Award-winning Filmmaker Pierre Sauvage to Give the Mildred Fish-Harnack Human Rights and Democracy Lecture

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

CONTACT: Masarah Van Eyck, Director of Communications, Division of International Studies, UW­­­–Madison, 608 262-5590

Pierre Sauvage, award-winning filmmaker, producer and screenwriter, will deliver the Mildred Fish-Harnack Human Rights and Democracy Lecture at the University of Wisconsin–Madison.

Sauvage will give a lecture titled “Did Americans Fight the Holocaust” on Tuesday, April 15 at 4 pm in the Wisconsin Historical Society Auditorium (816 State St., Madison).

An Emmy Award-winning documentary filmmaker, Pierre Sauvage is best known for his 1989 documentary Weapons of the Spirit which won numerous awards and remains one of the most widely used documentary teaching tools on the Holocaust. An expert on rescuers of Jews during the Holocaust, Sauvage is currently focusing on the American experience of the Holocaust.

Weapons of the Spirit will screen on Monday, April 14 at 6 pm in the Browsing Library at Memorial Union (800 Langdon St., Madison).

These events are sponsored by the Global Legal Studies Center and the Division of International Studies and are co-sponsored by the Mosse/Weinstein Center for Jewish Studies, the Department of Communication Arts, and the Center for Interdisciplinary French Studies. Both events are free and open to the public.

The Mildred Fish-Harnack Human Rights and Democracy Lecture is named after a Milwaukee native who was a vibrant and active student at UW–Madison in the 1920s. While living in Germany, Fish-Harnack assisted in the escape of German Jews and political dissidents. She is the only American civilian executed under the personal instruction of Adolf Hitler, for her resistance to the Nazi regime. The Mildred Fish-Harnack Human Rights and Democracy Lecture is designed to promote greater understanding of human rights and democracy, and enrich international studies at UW-Madison. For further information on Fish-Harnack and the lecture series, please go to www.international.wisc.edu/fishharnack/.

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WISCTV: Wisconsin Woman Helped Lead Nazi Resistance

From Channel 3000’s “Mildred Fish-Harnack: Back To Berlin”

A Wisconsin woman’s amazing story stretched beyond America’s borders to Nazi Germany, where she became a major force in the underground resistance to the Nazis and personally caught the attention of Adolf Hitler.

• Wisconsin Woman Helped Lead Nazi Resistance
• Video: Watch the report online
• Slideshow: Madison points of interest in Mildred Fish-Harnack’s life
• Slideshow: Berlin points of interest in Mildred Fish-Harnack’s life
• Video: Expert Art Heitzer Speaks about Mildred Fish-Harnack’s background and legacy
• Video: Memorial Center Director Discusses Mildred Fish-Harnack’s Time In Nazi Germany
• Video: Curator Andreas Sander Gives Tour of the Former Gestapo Headquarters in Berlin

Also visit UW-Madison’s Mildred Fish Harnack Democracy and Human Rights Lecture

WISCTV to Air Series on UW-Alumn, Nazi Resister

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT: Masarah Van Eyck, Director of Communications, Division of International Studies, mvaneyck2@international.wisc.edu, 608-262-5590

Madison—Most people wouldn’t recognize her face or her name, but this Wisconsin woman’s story stretches far beyond our borders. In mid-November WISC-TV, News 3 will take an in depth look at Milwaukee native and University of Wisconsin–Madison alum, Mildred Fish Harnack and her amazing journey into Nazi Germany—a journey that started with a chance meeting on the UW–Madison campus.

After earning a BA and MA at UW–Madison, she met her husband, German-born Arvid Harnack, while lecturing in Bascom Hall. After moving to Germany, she became a pioneer in the study of American literature and eventually a major force in the underground resistance to the Nazis.

In the end, Fish-Harnack, was the only American woman executed on the direct orders of Adolph Hitler.

Mildred Fish Harnack: Back to Berlin will air each night at 10pm from November 13 -15 on News 3.

Human Rights Event Features AIUSA’s Larry Cox

UW-Madison students representing several campus-based human rights organizations explained their work at the annual Mildred Fish-Harnack Human Rights and Democracy Lecture, sponsored by the Division of International Studies and the Global Legal Studies Center. Participating were the UW-Madison chapters of Amnesty International USA, Action in Sudan, Al-Awda Wisconsin, In Your Hands and Village Health Project. The lecture’s keynote speaker was Larry Cox, executive director of Amnesty International USA.

Click here to listen to Larry Cox’s speech.

