'The Convenient Scapegoat' film series spotlights anti-Semitism

MANATEE -- Lifelong Learning Academy's 2015-16 opens with a lecture and film/discussion series on anti-Semitism and the Holocaust presented by art historian and media psychologist Andre Krauss, Ph.D.

"The Convenient Scapegoat: Anti-Semitism Before and After the Holocaust" will be from 2:30-4 p.m. Oct. 8 at Selby Auditorium at USF Sarasota-Manatee. The fee is $10 for the general public and free for LLA members.

Only seven decades have passed since the liberation of the Nazi death camps, yet, in many parts of the world, and especially in Europe, we are witnessing a resurgence of the old anti-Semitic rhetoric, the stereotyping and vilifying of the Jew today with propaganda similar to that employed so successfully by the Nazi regime during its domination of Europe in the 1940s, Krauss said in a press release. The series will explore why Nazis were so successful in rounding up the Jews of Europe, isolating them in ghettos, and systematically marching them to the death camps.

"Impossible Circumstances and Impossible Choices" is a three-part film and discussion series chosen in commemoration of the 70th anniversary of the end of World War II and the liberation of the Nazi death camps. Three films, "Fateless" (2:30-5:15 p.m. Oct. 29), "Genocide" (2:30-5:15 p.m. Nov. 12), and "Defiance" (2:30-5:15 p.m. Nov. 19) represent a few examples of the extraordinarily difficult choices Jews had to make under the perverse Nazi social order.

Each film will be followed by a discussion with Krauss moderating. The fee is $25 per film or $70 for three films and discussions.

Krauss, a research fellow at the Institute of Sociology at the Romanian Academy, is a published art historian and media psychologist. He holds doctorates in art history from the University of Gothenburg in Sweden and in social psychology from the University of Bucharest in Romania. Krauss has been teaching and conducting research for more than 30 years in the United States, Sweden, Israel and his native Romania.

Lifelong Learning Academy offers four course terms annually on the USF Sarasota-Manatee campus, 8350 N. Tamiami Trail, Sarasota.

Information or to register for the lecture and the film series: Call 941-359-4296 or go to lla-sm.org.

This story was originally published October 2, 2015 at 11:48 PM with the headline "'The Convenient Scapegoat' film series spotlights anti-Semitism ."