Author: Lisa Andrews
Last week Oxy students attended various events commemorating Holocaust Remembrance Week. Organized by Hillel, the week began with National Holocaust Remembrance Day on Monday, April 16 and included a series of events, including a documentary screening, a talk with a Holocaust survivor and a special Holocaust Memorial Service Thursday evening. This year, the week also called attention to the genocide occurring in the Darfur region of Sudan.
Meghan Meyerson (senior), chief organizer of the event, said the week was meant to honor those who died due to the atrocities the Nazis committed during World War II and to recognize the need to prevent such tragedies from occurring again.
The documentary “Europa Europa” screened Monday to educate viewers about the Holocaust and to provide a background for the remainder of the week’s events. The grass outside of Johnson Student Center was also filled with colored flags on Monday to illustrate the number of people killed in the Holocaust and in Darfur. Each flag represented 5,000 lives and were color-coded by nationality. Samuel Edelman spoke on the Holocaust, Darfur and U.S. involvement in Darfur, Tuesday, April 17. On Wednesday students were able to write names of those who have died in acts of genocide on rocks in honor of their suffering.
“I think it is an important week not just for campus-wide education but also because so many of the students identify as Jewish,” Meyerson said. “The Holocaust is an event that must continuously be remembered.”
According to Meyerson, the event’s planning committee worked hard to educate the Oxy community about the Holocaust’s ties to the past and the need to be aware of today’s world. “This week was about education and awareness,” Elizabeth Cutler (sophomore) said. “This year, with commemorating both the Holocaust and Darfur, I want people to remember that things don’t happen in a vacuum. There’s a link between the past and present.”
Rachel Stoler (sophomore) echoed Cutler’s remarks. “Genocides have occurred since the Holocaust, despite the world’s claim, ‘Never again,'” Stoler said. “Our generation needs to say, ‘Not on our watch.'”
The culminating event of the week came during the Holocaust Memorial Service, which featured seven student speakers and a talk by Holocaust survivor Richard Monitz. The student speakers included Cutler, Kera Bartlett (sophomore), Carly Sutherland (sophomore), Jenny Berg (sophomore), Shanna Devine (junior), Phil Barney (senior) and Joi Bartholomew (senior).
Their readings included poetry inspired by visits to concentration camp sites and an excerpt from The Diary of Anne Frank. Some students also spoke about Darfur. The service was hosted by Hillel members Rachel Stoler and Ahuva Zaches (sophomore).
“People are speaking because they felt it was important,” Cutler said. “It’s a very student-oriented program. It will be as meaningful as people make it. It’s not limited to any specific personality or religious background.”
Brad Ross (junior), a member of the planning committee, was pleased with the way the service turned out. “I believe people benefited most from hearing the Holocaust survivor speak at the memorial service,” Ross said. “He is the closest we can get to understanding what happened and his first-hand account was amazing. Talking with him helped me personally to understand how real the Holocaust was for him, even though it seems so distant in the past to Occidental students like myself.”
According to Ross, this year’s focus on the Holocaust and on the tragedies in Darfur made the week especially poignant. “It is crucial to understand what the Holocaust was in order to help understand what Darfur means today,” Ross said. “The issues of discrimination, oppression and the lack of tolerance, issues that are central in understanding the Holocaust and Darfur, are issues that seem naturally important to the Occidental community.”
This article has been archived, for more requests please contact us via the support system.
