This series is made possible by the USI Foundation through the Edward D. and Regina Rechnic Speaker Series Endowment. The endowment was established by the late Irene C. Rechnic and honors her parents' struggle to survive the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp during WWII, where 960,000 Jews were executed.
Check back for our upcoming presentation in Spring 2026
6 p.m.
Tuesday, September 30
Carter Hall
An internationally acclaimed expert on the Holocaust and genocide, Gruner has authored more than 30 journal articles and book chapters while writing or editing over 20 books. He is the recipient of numerous national and international awards and honors for his teaching, academic achievements and tireless work to understand and combat genocide. Most recently, he published the prizewinning book, Resisters: How Ordinary Jews Fought Persecution in Hitler's Germany.
David talks with Dr. Wolf Gruner, a Holocaust and Genocide Scholar, and Dr. Todd J. Schroer, Chair of the Criminal Justice Department at The University of Southern Indiana. Dr. Gruner is the 2025 Rechnic Holocaust speaker at USI. He tells the story of how ordinary Jews resisted the Nazis in Hitler's Germany.
7 p.m.
Thursday, January 23
Performance Center
As the former Chief Acquisitions Curator at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum, Cohen was instrumental in preserving Holocaust history through the Museum’s extensive collections. A graduate of Harvard University with a master’s degree from Brandeis, she curated numerous web exhibits and authored works that examined distinct facets of Holocaust documentation, including Memento Mori: Photographs from the Grave, Three Approaches to Exploring the Höcker Album and Jewish Ghetto Photographers. Her research brought critical insight into the lives captured by Jewish photographers and the personal artifacts that reflected life in Europe before and during the Holocaust.
7-8 p.m.
Monday, September 18
Carter Hall
McMullan’s presentation explored her memoir, Where the Angels Lived: One Family’s Story of Exile, Loss, and Return, and shared her family’s journey to Pécs, Hungary, where she uncovered her Jewish ancestry, a part of her past her grandfather kept hidden. In her memoir, the moment McMullan discovers the existence of Richárd Engel de Jánosi, a long-lost relative, at Israel’s Holocaust Museum, she begins her quest to uncover the forgotten history of her ancestors. In her presentation, she will also discuss Hungary, the spread of authoritarianism and what we, as a society, can do to put an end to it.
7-8 p.m.
Wednesday, September 28
Carter Hall
Berger, the 2022 Regina Rechnic Holocaust Series keynote speaker, was born in Evansville in 1947. He graduated from the University of Evansville in 1969 and received his law degree with honors from Indiana University School of Law in Indianapolis in 1972. After law school, Berger returned to Evansville and went into practice with his father, Sydney, who founded Berger & Berger, LLP in 1946, a firm known for representing the working class in Evansville.
