Georgetown Receives $10 Million for Forensic Research on the Holocaust

CITATION

Georgetown University. "Georgetown Receives $10 Million for Forensic Research on the

Holocaust." Forensic Magazine. Advantage Business Media, 26 Feb. 2016. Web. 2 Mar.

2016. <http://www.forensicmag.com/news/2016/02/georgetown-receives-10-million-forensic-research-holocaust>.

SUMMARY

Georgetown University has received a generous donation of 10 million dollars to fund an endowed professorship for the forensic study of the Holocaust at the Center for Jewish Civilization in the School of Foreign Service. Some of the donation will also go to related research, teaching and public service programs on the Holocaust, its origins, methods and consequences.

All of the money comes from Norman and Irma Braman. However, one of the most noteworthy of the people involved would have to be Father Patrick Desbois. He is the inaugural holder of the Braman endowed professorship of the Practice of the Forensic Study of the Holocaust and a Roman Catholic priest from France who has pioneered the application of modern forensics research methods on the Holocaust.

Interestingly enough, Desbois is able to use “a multidisciplinary approach… with ongoing interviews of eyewitnesses”. In 2013, the scholar was recruited by the Center for Jewish Civilization’s Associate Director Dennis McManus to teach at the Jan Karski Institute for Holocaust Education in order to prepare primary and secondary teachers for teaching the Holocaust to students in the United States.

The two teach the Holocaust by Bullets class (named for Desbois’s book) with promise of an upcoming trip to Russia and Eastern Europe that will produce original field research. The goal of the fund and professorship is to educate about the Holocaust and hence, prevent it. Desbois hopes to do this by teaching “future leaders to provide material and legal evidence of these atrocities through field experience and by teaching a forensic methodology”. This includes the usage of written records based on oral testimonies of eyewitnesses to the actual physical evidence within the killing fields mentioned in Desbois’ novel.

RELEVANCE

Overall, this recent news is very important for America, since time speeds the current generations further and further away from understanding the genocide during and before WWII. The Holocaust survivors are aging more every day and very few are alive now. In order to share in knowledge of this travesty, the well-endowed Braman fund and professorship is sure to prepare students, teachers, journalists, and future leaders of all kinds to avoid a massacre of such disastrous proportions.

Norman Braman himself summed up the significance of his donation short but sweetly: “Our shared goal is to support research, teaching and public programs that deepen our understanding of the many disparate factors that led to the Holocaust… Father Desbois’ ongoing and intensive forensic research… is offering fresh insight into an unimaginable crime against humanity. His work reminds us that the study of the Holocaust should never cease… And in that there is hope that it will not be repeated.”

This goal allows the true relevance of this event to shine through; it is imperative that a new method of study will help the world glean more information about travesties like the Holocausts and hopefully prevent them. Ideas and theories about the conditions that bring about these things are exchanged at public outreach programs and an annual symposium. The fact that these important subjects can be discussed even today is a privilege that will prevent other possible Holocausts to come, at least for now.

CRITIQUE

Here is a bit of background for the article: it was published and written by Georgetown University, so this article serves to promote the university just as it promotes the prominence of forensic methodology. As a result, there are certain aspects that must be kept in mind.

First of all, the writing and structure of the article is really well done. It is obvious the school and everyone else involved is really proud of this project. Best of all, the article really drives home the importance of this endowed fund and how it will contribute to making this world a better place by providing research and tools that are necessary to minimize needless bloodshed and bigotry. The spirit of the university, of the Bramans, of Rev. Patrick Desbois and everyone else involved is perfectly captured.

Despite this, the writers could afford to improve upon their work by supplementing it with two simple suggestions. First, while this article discusses what the fund will be used for and how, the forensics aspect could be more emphasized on. If this project will go on to do and create great things, it is only natural that one would want to find out how.

So far, there is already a bit already known: written records of eyewitnesses’ oral testimony and the proof found in the actual physical evidence, but what would really make this article phenomenal would be if the writers included a piece on  what sort of physical evidence could be examined. Anecdotes are welcomed as well. Last but not least, this article only focuses on the United States. Is it possible for this program to educate Americans to help benefit other nations as well? Something this important should not just be limited to America, no matter how great it is.