Should someone who worked for the Nazis be designated a "rescuer" by Yad Vashem, Israel's Holocaust remembrance authority?

Should the same be said for an anti-Semite or a Catholic priest?

Alex Grobman raised those questions at Seton Hill University last week when he spoke about the Holocaust. His program, "Rescuers and Rescued: Those Who Dared," focused on people who risked everything to save others.

"We live in a time when many people are in denial of what perils we face today and in the future. The Holocaust should demonstrate what happens when we don't respond early on," said Dr. Grobman, who has encountered a number of people who doubt the Holocaust occurred.

Dr. Grobman, who holds a doctorate in contemporary Jewish history, is a scholar who has spent much of his life learning about the Holocaust and its history. His visit Nov. 7 was arranged by the university and its National Catholic Center for Holocaust Education, and by the JoAnne Boyle World Affairs Forum

Dr. Grobman's study of the Holocaust was inspired by something he overheard about his own religion.

"I heard someone say the Jews had walked like sheep to slaughter," Dr. Grobman said. "They said it was part of Jewish tradition to be passive, and I knew this was not true."

In 1969, when he was an undergraduate, Dr. Grobman searched for a graduate school that would benefit him best. He enrolled at Hebrew University in Jerusalem.

Since then, he has been instrumental in the development of Holocaust education and helped to establish the first Holocaust center in the United States in St. Louis, serving as its first director.

He was director of the Simon Wiesenthal Center in Los Angeles and started the Simon Wiesenthal Annual, a serial publication dedicated to the study of the Holocaust. He also is president of two think tanks, the Brenn Institute and Institute for Contemporary Jewish Life, both of which deal with Jewish history.

Dr. Grobman is the author of many academic guides and books, the most recent being "Nations United: How the United Nations Undermines Israel and the West."

He is a frequent lecturer who wants his listeners to walk away with the understanding of "the danger that exists in the world when we allow evil to triumph and that one person can make a difference, if only we are willing to take the risk."

It is important to study the Holocaust, he said, to try to avoid a similar occurrence someday.

"The Holocaust is not a Jewish question," he said. "It's a question of minorities and what Western society is capable of doing. We want to prevent this from happening again -- to Jews and others, because if it happened once, it can happen again."

Dr. Grobman's topic, people who rescued Jews during the Holocaust, was well received. The audience seemed to appreciate his humor as well as the stories, cases and conclusions he related.

He explained the criteria Yad Vashem uses in deciding who should receive awards for rescuing Jews during the Holocaust. Then he presented cases of who might be considered a rescuer and asked the audience to determine how Yad Vashem might have ruled.

He also discussed the willingness of Westerners to accept minorities, and what type of person would be willing to save a life regardless of the risk. Dr. Grobman pointed out that individuals in groups can make a difference, and that their stories should be related, but in the perspective of the Holocaust.

The students who attended the lecture enjoyed the format of Grobman's talk.

Heather Patterson, a junior at Seton Hill, said, "It was thought-provoking and something I wasn't expecting."

"It was a breath of fresh air," said Tyler Jones, a junior at Seton Hill.

Audience members also thought it was interesting to get a Jewish point of view about the Holocaust, and the fact that groups other than Jews and the Nazis were involved in the Holocaust was enlightening.

Aaron Cargo, a senior at Seton Hill, said, "It was a fuller understanding aside from the generic education of the Holocaust. ... We never really look at the actions of the rescuers."