Elmhurst University will observe its 35th year of Holocaust education on April 6 with the lecture “Understanding Rescue During the Holocaust” by Rebecca Carter-Chand, director of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum’s Programs on Ethics, Religion and the Holocaust.

Carter-Chand notes that accounts of rescue during the Holocaust have long fascinated survivors, historians and the public. For decades after the Holocaust, the notion of rescue was understood primarily as a psychological phenomenon that could be attributed to one’s ethical predisposition or empathetic personality, or as a result of one’s piety or theological commitments. In recent years, a new approach has been gaining attention—one that focuses less on motivations and more on circumstances. This talk will trace the evolution of the study of rescue and highlight new research on the rescue of Jews by Christians, as well as Jewish strategies of survival.

In addition to her role at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum, Carter-Chand is the co-editor with Kevin Spicer of Religion, Ethnonationalism, and Antisemitism in the Era of the Two World Wars (2022). Her forthcoming book, Christian Internationalism and German Belonging: The Salvation Army from Imperial Germany to Nazism, will be published later this year and is the 2024 winner of the Mosse First Book Prize.

The 35th Annual Holocaust Service of Remembrance and Lecture will be held at 7:00 p.m. on Sunday, April 6, in the Founders Lounge of the Frick Center. Admission is free but reservations are encouraged, at elmhurst.edu/Cultural. The intercultural lectures and other diverse cultural programming at Elmhurst University support community engagement and lifelong learning, and prepare students to thrive as adaptive leaders. For more information, email [email protected].