The Seton Hill University National Catholic Center for Holocaust Education (NCCHE) will host a book signing featuring one of the co-editors of the Center’s recently published book, The Memory of Goodness, on Wednesday, April 6 at 4 p.m. in Cecilian Hall on the university’s Greensburg campus. The event is open to the public. Please note, Seton Hill requires all individuals attending events of more than 50 people on campus to wear a mask as part of its COVID-19 risk mitigation policy.

The Memory of Goodness contains probing essays by Eva Fleischner, a dedicated Catholic who became a remarkable, pioneering Holocaust scholar and educator. 

Gathered from the diverse books and journals in which they originally appeared, Fleischner’s writings focus on teaching, rescue and responsibility, and Jewish-Christian relations, the fields in which Fleischner made her most important contributions to Holocaust studies. They reveal Fleischner’s fierce and unrelenting determination to affirm the inclusive religious pluralism that flourishing post-Holocaust respect between Christians and Jews requires.

“Eva Fleischner was a dear friend of Seton Hill University and the National Catholic Center for Holocaust Education and dedicating her life to educating the world about the horrors of the Holocaust and the ways that Christians were complicit,” said Dr. James Paharik, Director of the National Catholic Center for Holocaust Education. “We are honored to be able to present her work in a comprehensive form through the publication of The Memory of Goodness, and we hope that her words will serve as a reminder to people today and in the future of the deadly toll that disinformation and hatred takes on humankind.”

The Memory of Goodness was edited by Holocaust scholars Carol Rittner and John K. Roth, who have published many books together, including most recently, Advancing Holocaust Studies. Rittner is Distinguished Professor Emerita of Holocaust and Genocide Studies and Dr. Marsha Raticoff Grossman Professor Emerita of Holocaust Studies at Stockton University. Roth is Edward J. Sexton Professor Emeritus of Philosophy and Founding Director, Center for the Study of the Holocaust, Genocide, and Human Rights (now the Mgrublian Center for Human Rights) at Claremont McKenna College.

Rittner will be on hand to discuss the book and sign copies, which will be on sale at the event at a discounted rate of $14.95 plus tax. 

In addition, the Holocaust Center will welcome to the event Dr. Debra Faszer-McMahon, Dean of the Seton Hill School of Humanities, to discuss and sign copies of her recent publication, A Laboratory of Her Own: Women and Science in Spanish Culture. The book gathers diverse voices to address women’s interaction with STEM fields in the context of Spanish cultural production. 

Publication of The Memory of Goodness was made possible thanks to a generous commitment to Seton Hill University and the NCCHE by Eva Fleischner’s late brother Hans Fleischner and his wife, Leslie Fleischner. The Fleischners’ gift to Seton Hill has enabled the University to expand programming around Holocaust education, including the publication of The Memory of Goodness, the filming of oral histories of Holocaust survivors, and the establishment of the Eva Fleischner Program on Truth Finding.