Dr. Cristina Florea, a historian of modern Europe, with a particular focus on the intersections of nationalism, empire, and violence in the 19th and 20th centuries, will deliver the 2025 Malka and Eitan Evan annual Yom Ha-Shoah Lecture on Monday, March 24. The  free program, open to the community,   begins at 6:30 p.m. and will be held in the Science Library Standish Room (third floor), on the University at Albany uptown campus. She will discuss “A Holocaust Without Germans? The Destruction of Bukovina’s Jews.” Yom HaShoah in 2025 is April 23/24.

In her lecture, Florea will explore the destruction of Bukovina’s Jewish community during World War II. Bukovina, once Austrian, became Romanian in 1918, then partially fell under Soviet control in 1940. In 1941, Romania regained it with German support, triggering anti-Jewish violence. This violence stemmed from local Ukrainian and Romanian nationalist efforts rather than a Nazi-directed plan. Nazi authorities sometimes acted as moderating forces.

Florea’s forthcoming book Bukovina: The Life and Death of an East European Borderland reviews the history of Bukovina from the late 18th century to the post-World War II period, tracing the region’s shifting political landscapes and its impact on its diverse communities (Ukrainian, Romanian, German, Jewish). Florea has published on the history of Soviet and East European politics and culture, and teaches courses on Eastern European, Soviet, and modern European history at Cornell University.

Information may be obtained from Dr. Federica Francesconi, associate professor in the  Department of History and director of the Judaic Studies program at the university, www. Albany.edu/judaic studies, 518-442-4130.