Dr. Martina Cucchiara, associate professor of history at Bluffton University, will present the Colloquium, "We Want to Become Saviors and Helpers of our Fatherland: Catholic Girls in Nazi Germany,” at 4 p.m. on Feb. 8 in Stutzman Lecture Hall.

The Colloquium will look at how Catholic girls attending private Catholic schools in the Third Reich responded to the demand of the Nazis for all Germans to act out their extreme and anti-Semitic ideology in everyday life. Despite anti-Semitic rhetoric and practices being dismissed in the classroom, teachers and students still played a role in the production of the racial people’s community, which centered on the persecution of Jews. Cucchiara will further discuss how these individuals were unsuccessful in their attempt to seek a middle ground with the regime and maintain their distinct Catholic spheres in their schools.

This event is free and open to the public.