PK camera team shooting in an unknown ghetto, c. 1941 (Image courtesy of Yad Vashem)​

The Lunch and Learn Lecture Series features interactive and informative programming  that offers a behind-the-scenes view of the festival’s offerings in the visual arts, music, theater and dance.

Most of the visual documentation of WWII, from the German side, originates from the Propaganda Companies (PK) of the Wehrmacht. These specialized units were responsible, among others, for providing the German media with war correspondence materials. The Wehrmacht Propaganda organization supported the wartime anti-Semitic propaganda of the Nazi regime by providing relevant visual material. As a result, a significant portion of the core visual documentation of the Holocaust originates from this source. This talk will focus on the reasons and circumstances of its creation.

Dr. Daniel Uziel is an expert in the field of the Nazi party’s antisemitic propaganda and the Propagandakompanien. 

This presentation is part of the 2022 Martin & Doris Rosen Summer Symposium on Film and Photography During the Holocaust, by Appalachian State University’s Center for Judaic, Holocaust, and Peace Studies. Since its inception in 2022, the purpose and goal of the symposium has been to provide information and insights about the victims, perpetrators, and consequences of the Nazi Holocaust. For more information, please visit the Symposium website at holocaust.appstate.edu/teachers.

About the Speaker

Dr. Daniel Uziel was born 1967 in Israel and studied history and international relations in the Hebrew University and in the Freiburg University. He is the immediate past head of the photographic collections at Yad Vashem in Jerusalem and current lecturer in political science and military history at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev. His areas of interest include: modern German history, military history, history and technology and culinary history.

In 1997-2001, he earned his PhD in history at the Hebrew and Freiburg Universities. His research: Army, War, Society and Propaganda. The Propaganda Troops of the Wehrmacht and the German Public 1938-1998, was submitted in November 2001 and was published in 2008 in England under the title, The Propaganda Warriors.

Uziel completed post-doctoral research at the National Air & Space Museum in Washington DC, between November 2004 and October 2005.  This research was published in 2011 in the United States under the title Arming the Luftwaffe. In 2018 he co-led a project, “Flashes of Memory: Photography During the Holocaust.” 

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The Lunch and Learn Lecture Series features interactive and informative programming that provides a behind-the-scenes view of the festival’s offerings in the visual arts, music, theater and dance.

Film Screening: DocuAppalachia: A Half Century Focus on the Environment.

In 2017 an untitled, silent 16mm film reel from the 1970s was discovered in storage in Boone, NC. The heavily spliced film, made by local photographer George Flowers, juxtaposes images of idyllic Appalachian landscapes with piles of trash, rusting vehicles, black smoke, dirty water and a pig.  When Flowers made the film, he was clearly influenced by the psychedelic culture of the day as well as by views at that time about environmental conditions.

The 1970s were a watershed moment in American environmental history. Partly because of images like those that George Flowers captured, the federal government enacted sweeping environmental laws. Now, 50 years later, what might a Flowers-like film reflect? DocuAppalachia compares scenes from the Flowers film to those same scenes in the 21st century and reflects on what has changed and what has remained the same in the rural southern Appalachian mountains.

Following the screening of this short film, participants will enjoy an engaging panel discussion that reflects on the impact of environmental protection legislation and on what has changed and what has remained the same in the rural southern Appalachian mountains.

Panelists: Beth Davison, filmmaker; Dr. Kristan Cockerill, film co-director; and Dr. Eric Plaag, Digital Watauga.

The Lunch & Learn will conclude with a screening of The Trash Trout Motion Picture Show. Filmmaker Tom Hansell worked with the Town of Boone, the Watauga Riverkeeper and volunteers to collect plastic bags and other refuse from a passive stormwater debris collector nicknamed the Trash Trout, then used the materials to make a crowd sourced experimental film.

About the Panelists

Dr. Beth Davison is the co-director and editor of the documentary DocuAppalachia. Dr. Davison is a faculty member in the Department of Interdisciplinary Studies and Co-Director of University Documentary Film Services. She teaches media and production classes for Interdisciplinary Studies.  Her documentary projects, screened internationally, in film festivals and on public television include The Denim Dynasty, Eva & Moe and Dulatown and The History of the Moses H Cone Estate screens regularly for tourists of the National Park Service’s Cone Manor Theater.

For additional information visit:  Appalachian State Departmental Biography or Faculty Profile

Dr. Kristan Cockerill has an interdisciplinary background and more than 15 years experience working to understand and improve the connections between cultural and scientific information related to developing environmental policy. Dr. Cockerill has coordinated policy projects at local, regional and federal levels and conducted research on diverse environmental topics. Most recently her work has focused on assessing regional attitudes about water, stream rehabilitation, and community water education.

Dr. Eric Plaag is the chairperson of the Digital Watauga Project, a partnership of the Watauga County Historical Society and the Watauga County Library. He is also the principal consultant at Carolina Historical Consulting, LLC, and serves as Chairperson of the Boone Historic Preservation Commission. He earned his doctorate in American History with a specialization in Historic Preservation at the University of South Carolina in 2006. He has been instrumental in a number of preservation efforts throughout the Carolinas in general and Watauga County in particular. His recent book Remembering Boone recalls 150 years of Boone history in celebration of its 2022 Sesquicentennial.