Mennonites and the Holocaust

Conference took place March 16 and 17, 2018, Krehbiel Auditorium, Luyken Fine Arts Center

The history of Mennonites as victims of violence in the 1930s and 1940s, particularly on the territory of the Soviet Union, and as relief workers during and after the Second World War has been studied by historians and preserved by many family histories. This commemorative and celebratory history, however, hardly captures the full extent of Mennonite views and actions related to nationalism, race, war, and survival. It also ignores extensive Mennonite pockets of sympathy for Nazi ideals of racial purity and, among some in the diaspora, an exuberant identification with Germany that have also long been noted. Now in the last decade an emerging body of research has documented Mennonite involvement as perpetrators in the Holocaust in ways that have not been widely known or discussed. A wider view of Mennonite interactions with Jews, Germans, Ukrainians, Roma, Volksdeutsche, and other groups as well as with state actors is therefore now necessary. This conference aims to document, publicize, and analyze Mennonite attitudes, environments, and interactions with others in Europe during the 1930s and 1940s that shaped their responses to and engagement with Nazi ideology and the events of the Holocaust.

Schedule

Friday, March 16, 2018
8 - 8:30 a.m. Registration Lobby, Luyken Fine Arts Center
8:30 - 9 a.m. Krehbiel Auditorium, Luyken Fine Arts Center
9 - 10:30 a.m. Session One: Pre-War Denominational and Organizational Themes
Moderator: Michele Hershberger, Hesston College 		Krehbiel Auditorium, Luyken Fine Arts Center
10:30 - 11 a.m. Coffee Break Luyken Fine Arts Center
11 a.m. Keynote Address: "Neighbors, Killers, Enablers, Witnesses: The Many Roles of Mennonites in the Holocaust" (free and open to the public)

Doris Bergen, University of Toronto

 Joliffe Auditorium, Memorial Hall
noon Lunch The Caf, Schultz Student Center
1:30 - 3 p.m. Session Two: Soviet Union
Moderator: Jessica Klanderud, Tabor College 		Krehbiel Auditorium, Luyken Fine Arts Center
3 - 3:30 p.m. Coffee Break Luyken Fine Arts Center
3:30 - 5 p.m. Session Three: Mennonite-Jewish Connections
Moderator: Dawn Yoder Harms, Pastor, Bethel College Mennonite Church 		Krehbiel Auditorium, Luyken Fine Arts Center
5 - 6:30 p.m. Dinner The Caf, Schultz Student Center
7:30 p.m. Film: Friesennot
(free and open to the public)
Introduction: Mark Jantzen, Bethel College		 Krehbiel Auditorium, Luyken Fine Arts Center
Saturday, March 17
8 - 8:30 a.m. Registration Lobby, Luyken Fine Arts Center
8:30 - 10 a.m.

Session Four: The Netherlands
Moderator: Rachel Waltner Goossen, Washburn University

 Krehbiel Auditorium, Luyken Fine Arts Center
10 - 10:30 a.m. Coffee Break Luyken Fine Arts Center
10:30 a.m. - noon Session Five: German Mennonite Responses in Theology and Memory
Moderator: Kip Wedel, Bethel College 		Krehbiel Auditorium, Luyken Fine Arts Center
noon Lunch The Caf, Schultz Student Center
1 - 2:30 p.m. Session Six: Personal Impacts
Moderator: Heidi Regier Kreider, Conference Minister, Western District Conference (Mennonite Church USA) 		Krehbiel Auditorium, Luyken Fine Arts Center
2:30 - 3 p.m. Coffee Break Luyken Fine Arts Center
3 - 4:30 p.m. Session Seven: Literary Responses
Moderator: John Sharp, Hesston College 		Krehbiel Auditorium, Luyken Fine Arts Center
4:30 p.m. Conference Conclusion Krehbiel Auditorium, Luyken Fine Arts Center
5-6:30 p.m. Dinner The Caf, Schultz Student Center

Co-Organizers:

John Sharp, Hesston College, Hesston, Kansas, Mark Jantzen, Bethel College, and John Thiesen, Mennonite Library and Archives, North Newton, Kansas

Sponsors: