Continuing this week, DU is using social networking to make students aware of events during Holocaust and Genocide Awareness Week.

The Center for Judaic Studies (CJS), Hillel and Never Again are co-sponsoring the week-long events.

The events coincide with  Yom Ha’Shoah, the international Holocaust Remembrance Day, which was Monday.

Throughout the week, students will pass the Field of Flags assembled on Driscoll Lawn, which were placed last Friday, April 29.

  Each flag is symbolic of 5,000 victims of the Holocaust.  A total of 2,200 flags will flutter in the spring breeze, which will represent the total 11 million people who were killed.

Each color represents a different group: yellow flags represent Jews, red represent Soviets, brown stand for political prisoners, orange signify the Polish, blue for Romas (gypsies), white represent people with disabilities, pink denote homosexuals, green for Jehovah’s witnesses and black is symbolic of German-Africans.

The flags will remain on the lawn for one week, to be removed May 6.

“You hear the number, but you don’t really think about the enormity of what happened,” said Josh Samet, campus director of Hillel and one of the event organizors.  “It’s amazing to see a visual to get an idea of just how many people were victimized.”

Tomorrow, at 7 p.m., “Lost Boys of Sudan” speaker Arok Garang will talk about his journey as an orphan during the Second Sudanese Civil War.

The fighting took place from 1983 to 2005, where 2.5 million people became genocide victims.  Garang is also the founder and president of the Colorado Coalition for Genocide Awareness and Action (CCGAA).    

“The genocide in Sudan was so recent,” said Junior Ella Peterson, president of Never Again. “[Garang] should have a lot of interesting stuff to say about his experiences with genocide and being a refugee.”

The event will take place in Driscoll Student Center and is free to students. No registration is required.

The opening for the new Holocaust Memorial Social Action Site, located north of the Buchtel Tower and to the east of Penrose Library, along Evans, will take place this Thursday, May 5, at 8 p.m.  

“Digital Storytelling for Social Justice” will be part of a screening project where 16 students show few-minute narratives on a wide range of issues selected by the students.

To RSVP, students can visit the CJS via DU’s  website.  Students can also find more information on additional events associated with Holocaust and Genocide Awareness Week by visiting the table located on the Driscoll Bridge from 10:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. until Thursday.

“Reading of the Litany of Names” also took place on Driscoll Lawn yesterday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. 

Thirty volunteers took turns reading in 15-minute increments the names of Holocaust victims.

“We tried to read at least 9,600 names,” said Samet.  “If we wanted to read all 11 million names, we’d have to read 24 hours a day for approximately 390 days straight!”

A service, which spotlighted Holocaust survivors at Temple Sinai, was held yesterday at 7 p.m. and was endorsed by Never Again and CJS.

At Temple Sinai, Holocaust survivors and children of individuals who escaped, lit candles in memory of the victims.

“By having the service, we re-affirmed our faith even in the shadow of evil,” said Rabbi Rick Rheins, senior rabbi at the Temple Sinai. 

“It’s important for students to realize the lesson of the Holocaust so it’s never forgotten. These survivors are the last generation of survivors who will be able to tell their stories to students directly.”

CJS and Never Again also endorsed a service in comemmoration with Yom Ha’Shoah Holocaust Remembrance Day on Sunday May 1 from 9 a.m. to 12 p.m.,  at the Hebrew Educational Alliance synagogue, located at the intersection of East Hampden Avenue and South Ivanhoe Street.

Naomi Kirshner, program director at the synagogue, said that the event encompassed three educational workshops.

“We wanted to do something different this year,” said Kirshner.  “We wanted to do an event commemorating the Holocaust that stood out.”

After the workshops, attendees went to the sanctuary and participated in the lighting of the Holocaust Memorial Candelabra.

According to Kirshner, Jack Goldman, a deceased member of the synagogue, built the candelabra.

“He made it with six candles, each to represent the six million Jews killed during the Holocaust,” said Kirshner.

At 10:45 a.m., the keynote speaker at the service, Andre Mark, took the stage to relay his heartfelt story about surviving a forced labor camp and several concentration camps, including Aushwitz, Birkenau, Buchenwald and Bochum, where he remained until liberation day, on April 11, 1945.

“We were transported by trains to Aushwitz Concentration Camp, where my mother and siblings were murdered,” said Mark.  “At liberation, I exited at 16 years of age, 5 feet 9 inches, a mere 60 pounds of skin and bones. Prior to the war, my hometown of 250,000 population consisted of 32,000 Jews.  When I finally returned to an empty home, only 2,000 souls of my community survived the extinction.”

The remembrance began last Wednesday when the Denver Film Society screened “Killing Kasztner ” at the Colfax Theater, which was endorsed by CJS.

Peterson said the film followed Jewish-Hungarian journalist and lawyer known for helping Jews escape Nazi-occupied Hungary.  

He was assassinated in 1957 after Israeli courts accused him of collaborating with the Nazis.

Approximately 50 people attended the screening.

“[Rudolph Israel] Kasztner was a hero who was painted as a villain because he politically compromised with Nazis to save Jews,” said Peterson.  “He was murdered because he had a negative reputation for doing something that saved thousands. I really think [the film] shows some of the ambiguities of the Holocaust.”