Susanne Ledanff, of the University of Canterbury, discusses the rise of anti-Semitism and the Holocaust in public and UA3 lectures, on Sunday and Monday. Dr Ledanff is shown in 2009 with her book, which has the translated title Imagining the Capital City: Reading Berlin in Contemporary Literature 1989-2008. Photo supplied.

A thought-provoking overview of the causes and the impacts of the Holocaust will be given in public lectures by a University of Canterbury associate professor in Arrowtown on Sunday and Monday.

Susanne Ledanff is the course co-ordinator of "Representing Evil: the Holocaust and its Legacy".

She will draw from her university lectures in her 90-minute talks in the Lakes District Museum.

Dr Ledanff was invited by the University of the Third Age and her talks dovetail with "Anne Frank: A History for Today", a travelling exhibition on show in the museum's gallery, until September 14.

Dr Ledanff, a German national who has resided in New Zealand since 1995, said this week her lectures delved into anti-Semitism from antiquity to the Middle Ages and the reasons for it, which led to racial issues in the 19th century and the systematic anti-Semitism of Nazi Germany.

"The impact today is following the question can the Holocaust happen again?" she said.

• The lectures will be held in the Lakes District Museum, Arrowtown, on Sunday, July 17, at 2pm, and on Monday, July 18, at 10am. Entry $5. To book, phone (03) 442-1824.