BETHLEHEM, PENNSYLVANIA, UNITED STATES, April 23, 2020 /EINPresswire.com/ -- The Holocaust was the ultimate expression of hatred and false teachings and beliefs. We must remain ever vigilant that people understand the truth and not be taken in by falsehoods so that such atrocities do not happen again.

As an Oberlin College student Alice Eckardt first became interested in the history of Christian-Jewish relations upon learning about the many horrors associated with the rise of Adolf Hitler and the Third Reich. “I didn’t want to live in a world where these things were possible,” says Eckardt. “I didn’t want to live in a world where hate rules; I didn’t want my children to witness what was revealed to me as the Allied forces discovered and liberated the terrible camps.”

With a Masters degree in history, Eckardt began teaching in the Religion Studies department at Lehigh University in 1972, where she remained until 1987. Initially, she taught a course on the centuries-long history of relations between Christians and Jews, as well as two different courses on the Holocaust. One involved how it began under Hitler; how various world communities reacted; how the churches in Germany offered almost no opposition; how the Nazis’ “Final Solution” set up the death camps. Students then considered major changes in church teachings. In the second course, the focus was on writings by the intended victims – in various locations, of different ages – or by survivors of the camps.

“Not only did these things happen, but they were too often supported by people who ought to have known better. It’s particularly tragic,” says Eckardt, “when those actions could be supported by Christian theology.”

From 1973 to 2015 Eckardt was a member of the national Christian Scholars Study Group on Judaism and the Jewish People. She was active in regional and international conferences, and doing research in Europe and Israel.

Subsequently Eckardt helped found Lehigh University’s Jewish Studies program, and served as co-director from 1976 to 1985. She also served on the academic advisory board of the Lehigh Valley Center for Jewish Studies from 1971 to 2015.

Eckardt co-authored three books: Encounter With Israel: A Challenge to Conscience (1970), Long Night’s Journey Into Day: Life and Faith After the Holocaust (1982), and A Revised Retrospective on the Holocaust (1988). She also edited and contributed to Jerusalem: City of the Ages (1987), and Burning Memory: Times of Testing and Reckoning (1993), and was editor of Collecting Myself by A. Roy Eckardt (1993).

As a respected voice in her field, Eckardt was appointed as a special consultant to the President’s Commission on the Holocaust by its chair Elie Wiesel in 1979, and special advisor to the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington.

“It’s shocking to realize that a large proportion of America’s younger generations do not know the terrible history of the Holocaust. And many high schools are not teaching about World War II and its death toll. Students ought to know what dreadful things have been done, particularly to minorities whether they are religious or racial. Some people, but all too few, knew the moral thing to do and were willing even to take risks to stand up for what was right.”

Close Up Radio will feature Alice Eckardt in an interview with Jim Masters on April 27th at 12pm EDT

Listen to the show on BlogTalkRadio

Lou Ceparano
Close Up Television & Radio
+ +1 (631) 850-3314
email us here
Visit us on social media:
Facebook