Head of Amnesty International to Speak at UW-Madison

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
DATE: Thursday, March 29, 2007
CONTACT: Ronnie Hess, Director of Communications, Division of International Studies, UW-Madison, (608) 262-5590, rlhess@wisc.edu

Madison, WI –Larry Cox, the executive director of Amnesty International USA (AIUSA) will deliver the Mildred Fish-Harnack Human Rights and Democracy Lecture at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Mr. Cox will speak on “The War on Human Rights,” Tuesday, April 17, 2007 at 4 p.m. in the Alumni Lounge, Pyle Center, 702 Langdon St., Madison. The talk, sponsored by the UW-Madison Division of International Studies and the Global Legal Studies Center of the Law School, is free and open to the public.

As executive director of AIUSA, Mr. Cox promotes human rights as the basis for peace and security in the post-September 11 era. Mr. Cox believes the U.S. has abdicated its role as a leader in human rights.

Mildred Fish-Harnack Human Rights and Democracy Lecture

As part of this year’s Mildred Fish-Harnack Human Rights and Democracy Lecture, Larry Cox, executive director of Amnesty International USA, will speak about “The War on Human Rights.”

Cox promotes human rights as the basis for peace and security in the post-September 11 era. A veteran human rights advocate, Cox was senior program officer for over ten years at the Ford Foundation’s Human Rights unit, focusing on the promotion of international justice and the advancement of domestic human rights. Cox has also served as the executive director of the Rainforest Foundation, an international organization that works with indigenous peoples in the Brazilian Amazon to protect their rights.

This lecture recognizes the heroic anti-Nazi resistance work of Mildred Fish-Harnack, a UW-Madison alumna who was the only American civilian executed by the Nazis as an underground conspirator.

The lecture will be at 4pm on Tuesday April 17 at The Pyle Center, Alumni Lounge, 720 Langdon St.

Leading German Jurist to Give Human Rights, Democracy Talk

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

DATE: Friday, September 23

Contact: Ronnie Hess, Director of Communications, Division of International Studies,
UW-Madison, (608) 262-5590, rlhess@wisc.edu

Leading German Jurist to Give Human Rights, Democracy
Talk

Madison, WI – Brun-Otto Bryde, judge of the Federal Constitutional
Court of Germany, will deliver the Mildred Fish-Harnack Human Rights and Democracy
Lecture at the UW-Madison, Wednesday, October 19 at 3:45 p.m. in the Godfrey & Kahn
Lecture Hall (room 2260) of the UW-Law School, on the UW-Madison campus.

The talk, sponsored by the UW-Madison International Institute in conjunction with the Global Legal Studies Initiative, is named after the UW-Madison alumna executed for her resistance work by the Nazis during World War II, the only
American civilian to suffer that fate. The lecture is designed to promote greater
understanding of human rights and democracy, and to enrich international studies
on the UW-Madison campus. Each year, the Institute invites a distinguished
individual who has contributed to the cause of human rights through scholarship
and research. Past speakers have included Yash Ghai, a leading international
authority on constitutional law and human rights, and José Zalaquett,
one of the leaders of Chile’s Committee for Peace during the Pinochet regime.

Justice Bryde has served on the Federal Constitutional Court, similar to the
U.S. Supreme Court, since 2001. He is a professor of public law and political
science at Justus-Liebig-Universität-Giessen. He has lectured and written
extensively on international and comparative law, and was a visiting professor at the UW-Madison Law School in 1989 and 1994.
Justice Bryde will speak on “Fundamental Rights as Guidelines and Inspiration:
German Constitutionalism in International Perspective.”

Germany’s
Federal Constitutional Court was established in 1949 in the aftermath of World War II and was approved by the occupying powers, including the U.S. Provision for such a court was made in the “Basic (or fundamental) Law,” which was considered more of a provisional charter than a constitution, reflecting the fact that Germany, divided into East and West, was no longer
a single nation-state. The document is now considered one of the most important constitutions in the world.

The high court is not an appeals court but rather a court of judicial review,
able to rule on whether acts by Germany’s three branches of government – legislative,
executive and judicial – are constitutional. The Court’s landmark
Lueth decision of 1958 holds that fundamental rights are “guidelines
and inspiration” for the legal system and that civil law may not contradict
them. In July, 2005, the Court refused to extradite a German citizen of Syrian
origin wanted by Spanish authorities in connection with the Madrid train bombings.
The Court ruled that new European procedures to simplify these kinds of extraditions
violated the rights of Germans citizens.