Daniel Greene is president of the Newberry Library in Chicago and an adjunct professor of history at Northwestern University. Before joining the Newberry, Greene curated “Americans and the Holocaust,” an exhibition for the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C.
On April 16, Greene will discuss the questions explored in that exhibition—What did the American people and the U.S. government know about the threats posed by Nazi Germany, and what could have been done to stop the rise of Nazism in Germany and the assault on Europe’s Jews?—when he presents “Americans and the Holocaust,” this year’s Holocaust Lecture at Elmhurst University.
The Holocaust Memorial Museum exhibition, which opened in 2018, led to a book co-edited by Greene and Edward Phillips, Americans and the Holocaust: A Reader (2022), which drew from newspaper and magazine articles, popular culture materials, government records and other primary sources to show how Americans debated their role in responding to Nazism. The exhibition also inspired The U.S. and the Holocaust, a documentary film directed by Ken Burns, Lynn Novick and Sarah Botstein that aired on PBS this past September.
The Holocaust Lecture begins at 7:00 p.m. on Sunday, April 16, in the Founders Lounge of the Frick Center. A Service of Remembrance at 7:00 p.m. precedes the lecture, which begins at 7:30 p.m. Admission is free but reservations are encouraged, at elmhurst.edu/cultural.