The University of Southern Indiana will host the fourth speaker for the annual Edward D. and Regina Rechnic Holocaust Speaker Series at 6 p.m. Tuesday, September 30 in Carter Hall, located in University Center West on the USI campus and online via Zoom. The 2025 speaker is Dr. Wolf Gruner, the Shapell-Guerin Chair in Jewish Studies at the University of Southern California (USC) and Founding Director of the USC Shoah Foundation Center for Advanced Genocide Research. The presentation is open to the public at no charge, and registration for Zoom is required.
An internationally acclaimed expert on the Holocaust and genocide, Gruner has authored more than 30 journal articles and book chapters while writing or editing over 20 books. He is the recipient of numerous national and international awards and honors for his teaching, academic achievements and tireless work to understand and combat genocide. Most recently, he published the prizewinning book, Resisters: How Ordinary Jews Fought Persecution in Hitler’s Germany.
In his presentation, Gruner will discuss how resistance to tyranny occurs through ordinary peoples’ acts of defiance. Delving into Jews’ public writings, oral protests, defiance of anti-Jewish laws, physical self-defense and countering of Nazi narratives, he reveals the power of the powerless when facing oppression.
This series is made possible by the USI Foundation through the Edward D. and Regina Rechnic Speaker Series Endowment. The endowment was established by the late Irene C. Rechnic and honors her parents’ struggle to survive the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp during WWII, where 960,000 Jews were executed.
