of Jewish Studies, Dartmouth College
Author, The Aryan Jesus: Christian20Theologians and20the Bible in Nazi Germany
Prof. Herb Hirsch
Professor of Political Science
Virginia Commonwealth University
Co-editor, Genoc ide Studies and Prevention
Author, Genocide and the Politics of Memory
Prof. Ron Hollander
Montclair State University
Contributor, Why Didn’t the Press Shout? American and International Journalism During the Holocaust
Dr. Henry R. Huttenbach, Chairman
International=2 0Academy for Genocide Prevention
Professor (emer.), City University of New York
Founding editor Journal of Genocide Research
Dr. Steven Leonard Jacobs
The University of Alabama
Associate Editor, The Encyclopedia of Genocide (2 vos.)
Prof. Marty J. Kalb
Professor Emeritus of Fine Arts/Artist
Ohio Wesleyan University
Prof. Steven T. Katz
Director, Elie Wiesel Center for Jud aic Studies, Boston University
Author, The Holocaust in Historical Context
Dr. Neil J. Kressel
William Patterson University
Author, Mass Hate: The Global Rise of Genocide and Terror
Prof. Michael Kuelker
St. Charles Community College
Council Member, St. Louis Holocaust Museum & Learning Center
Prof. Fred Lazin
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
Emory University
Author, Beyond Belief: The American Press & the Coming of the Holocaust
Dr. Marcia Sachs Littell
Professor, Holocaust and Genocide Studies
The Richard Stockton College of New Jersey
Dr. Erich H. Loewy
Professor of Medicine and Founding Chair of Bioethics (emer.)
Associate in Philosophy
University of California, Davis
Rabbi Dr. Haskel Lookstein
Kehilath Jeshurun / Ramaz School
Author, Were We Our Brothers’ Keepers?
Dr. Rafael Medoff
Director, The David S. Wyman Institute for Holocaust Studies
Author, Blowing the Whistle on Genocide
Prof. Robert Melson (emer.)
Purdue University
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. Stephen H. Norwood
University of Oklahoma
Author, The Third Reich in the Ivory Tower
Martin Ostrow
Director, “America and the Holocaust” (PBS)
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
Rev. John T. Pawlikowski, OSM, Ph.D
Professor of Social Ethics
Director, Catholic-Jewish Studies Program
Catholic Theological Union
Prof. Monty Noam Penkower (emer.)
Machon Lander Graduate School of Jewish Studies, Jerusalem
Author, The Jess Were Expendable: Free World Diplomacy and the Holocaust
Prof. Susan Lee Pentlin (emer.)
University of Central Missouri
Editor, Mary Berg’s Diary: Growing Up in the Warsaw Ghetto
Prof. Michael Phayer (emer.)
Marquette University
Author, The Catholic Church and the Holocaust, 1930-1965
Prof. Eunice G. Pollack
University of North Texas
Coeditor, Encyclopedia of American Jewish History
Prof. Allen Podet
State University College at Buffalo, NY
Author, Success and Failure of the Anglo-American Committee
Prof. Ronald Radosh (emer.)
City University of New York
Adjunct Fellow, The Hudson Institute, Washington DC
Prof. Harry Reicher
University of Pennsylvania Law School;
Scholar-in-Residence, Touro Law Center
Prof. Elihu D. Richter
Genocide Prevention Program
Hebrew University-Hadassah School of Public Health and Community Medicine
Dr. Carol Rittner RSM
Distinguished Professor of Holocaust & Genocide Studies
The Richard Stockton College of New Jersey
Co-Editor, The Holocaust & the Christian20World
0A
Prof. Paul Lawrence Rose
Mitrani Professor of European History, The Pennsylvania State University
Author, Arch ives 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 on20Law, Culture & Society
Fordham University School of Law / Author, The Myth of Moral Justice
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
Prof. Richard L. Rubenstein
President Emeritus, University of Bridgeport
Author, After Auschwitz
Dr. Rochelle G. Saidel
Remember the Women Institute
Author, The Jew ish Women of Ravensbruck Concentration Camp
Pierre Sauvage
President, Chambon Foundation and Varian Fry Institute
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
Prof. Gerald Sorin
American and Jewish Studies
State University of New York, New Paltz
Rev. Dr. Kevin P. Spicer, C.S.C.
Associate Professor of History
Stonehill College
Prof. Gregory H. Stanton
President, Genocide Watch
Immediate Past President, International Association of Genocide Scholars
Research Professor in=2 0Genocide Studies and Prevention, Institute for Conflict Analysis and Resolution, George Mason University
Prof. Leon Stein
Professor of History (emer.)
Roosevelt University, Chicago and Holocaust Memorial Foundation of Illinois
Prof. Norton S. Taichman
University of Pennsylvania
Coordinator of The Ivansk Project
Prof. Peter Tarjan (emer.)
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 Waller
Auschwitz Institute for Peace and Reconciliation
Author,”Becoming Evil: How Ordinary People Commit Genocide and Mass Killing
Prof. Kenneth Waltzer
Professor & Director, Jewish Studies
Michigan State University
P rof. Chaim I. Waxman
Professor Emeritus of Sociology and Jewish Studies
Rutgers University
Dr. Racelle R. Weiman
Executive Director, Global Dialogue Institute, Temple University
Founding Director, Center for Holocaust and Humanities Education,
Hebrew Union College
Prof. Vi ctoria Saker Woeste
Research Professor, American Bar Foundation
Contributor, Encyclopedia of Antisemitism, Anti-Jewish Prejudice, and Persecution
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. Randall C. Zachman
Professor of Reformation Studies
University of Notre Dame
Prof. Bat-Ami Zucker
Bar Ilan University
Author, In Search of Refuge
Dr. Efraim Zuroff
Simon Wiesenthal Center