Jonathan Steinberg, the Walter H. Annenberg Professor of Modern European History at the University of Pennsylvania, will speak on "Deutsche Bank, Nazi Gold and Historical Integrity" at 8 p.m. Thursday, April 3, in the Welles-Brown Room in Rush Rhees library on the University of Rochester's River Campus. The talk, part of the series of Verne Moore Lectures, is free and open to the public.
The talk will examine the activities of Deutsche Bank and its gold trade during World War II. Interest in the bank's complicity in the exploitation of gold during the war led to the formation of a historical commission to research the bank's gold transactions and other activities under the Nazis. Deutsche Bank financially supported and published the research. Steinberg, who has been a member of the historical commission since 1998, will examine the substantive and ethical issues that face historians in such work.
Steinberg received his doctorate from the University of Cambridge in 1965, where he taught for more than 30 years, and has published seven books and numerous articles on the German and Austrian empires, Nazi Germany, Fascist Italy, and modern Jewish history. He was a member of the Presidential Advisory Committee on Holocaust Assets and has been a frequent commentator on British radio and television.
The Verne Moore Lectures are sponsored by the Department of History and have been funded by a gift from University alumnus Verne Moore, Class of 1950, since 1996. For more information, call (585) 275-2052.