The international conference, "Bohemian and Czech Jews in America," took place at the Embassy of the Czech Republic Wednesday as part of AU's project, "Voices in Terezín."
The Embassy of the Czech Republic, AU's Jewish Studies Program and AU's Department of History co-sponsored the conference.
Prime Minister of the Czech Republic Jan Fischer attended the conference, which she said focused on Jewish-Czech relations.
"I have a strong relationship to this issue," Fischer said. "I [know] how the Czech and Jewish contributed socially in wars ... I am proud of the Jewish community, the amount of people who have been involved."
Other conference attendees included many descendents of the Czech Republic who now reside in the Washington Metro Area, AU faculty in the Jewish Studies program, AU students studying Jewish studies and history and author Peter Demetz, who spoke at the conference.
Gail Humphries Mardirosian, head of the "Voices of Terezín" project and an AU performing arts professor, uses Peter Demetz's book, "Prague in Danger, 1939-1945: Memories and History, Terror and Resistance, Theatre and Jazz, Film and Poetry, Politics and War," in her class.
"It was astonishing to actually hear him talk about the experiences he had delineated in his book, which presents a fascinating balance of personal memories along with historical details," Mardirosian said. "Just hearing him speak about his experiences made Terezín, once again, all the more real to me."
This conference, one of many in AU's "Voices of Terezín" project became a way to reach beyond our campus community by building bridges between the AU community and the Embassy of the Czech Republic, said Professor Pamela Nadell, the director of the AU Jewish Studies program.
"[The conference] drew people of all ages," Nadell said. "It became a very important conversation about these Jewish immigrants to America."
"Voices in Terezín" is a project meant to implement the arts to restore the Holocaust memories and increase awareness of the Holocaust.
Terezín was a former Bohemian fortress, but the Nazis used it as a camp-ghetto for Czech Jews during World War II, according to the AU Web site. However, these Jews found a way to express their dehumanization through art.
"All of these extraordinary minds and talents were confined in this town, and they started to create," Mardirosian said on the Web site. "Choreographers and artists taught classes, musicians and conductors held performances, scholars gave lectures. And somehow the arts helped them transcend their situation. The arts became the means by which they defied the repressive degradation of their circumstances."
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