Holocaust Survivors Foundation USA Letter to University of Minnesota
Dear President Ettinger, Provost Crosson, and the Board of Regents,
My name is David Schaecter.
I am 94 years old and the only member of 105 souls in my family to survive the Holocaust. I miraculously survived nearly three years in the hell of Auschwitz and one year in the hell of Buchenwald.
I am writing today because of the news I read about the possible appointment of Raz Segal as the Director of the Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies at the University of Minnesota. From the statements published by this individual, I believe such an appointment would not only be a mistake and a tragedy, but a shocking desecration of the memory of six million Jews, including one and a half million children, murdered in the Holocaust.
Anyone who accuses Israel of "a textbook case of genocide" within days of Hamas's massacre of innocent Israelis on October 7, before one Israeli soldier entered Gaza -or today for that matter - and who ignores Hamas's demonstrated genocidal intent, is the wrong person to lead such a center. His writing, interspersed with defamatory rhetoric like "settler colonialism" and "apartheid," shows this individual is not qualified to lead an institution whose mission is to teach the world about the history of the Holocaust.
The barbarity of the Hamas attacks reminds us that hatred of the Jewish people, and the infinite capacity for cruelty against our people, is a cancer that will never be eradicated. It must be recognized, protected against, and defeated when it threatens. And the shameful explosion of antisemitism that has followed, even in this great country, and on campuses such as the University of Minnesota, is fueled by hateful propaganda such as Mr. Segal's.
In the period leading to and during the Holocaust, similar lies and political propaganda were ignored and excused, at the same time they fostered unprecedented genocidal hatred - real genocide. Mr. Segal might call himself a "scholar" of genocide, but in my opinion he does not understand the meaning of the word or its consequences. I know -- I was there.
It would be irresponsible beyond words for the University of Minnesota to allow an individual with such contempt for the history of the Holocaust and its victims, to direct the Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies.