Die österreichische Begegnungsgruppe:
The Austrian Encounter
Lebenslauf:
Charles Samson Munn
Date and Place of Birth March 29, 1952 New York
Citizenship U. S. A. and Israel
Education B. A. University of California, Berkeley
March 1973
M. D. Boston University
May 1978
Postgraduate Training
Internal Medicine (PGY 1: categorical) - Boston City Hospital -
Boston, Massachusetts
June 28, 1978 – June 30, 1979
Diagnostic Radiology (PGY 2–4: residency)
Tufts University/New England Medical Center/Boston V.
A. Medical Center - Boston, Massachusetts
July 1, 1979 – June 30, 1982
Imaging (PGY 5: adult C.T. and ultrasound fellowship)
Boston Veterans Administration Medical Center
Boston, Massachusetts
July 1, 1982 – June 30, 1983
Present Positions Founder and Facilitator:
The Austrian Encounter, from 1995 on. The Austrian Encounter is a
non profit, non therapeutic group who meet to counter racism and to stem
genocide by exploring and discussing personally and publicly their families’
histories, consequent ramifications, etc. TAE comprises thirteen people
from Austria, the U.S., and Israel: daughters and sons of Austrian Holocaust
victims who meet approximately each year in Vienna with sons and daughters of
Austrian Nazi perpetrators.
U.S. Liaison and Corporate
President: To Reflect and Trust, Inc., from 1993 on.
TRT is a non profit, non therapeutic group who meet to counter racism
and to stem genocide by exploring and discussing personally and publicly their
families’ histories, consequent ramifications, etc. Samson Munn founded TRT’s
charitable, Massachusetts corporation. TRT
(founded and facilitated by Dan Bar-On, Ph.D., Ben Gurion University of the
Negev) comprises eighteen people from Germany, the U.S., and Israel: sons and
daughters of Holocaust survivors who meet approximately each year or
year-and-a-half in those countries with daughters and sons of Nazi
perpetrators.
Participant: The Goldner
Symposium on Genocide, from 1996 on. The Goldner Symposium is an
invited, international group of thirty-six primarily genocide and Holocaust
scholars who meet every other year in Wroxton, near Oxford (England) in an
effort to study and to intervene against racism and genocide based on lessons
learned from the Holocaust. (Founded by Leonard Grob, Ph.D. (Fairliegh
Dickinson University) and Henry Knight, Ph.D. (University of Oklahoma).)
Member, Executive Committee:
Friends of the New England
Holocaust Memorial, from Autumn 1998 on.
P.O. Box 2161, Boston MA 02106-2161
Assistant Professor:
School of Medicine, Tufts University, from ~ 1987 on.
Radiologist: Lemuel Shattuck Hospital,
from 1997 on.
Department of Public Health, Commonwealth of
Massachusetts
Vice-President, Medical Staff:
L.S.H.,
from April 1998 on.
Chief, Department of Radiology: L.S.H.,
from
September 1998 on.
Radiologist: New England
Medical Center Hospitals, from July 1997 on.
Past Invovlement Participant: Boston Jewish—German
Dialogue, 1994–6.
Newton, Massachusetts
Part of a group of approximately 12–20 people of German
and/or Jewish descent who met (and still meet) on a once-monthly, evening
basis for discussion.
Film Appearances* Children of the Third Reich
Timewatch, B.B.C. (London), © 1993; produced by Catrine Clay. Samson
Munn was one of the four most highlighted participants in a group of eighteen
daughters and sons of Holocaust survivors who meet for profound encounters
with sons and daughters of German Nazis. This fifty-minute documentary has
been broadcast nation-wide in the U.K. (several times on the
B.B.C.), in the U.S. (several times on the Arts and Entertainment
and The History Channel cable-TV channels), in Holland, in Australia,
in Canada, in France, in Israel, in Turkey, and in other countries.
Eine unmögliche Freundschaft ["An
Impossible Friendship"] Provobis (Berlin), © 1998; produced by Michael
Richter. The film documented the friendship between Samson Munn (the son of
two concentration camp survivors) and Dirk Kuhl (the son of the Gestapo
commandant of Braunschweig). This forty-five-minute film has been broadcast
several times in Germany and in Austria.
Out of the Ashes Timewatch,
B.B.C. (London), © 1995; produced by Catrine Clay. This forty-eight minute
film examined Samson Munn and two others and has been broadcast nation-wide in
the U.K. (several times on the B.B.C.), in
the U.S. (several times on the Arts and Entertainment and The
History Channel cable-TV channels), in Israel, in Holland, and in other
countries.
Radio Appearances Encounter between Children of Survivors
and Children of Perpetrators [during a religious affairs program on]
B.B.C.
Radio 4, June 2, 1996. Samson Munn was one of two people interviewed (live)
for about five minutes in this Sunday morning program broadcast throughout the
U.K.
Second Generation Reconciliation
Outlook,
B.B.C. (London), November 10, 1993, © 1993; produced by Kate
Howells. Samson Munn was one of two people interviewed in-depth (live) for
seven minutes by John Waite in this radio, news magazine program, broadcast
throughout the U.K.*
Children of the War Today at
One, Blue Danube Radio, Österreichische Rundfunk (Austrian National Radio,
Vienna), March 13, 1995, © 1995; produced by Jane Duke. Samson Munn was
interviewed (live) for eleven minutes by Hal Rock about the creation of
The Austrian Encounter, then merely incipient, in this Austrian, English
language, radio program.*
The Austrian Encounter Deutsche
Welle summer 1997; produced by Silvia Pfeifer. Samson Munn and a couple of
the participants in The Austrian Encounter were interviewed in Vienna
for an English language program on national German radio.
Encounter between Children of Survivors and Children of
Perpetrators The Stu Taylor Show, WSSH
(Boston),
Talk America Radio Network, broadcast December 24, 1993, © 1993. Samson
Munn was the sole guest, interviewed in-depth (live) by Stu Taylor in this
hour-long, call-in, talk-radio program, broadcast nationally.*
Print Appearances* L’impensable dialogue: Les mémoires de
la Shoah – IV ["The Unthinkable Dialogue: The Memories of the Holocaust –
IV"] Le Monde (Paris), April 28, 1995, page 16, by Annick Cojean.
Samson Munn was one of five sources interviewed and quoted in this full-page
article, the fourth in a series.
Anreden gegen die Schweigespirale: Wie Kinder von hohen
Nazis und Nachkommen der Holocaust-Opfer in London versuchten, einander zu
begegnen ["Arguing Against the Spiral of Silence:
How Children of Major Nazis and Descendents of Holocaust Victims Sought to
Encounter One Another in London."] Süddeutsche Zeitung (Munich) June 4,
1996, page 3 (a favored, prestigious position in German newspapers), by Birgit
Weidinger. Samson Munn was one of three quoted sources in this article, in one
of Germany’s most respected and widely read newspapers.
Kinder des Holocaust: Reden gegen das Tabu
["Children of the Holocaust: Talking Contrary to the Tabu."] Passauer
Neue Presse (Passau), August 21, 1995, page 3 (a favored, prestigious
position in German newspapers), by Silvia Pfeifer. Samson Munn was the primary
source for this 1/3- to 1/2-page article, which very favorably discussed
The Austrian Encounter in depth in the (then) newly more liberal, main
newspaper of a Bavarian city known for its right-wing views and anti-Semitism.
Brückenschlag der Kinder: Das Schweigen durchbrechen
["The Children Initiate Building of Bridges: Breaking Through the
Silence."] Berliner Morgenpost (Berlin), August 26, 1995, by Jola
Merten. Samson Munn and two daughters of Holocaust survivors are described and
quoted in this article. The three were in Berlin for a meeting, and were
interviewed because of their mere presence in Berlin and because of their
involvements in encounters with sons and daughters of Nazi perpetrators.
Belastete Begegnung: "Es liegt nicht an uns, unsere Eltern
zu versöhnen" ["Weighty Encounter: ‘It Isn’t Up to
Us to Reconcile Our Parents’."] Neue illustrierte Welt
(Vienna), August/September 1995, page 17, by Brigitte Halbmayr. Samson Munn
was the primary source for this article, a thoughtful and very positive
description of the first Austrian Encounter, which appeared in a
Jewish, Viennese newspaper.
Younger Germany grapples with the sins of its fathers
San Jose Mercury News (San Jose) April 1997, by Ken Garfield. Quoting and
discussing Samson Munn among others, this article discussed a major meeting
(entitled
The Presence of the Holocaust in the Present) held in Berlin in January
1997, addressing post-Holocaust dialogue.
Public Presentations Twelve to fifteen: often as part of a
panel, usually in the U.S., in Germany, or in Israel, but also in England, in
Poland, and in Canada. Presentations have been made to public, general
audiences interested in genocide, in the Holocaust, in Germany, and/or in
Jews, and to professional, psychology audiences, ranging in size from 12 to
1200. They have spanned June 1992 to March 1999. For example:
Individually presented the film Eine unmögliche
Freundschaft and discussed related projects to an audience of ~ 90 at the
Goethe Institut, Boston, the evening of September 24th, 1998.
One of two who jointly presented Opposite Sides of a
Shared History June 2nd, 1996, in London. It was a Sunday
evening presentation of about 2 1/2 hours length, open to the public, produced
by the Second Generation Trust (London) and the Institut für
vergleichende Geschichtswissenschaften (Berlin), held at the
Royal Geographic Society. It was attended by a broad audience of
approximately 500, including much of the German population living in and near
London, and was covered very positively by the British and German press.
One of two who were jointly invited to present Grand
Rounds: Second Generation, Post-Holocaust Dialogue at the Department of
Social Work, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston,
February 18th, 1998. The audience comprised about 40 professionals
in social work and psychotherapy in a prestigious Boston hospital department.
Individually presented The Austrian Encounter at the
28th
Annual Scholars’ Conference on the Holocaust and the Churches February
1998 in Seattle (to an audience of ~ 40), at the 29th
Conference
March 1999 in New York (to an audience of ~ 30), and at the International
Conference on Genocide October 1998 at California State University
(Sacramento, to an audience of ~ 100).
Conference Organized International Conference of
Jewish—German Intensive Dialogue Groups held in Boston, July 26–28, 1996.
This was the first "council" of representatives of such groups, and was
organized and chaired by Samson Munn. There were thirteen representatives
present from twelve dialogues or dialogue types, functioning in eight
countries (Germany, Israel, Austria, the U.S., England, France, Russia, and
Canada).
References Catrine Clay
Producer, Timewatch B.B.C. Documentaries
Annick Cojean Le Monde
Dan Bar-On, Ph.D. Professor of
Behavioural Sciences, Ben Gurion University of the Negev
Marc Skvirsky Facing History
and Ourselves
Birgit Weidinger Süddeutsche
Zeitung
Leonard Grob, Ph.D. Goldner
Symposium
Publications* Einführung in die Arbeit der Nachkommen von
Opfern und Tätern ["Introduction to the Work of Descendents of Survivors and
Perpetrators"]
Wolff, Roswitha; Munn, Samson; "Scholz, Sabine"; Kuhl, Dirk; and Goschalk,
Julie in Staffa, Christian and Klinger, Katherine, Die Gegenwart der
Geschichte des Holocaust (Berlin: Institut für vergleichende
Geschichtswissenschaften, 1998, ISBN 3-9805206-1-7) 59-70.
The Austrian Encounter Munn, Samson in Kimenyi,
Alexandre, Anatomy of Genocide (New York: Edwin Mellen Press, in press).
* copies available upon request
Facsimile (617) 327.8259 Electronic Mail
Munn@compuserve.com
|