Video Audio Archive

Escape From the Holocaust: The Fate of Jews in Finland

Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars conference co-organized by TTS

The conference presents the findings of recent studies of the exceptional status of Finnish Jews and discusses the rescue of Jews from the Holocaust in several European countries. 

WASHINGTON, DC. June 17, 2008. Thanks To Scandinavia is a co-organizer of a Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars conference on “The Fate of Jews in Finland and other Scandinavian Countries,” held on June 17, 2008. The opening remarks are being made by Walter Reich (Senior Scholar, Woodrow Wilson Center, Yitzhak Rabin Memorial Professor of International Affairs, Ethics and Human Behavior, George Washington University; former director, United States Holocaust Memorial Museum) and Leslie D. Simon (member of the Board of Governors of the American Jewish Committee and former Senior Policy Scholar at the Woodrow Wilson Center). The keynote address is delivered by Ambassador James E. Goodby (The Brookings Institute/Hoover Institution).

The topics covered during the conference are divided into two panels: “The Scandinavian Countries and the Holocaust” featuring papers by Prof. Henrik Meiander, University of Helsinki, Prof. Emeritus Sune Persson, University of Gothenburg, and Steven F. Sage, United States Holocaust Museum. The second panel is focused on the complexity of the Finnish Holocaust history. It is chaired by Samuel F. Wells, Associate Director, Woodrow Wilson Center and features papers by Hannu Rautkallio, University of Tampere, who has cooperated personally with Thanks To Scandinavia, and Rony Smolar, Chairman, The Helsinki Jewsih Congregation and Jussi Nuorteva, Director General, National Archives of Finland. The closing address is chaired by Michael Haltzel (Program Coordinator, International Archival Programs Division, Center for Advanced Holocaust Studies, United States Holocaust Memorial Museum) and will be delivered by Ambassador Max Jakobson (ret.).

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