The B’nai B’rith Anti-Defamation Commission (ADC) has mourned the passing of famed literary scholar and co-founder of the Fortunoff Video Archives for Holocaust Testimonies at Yale Professor Geoffrey Hartman. The ADC noted that his death was a monumental loss to the Jewish people and to the scholarly world. He was 86.
ADC Chairman, Dr Dvir Abramovich, issued the following statement:
“We are profoundly saddened by Professor Hartman’s passing. A wonderful scholar and teacher, he made an enormous contribution to our understanding of Holocaust writings. As a Kindertransport child, sent by his parents to escape the Nazi regime, he recalled, “The shadow of the Holocaust often waylays me like the sudden darkness of a storm in the middle of a sunny day. As the first director of the Fortunoff Video Archives for Holocaust Testimonies, he oversaw a cherished project that was the first to collect videotaped recollections from Holocaust survivors, and now houses more than 4000 interviews with Holocaust survivors, eye-witnesses and liberators from around the world. He also helped establish Yale’s Judaic Studies Center. His book, The Longest Shadow: In the Aftermath of the Holocaust was lauded as a landmark in its field. We express our condolences to his family and to Yale University, where he served the Sterling professor emeritus of English and comparative literature. May his memory be a blessing to them all, and an inspiration for us to keep the memory of the Holocaust alive. His enduring legacy and unwavering commitment to preserving Shoah testimony and to educating the public about the importance of remembrance will live on forever in our hearts and minds.”
The Anti-Defamation Commission, founded in 1979, is Australia’s leading organization fighting anti-Semitism through educational programs that combat bigotry, prejudice and all forms of hatred.
For further information please contact Dr Dvir Abramovich on (03) 9272 5677
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