In response to COVID-19 and in an effort to keep our guests safe, this event will be held on Zoom.

Join UCI Libraries and UCI Center for Jewish Studies for a lively discussion with author Jeffrey Veidlinger, Joseph Brodsky Collegiate Professor of History and Judaic Studies at the University of Michigan, about his new book, In the Midst of Civilized Europe: The Pogroms of 1918-1921 and the Onset of the Holocaust.

Between 1918 and 1921, over one hundred thousand Jews were murdered in Ukraine by peasants, townsmen, and soldiers who blamed the Jews for the turmoil of the Russian Revolution. In hundreds of separate incidents, ordinary people robbed their Jewish neighbors with impunity, burned down their houses, ripped apart their Torah scrolls, sexually assaulted them, and killed them. Largely forgotten today, these pogroms―ethnic riots―dominated headlines and international affairs in their time. Aid workers warned that six million Jews were in danger of complete extermination. Twenty years later, these dire predictions would come true.

Drawing upon long-neglected archival materials, including thousands of newly discovered witness testimonies, trial records, and official orders, acclaimed historian Jeffrey Veidlinger shows for the first time how this wave of genocidal violence created the conditions for the Holocaust. Through stories of survivors, perpetrators, aid workers, and governmental officials, he explains how so many different groups of people came to the same conclusion: that killing Jews was an acceptable response to their various problems. In riveting prose, In the Midst of Civilized Europe repositions the pogroms as a defining moment of the twentieth century.

Registration is now closed. The program will be livestreamed on YouTube, please click here.

In conjunction with the American Library Association and United States Holocaust Memorial Museum’s traveling exhibition Americans and the Holocaust, the UCI Libraries’ Americans and the Holocaust Exhibition Event Series explores antisemitism, extremism, and the power of human connection. Guests are encouraged to visit the traveling exhibition during regular library hours.

For more information, please click here.