Special Chair for Central European Studies gives Cleveringa Lecture in Vienna
On December 3, 2024, Prof. dr. Sarah Cramsey delivered a Cleveringa Lecture in Vienna. Cramsey was the special guest of the Dutch Ambassador to Austria, Mr. Peter Potman.
After a lunch at the residence with colleagues based in Austria, Cramsey delivered a lecture entitled “The Other Holocaust: Care, Children and the Jewish Catastrophe” before more than 100 attendees, including ambassadors from Israel and Poland as well as dozens of students who are studying diplomacy in Vienna. Also in attendance were Leiden alum Ingrid d’Hooghe, the wife of Ambassador Potman, and other Leiden alumni who recognized the importance of this tradition.
This event in Vienna commemorated a protest lecture delivered by Professor Rudolf Cleveringa delivered more than eighty years ago, professor Clevering in Leiden’s Great Auditorium. He denounced the measure taken by the German occupiers of removing all Jewish professors from their posts. To commemorate professor Cleveringa's speech, dozens of Cleveringa committees, in collaboration with Leiden University Fund, organise special lectures around the world on and around November 26 for their fellow alumni and anyone with a heart for science. Cramsey was delighted to deliver her first Cleveringa Lecture in Vienna, the heart of Central Europe.