T he J ewish F ederation of S arasota -M anatee
and F riends of the S elby P ublic L ibrary
p r e s e n t
Outside Anne Frank’s Secret Annex:
LIFE UNDER NAZI RULE
Friday, May 19, 2017 • 2:00pm
selby public library
A
nne Frank’s diary gives readers an intimate look at private life in the Nazi
period. But while Anne Frank and her family hid in the “Secret Annex,”
most Europeans experienced life under Nazi rule rather differently. Why does
Anne’s diary resonate with us so deeply? What do we learn and what might
we miss by relying on Anne’s voice as our source for understanding life in
Nazi Europe? Moving from the revelations of Anne Frank’s diary through a
broader range of sources, this talk seeks to paint a fuller picture of ordinary
life under the Nazis. How did Jews experience persecution, even well before
1942 when Anne’s diary begins? What do the experiences of the Frank family
and other Jews tell us about about the complicity of ordinary Europeans in
upholding the Nazi racial order?
sponsored by
ELANA PASSMAN is Associate Professor of History at Earlham College in
Richmond, Indiana, where she just completed a term as Department Chair. A historian
of modern Europe, she also contributes to Earlham’s programs in International
Studies, Jewish Studies, Museum Studies, and Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality
Studies. Passman is a graduate of Yale University and received her M.A. and Ph.D. in
Modern European History from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She
was a Fellow of the Berlin Program for Advanced German and European Studies and
the recipient of a Bourse Chateaubriand from the French Embassy.
Passman’s book manuscript, The Cultivation of Friendship: Reimagining the Franco-German
Relationship in an Age of Conflict, 1925-1963, asks how it became possible for the French and the Germans
to overcome their so-called “hereditary enmity.” Beginning with tentative efforts to reach out across the border after
the First World War, the manuscript traces the languages and practices of Franco-German cooperation through the
Second World War and well into the postwar period. Passman is beginning to develop a new book project that is
deeply personal. Using her family papers as a launching point, it will follow the trajectory of a German-Jewish family
from the First World War through the experience of Nazi Germany and the Holocaust and onto (for the few who
survived) a new life in the United States.
This lecture is FREE, but must RSVP to Deborah Stafford
at [email protected] or visit jfedsrq.org/events.
— Seating is limited —