Quincy University library to host lecture on the Armenian Genocide

QUINCY — Quincy University’s Brenner Library will host a lecture titled “Precursor to the Holocaust? The Armenian Genocide” at 6:30 p.m. Nov. 3, featuring Padraic Rohan, assistant professor of history.

Rohan will examine the Armenian genocide during World War I and explore how the new nation-state of Turkey inspired critics of the Weimar Republic, Germany’s first democracy, which eventually gave way to National Socialism under Adolf Hitler.

The event is free and open to the public.

The lecture is held in conjunction with “Americans and the Holocaust,” a national traveling exhibition from the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum, presented in partnership with the American Library Association. The exhibition is on display from Oct. 29 to Dec. 4, and group tours are available through Dec. 2.

“This is a great opportunity for students and the wider community to grapple with uncomfortable but necessary historical questions,” Rohan said. “How do we get from legitimate defense of the Ottoman state all the way to the Armenian genocide? How do we get from legitimate criticisms of the Weimar Republic to the rise of Hitler?”

Quincy University was founded in 1860 by Franciscan friars. It is a Catholic university and a member of NCAA Division II.