RICHARD HOVANNISIAN AND ELIE WIESEL IN CONVERSATION ON GENOCIDE
Wednesday, May 1st, 2013
Richard Hovannisian and Elie Weisel (Photo by Jeanine Hill, Chapman University)
BY JANO BOGHOSSIAN
ORANGE, Calif.-On April 17, Professor Richard Hovannisian, First Holder
of the AEF Chair in Modern History at UCLA and Distinguished Visiting
Scholar at Chapman University and the University of California,
Irvine, engaged in “Conversation” with Dr. Elie Wiesel, Nobel Laureate
and Holocaust survivor, regarding the moral obligation of mankind to
honor and preserve the memory of the victims of the Armenian Genocide
and the Holocaust by documenting and preserving witness and survivor
testimonials, advocating for recognition, and promoting education.
Before a capacity audience in the Wallace All Faiths Chapel, the
scholars touched upon their unique individual experiences and that of
their communities while dealing with concepts of truth and justice in
the aftermath of the Armenian Genocide and the Holocaust. Hovannisian
posed the question of whether there can ever be real justice for
Holocaust victims, even with the countless monuments and reparations
they have received, to which Wiesel simply said “no”. Hovannisian added
that the Armenians, on the other hand, have not even been given the
satisfaction of a modicum of formal recognition by the Republic of
Turkey. He wondered about Dr. Wiesel’s view of the Holocaust being
beyond the bounds of history and therefore incomparable and argued
instead that the Holocaust, like the Armenian Genocide, could be
contextualized and historicized without making either of them seem
rational.
Dr. Elie Wiesel spoke of the Armenians’ “passion for memory” and for
preserving every detail of a calamity that marked and traumatized
all subsequent generations of Armenians both in homeland and Diaspora.
Wiesel then described how the Armenian cause “eventually became my
cause,” and discussed the importance of remembrance and what might
happen once the last witness eventually passes away.
Dr. Hovannisian emphasized that selectivity of memory poses a challenge
for those not connected to an event, as the Holocaust has been
universalized, while Armenians still struggle with denial. “The history
is not just our history, but mankind’s history,” said Hovannisian, and
stated that memory must not just be linked to a single victim group.
There currently exists two institutions in Los Angeles that preserve,
digitize, index and utilize survivor testimonials from the Armenian
Genocide and the Holocaust-UCLA’s Armenian Oral History project
led by Hovannisian, and the Shoah Foundation’s much more extensive
collection at the University of Southern California. Hovannisian began
the UCLA program in the 1970s by having students interview survivors
of the Armenian Genocide. The interviews were later transcribed and
translated by a subsequent generation of students.
“Elie Wiesel and Richard Hovannisian in Conversation” was moderated
by Chapman University History Department Chair Jennifer Keene and was
part of the University’s week-long events featuring Elie Wiesel and
organized by the Rodgers Center of Holocaust Education headed by Dr.
Marilyn Harran.
In the days prior to the Chapman program, Professor Hovannisian
lectured in Yerevan, Armenia; Buenos Aires, Argentina; Montevideo,
Uruguay; Berlin, Germany; and Scottsdale, Arizona. On April 21, he
was the keynote speaker of the annual commemoration of the Armenian
Genocide at St. Mary Church in Costa Mesa, California, and on May 1-2
returned to Chapman University on May 1-2 for guest lectures in two
Holocaust classes. He will make a presentation on the destruction of
Smyrna/Izmir in a communitywide program at St. Leon Church in New
Jersey on May 17, and will be the featured speaker in Montreal on
May 25 on the occasion of the 95th anniversary of the founding of
the Armenian republic.
http://asbarez.com/109752/richard-hovannisian-and-elie-wiesel-in-conversation-on-genocide/