Tweet
WVU honors Holocaust victims
by Grant Smith, Staff
The Dominion Post, Morgantown, W.Va.
April 20, 2006 Thursday
Apr. 20--WVU students and community members gathered at noon Wednesday
to begin reading about 15,000 names of Holocaust victims.
And they'll still be there at noon today.
"I think the Holocaust is a life lesson for the education person,"
said WVU President David C. Hardesty Jr., "that this could happen
in a 'civilized' country. It could happen to so many with so little
justification."
Nazi Germany's Holocaust killed an estimated 12 million people,
six million of them Jews.
Hardesty helped begin the program, reading a poem by Pastor Martin
Niemöller, and the poem "Unto Every Person There is a Name," by the
Israeli poet Zelda. The name-reading event shares the same name as
the latter poem.
He then read the first few names of Holocaust victims. The first two
victims were just children, aged 14 and 17.
Hillel House, WVU's Jewish student organization, first held the event
nine years ago, said member Heidi Solomon. About 30 volunteers signed
up ahead of time, and she expected about 20 to 30 more to volunteer
on the spot by the end of the event.
Hillel House co-treasurer Lauren Bergstein said that reading the
names is an effort to keep people from clumping the millions of
victims into one group.
"I think that one of the big things about this program is it's
important to give everybody a name," said Bergstein, a sophomore
occupational therapy student. "That kind of gives them more
personality."
Hardesty said the name-reading is a "poignant way" of remembering
the Holocaust. "They were individuals with hopes and dreams," he said.
Hardesty has been opening the program since it began at WVU, he said,
and read books and histories in preparation. "I think I've become
much better for participating in the ceremony," he said.
He recalls an emotional moment from a previous year, at which six
names of members from the same family were read. A father, mother
and their four children were all killed on the same day, in the same
camp. He said the ages of that family reminded him of his own.
"I've kind of gotten better at managing that over the years," he
said. The event is also an attempt to "make sure nothing like this
ever happens again," Bergstein said.
Solomon's mother, Jan Hausman, was scheduled to read names three
times during the event.
She teaches the Holocaust to eighth graders in Pennsylvania.
She said one of Adolph Hitler's earlier speeches referred to the 1.5
million Armenians' killed in Turkey in the early 20th century. He
said since no one remembered the Armenians, they wouldn't remember
the Jews killed by the Nazis in 20 years, either. "He was kind of
laughing at the memory of the Armenians," Hausman said.
She uses the Holocaust as a lesson decrying bullying.
"If we allow that, what's next?" she said. "I show them what could
possibly be next."
--Boundary_(ID_XklzbDX1oTk5S582Cz10hw)--
by Grant Smith, Staff
The Dominion Post, Morgantown, W.Va.
April 20, 2006 Thursday
Apr. 20--WVU students and community members gathered at noon Wednesday
to begin reading about 15,000 names of Holocaust victims.
And they'll still be there at noon today.
"I think the Holocaust is a life lesson for the education person,"
said WVU President David C. Hardesty Jr., "that this could happen
in a 'civilized' country. It could happen to so many with so little
justification."
Nazi Germany's Holocaust killed an estimated 12 million people,
six million of them Jews.
Hardesty helped begin the program, reading a poem by Pastor Martin
Niemöller, and the poem "Unto Every Person There is a Name," by the
Israeli poet Zelda. The name-reading event shares the same name as
the latter poem.
He then read the first few names of Holocaust victims. The first two
victims were just children, aged 14 and 17.
Hillel House, WVU's Jewish student organization, first held the event
nine years ago, said member Heidi Solomon. About 30 volunteers signed
up ahead of time, and she expected about 20 to 30 more to volunteer
on the spot by the end of the event.
Hillel House co-treasurer Lauren Bergstein said that reading the
names is an effort to keep people from clumping the millions of
victims into one group.
"I think that one of the big things about this program is it's
important to give everybody a name," said Bergstein, a sophomore
occupational therapy student. "That kind of gives them more
personality."
Hardesty said the name-reading is a "poignant way" of remembering
the Holocaust. "They were individuals with hopes and dreams," he said.
Hardesty has been opening the program since it began at WVU, he said,
and read books and histories in preparation. "I think I've become
much better for participating in the ceremony," he said.
He recalls an emotional moment from a previous year, at which six
names of members from the same family were read. A father, mother
and their four children were all killed on the same day, in the same
camp. He said the ages of that family reminded him of his own.
"I've kind of gotten better at managing that over the years," he
said. The event is also an attempt to "make sure nothing like this
ever happens again," Bergstein said.
Solomon's mother, Jan Hausman, was scheduled to read names three
times during the event.
She teaches the Holocaust to eighth graders in Pennsylvania.
She said one of Adolph Hitler's earlier speeches referred to the 1.5
million Armenians' killed in Turkey in the early 20th century. He
said since no one remembered the Armenians, they wouldn't remember
the Jews killed by the Nazis in 20 years, either. "He was kind of
laughing at the memory of the Armenians," Hausman said.
She uses the Holocaust as a lesson decrying bullying.
"If we allow that, what's next?" she said. "I show them what could
possibly be next."
--Boundary_(ID_XklzbDX1oTk5S582Cz10hw)--