The Banality of Evil: A Conversation on Photography, Theatre and the Holocaust featuring Rebecca Erbelding with Allan Havis

In 2006, an album of photographs from Auschwitz landed on the desk of Rebecca Erbelding. The photographs documented the many ways SS camp guards made life for themselves at the German deathcamp tolerable, even enjoyable. As news of the extraordinary find spread around the world, a German businessman discovered his own grandfather in one of the pictures. What was he to do with this shocking discovery? This is the ethical dilemma at the heart of the play “Here there are blueberries,” a theatrical production adapted from Erbelding’s work on the album and directed by Moisés Kaufman. Dr. Erbelding who holds a Ph.D. in American history from George Mason University is a historian and author of the prize-winning “Rescue Board: The Untold Story of America’s Efforts to Save the Jews of Europe.” She served as a historical advisor and an on-camera expert in Florentine Films’ “The U.S. and the Holocaust,” directed by Ken Burns, Lynn Novick and Sarah Botstein.

• 2023-10-12

• Kaufman, Moisés

• Erbelding, Rebecca
• Havis, Allan

• UCSD-TV (Television station : La Jolla, Calif.)

• Europe
• Germany

• 20th century

• Auschwitz (Concentration camp)
• SS (Schutzstaffel)

• Höcker, Karl, 1911-2000

• Here There are Blueberries (play)
• History
• Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945)
• Höcker Album
• Jews
• Photography
• Theatre
• World War, 1939-1945

• video

• English

• UC Regents

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2024-03-09