What FDR Said About the Holocaust

Forum for Fairness in Discourse Lecture Series

The Bud Shorstein Center for Jewish Studies invites you to join us for an evening with renowned Holocaust scholar Dr. Richard Breitman, who will discuss President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s 1944 public statements on Nazi atrocities. What could Roosevelt say as more information became known? What could he not mention? What determined the president’s discourse concerning Nazi mass murder?

In conversation with Dr. Norman JW Goda, the Norman and Irma Braman Professor of Holocaust Studies at UF, the event explores how military, political, and moral pressures shaped the American response to the Holocaust, offering fresh insight into what government leaders knew, when they knew it, and how they chose to act.

Attendees will be able to explore historical artifacts relating to this lecture from the Isser and Rae Price Library of Judaica at the University of Florida. The event will also include a catered reception.

About the Speakers:

Richard Breitman is Distinguished Professor Emeritus at American University. His many books include The Berlin Mission: The American Who Resisted Nazi Germany from Within; FDR and the Jews, coauthored with Allan J. Lichtman; Official Secrets: What the Nazis Planned, What the British and Americans Knew; and The Architect of Genocide: Himmler and the Final Solution.

Norman JW Goda is the Norman & Irma Braman Professor of Holocaust Studies at the University of Florida. He studies modern European history and specializes in the history of the Holocaust, war crimes trials, and twentieth century diplomacy. He teaches courses on the Holocaust and Nazi Germany from historical and interdisciplinary perspectives.

Thank you to our co-sponsors: Aventura Turnberry Jewish Center and the Isser and Rae Price Library of Judaica.

About the Forum for Fairness in Discourse:

The Forum for Fairness in Discourse is a lecture series that invites thought leaders and scholars to highlight how Jewish thought intersects with issues such as justice, identity, ethics, and community.

Funded by a generous donation by Audrey Adams and Dr. Jon D. Morris, this series creates space for ideas that both honor the past and shape a more thoughtful, inclusive future.