2008 Woodie Awards
Expert speaks on Nazi Intelligence, American policy towards Germany
Michael Hamann
- Page 1 of 1
|
World War Two expert Dr. Richard Breitman presented two lectures in the Davis Learning Center on January 30.
Breitman, is a history professor at American University and Ina Levine Scholar in Residence at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington D.C..
Joining Breitman was Paul Shapiro, the Center Director for Holocaust Studies at the U.S. Memorial Museum.
Doctor Murray Henner and Doctor Valerie Adams presented Breitman on behalf of the Jewish Community Foundation of Greater Prescott to members of the Embry-Riddle community.
Both are known internationally for their works in Holocaust and Nazi studies.
Brietman has written five books, including German Socialism and Weimer Democracy; Breaking the Silence; American Refugee Policy and European Jewry; 1933-1945; The Architect of Genocide: Himmler and the Final Solution; and Official Secrets: What the Nazis Planned, What the British and Americans Knew.
Breitman's first lecture covered the American policy toward Germany between 1933 and 1939. He told of a long history of anti-sematism prior to the American involvement in World War Two, including warning signs from Hitler such as his book, Mein Kampf (My Struggle).
"There is something discomfiting about the conclusion that a document today considered an important source about Nazi policy had limited impact upon Western governments at the time," said Breitman in an Interagency Working Group report dated June 21, 2001.
His second lecture consisted of U.S. Intelligence and the Nazis.
As part of a group of scholars, Breitman was given special clearance to review 240,000 pages of documents at the National Archives that are related to the Nazis and other World War Two crimes.
According to Breitman, one of the more shocking discoveries was that the CIA recruited some 23 intelligence sources that committed war crimes. Similarly, the FBI and CIA put pressure on the Immigration and Naturalization Service to allow war criminals employed by American authorities the ability to live in the United States.
Members of the audience were allowed to ask questions after both lectures, raising questions of the parallels between World War Two and the current conflict in Iraq.
After his lectures amongst the audience's applause, Breitman and Shapiro were given a certificate of appreciation for spending time with the Embry-Riddle community.