Lecture: Ironies of the Holocaust June 21, 2009

Las Cruces, NM – In conjunction with “Fighting the Fires of Hate: America and the Nazi Book Burnings” traveling exhibit now on display at the Branigan Cultural Center, two films and a lecture will be presented at the Center. The films are part of joint programming sponsored by Branigan Cultural Center and the Thomas Branigan Memorial Library to augment the exhibit.

“The Architecture of Doom” will be shown on Monday, June 15th at 12:30 p.m. This documentary by Peter Cohen is absorbing and chilling. It reveals Hitler’s epiphany while viewing Wagner’s opera “Rienzi” and the beginning of the National Socialist aesthetic and the Aryan ideal. Also documented is the Nazi obsession with racial purity and cleanliness.

“The Counterfeiters” will show on Tuesday, June 16th at 12:30 p.m. Winner of the 2007 Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film, tells the story of a massive German counterfeit operation from the perspective of Salomon Sorowitsch. Sorowitch is a highly skilled counterfeiter confined in a concentration camp and assigned to Operation Bernard. If he cooperates he gets enough to eat and better living conditions; if he doesn’t it means sure death. This film is in German with English subtitles and is rated R.

In addition to the films, Dr. Jerome Brown will speak on Sunday, June 21st at 2:00 p.m. Retired NMSU professor, he will address the “Ironies of the Holocaust.” Dr. Brown has noted many surprising facts about Nazi Germany, such as two dozen German Army Generals that were Jewish. The program will present many such ironies.

“Fighting the Fires of Hate,” a nationally touring traveling exhibit from the U.S. Memorial Holocaust Museum examines the suppression of freedom of expression. The exhibit remains on display at the Cultural Center through July 18th.

The Branigan Cultural Center, 501 N. Main Street, is located at the north end of the Downtown Mall in Las Cruces. The exhibit, films and lecture are free and open to the public. Galleries are open Monday through Friday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. and Saturday from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. For more information about exhibits, contact the Branigan Cultural Center at (575) 541-2154 or visit the Center’s web site at www.las-cruces.org/museums