Holocaust by Bullets with Father Patrick Desbois, March 24
Some experts say up to one-third of all Holocaust victims were executed - not in concentration camps, but shot by Nazi troops as they invaded Russia. 1.5 million Jews, many women, children and the elderly, were killed in the Holocaust by bullets. Nazareth College is honored to host Father Patrick Desbois, a French Catholic priest who has dedicated his life searching for mass graves and recording the memories of elderly witnesses. Fr. Desbois presents “Holocaust by Bullets: A Model for Mass Crimes of Today” on Monday, March 24, at 7 p.m. in the Nazareth College Arts Center’s Callahan Theater. The lecture is free and open to the public. For more information, call (585) 389-2765. Nazareth College Arts Center is located at 4245 East Avenue, Rochester, N.Y., 14618. His lecture is sponsored by Desbois’ organization Yahad-In Unum (YIU), in partnership with Nazareth College, Hobart and Williams Smith Colleges, and The Center for Holocaust Awareness and Information (CHAI) of the Rochester Jewish Community Federation.
For the past ten years, Desbois and a team of more than twenty people, which includes translators, a filmmaker, and a ballistics expert, have sought out the witnesses in the rural villages across Ukraine, Russia and Belarus and told their stories. In 1942, many natives in their teens and 20s witnessed the mass killing of more than one million Jews, and their stories are finally being heard in their 80s and 90s. Using innovative methodology, interviews, and ballistic evidence, Desbois has determined the location of many mass gravesites with the goal of providing proper burials for the victims of the forgotten Ukrainian Holocaust. 
Father Desbois’ work has now expanded to field research in Moldova, and Nazareth College professor Susan Nowak (pictured with Father Desbois) was honored to join Desbois’ team in the field in summer 2013. Read about her experience here. YIU has also expanded its work in Poland and Romania (which is specifically related to the Nazi campaign against the Roma.)
YIU’s strategic plan is now on a project of investigation in Guatemala to study the cases of killings against civilians from the 1960s to 1980s. Nazareth student Candice Gage just returned from a 12-day trip to Guatemala where she worked in the field with Father Desbois’ team.
Photo credit: Rita Villanueva Candice Gage (Back left of photo), with Father Desbois and his team, listening to a testimony from a survivor in Tzununul, which is in the municipality of Sacapulas in the department of Quiché in Guatemala.
Working closely with United States Holocaust Memorial Museum staff, Desbois’ work as president of Yahad-In Unum (derived from the word “unity” in both Hebrew and Latin) has been recognized through numerous awards and commentary in France and internationally. He is author of the book “Holocaust by Bullets”, winner of the 2008 National Jewish Award, and written with support of the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum.
For More Information
Nazareth College (585) 389-2765 or MEDIA: Julie Long, Nazareth College Chief PR Officer, (585) 389-2456
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