The Holocaust Awareness Institute at DU’s Center for Judaic Studies gathered about 100 signatures Tuesday outside Sturm Hall on a “Tolerance Trunk” to be airmailed to Pope Benedict XVI.
The trunk, which contains educational material on Holocaust, will be sent to the Vatican in hopes that the contents be shared with the newly reinstated Bishop Richard Williamson, who has publicly denied that six million Jews died during the Holocaust.
“This trunk is really a message of interfaith and intercultural relationship building,” said Sarah Pessin, director of the Center for Judaic Studies.
The Tolerance Trunk program began about six years ago as an educational outreach effort of the Holocaust Awareness Institute, which was established at DU in 1983.
The program regularly rents out Tolerance Trunks to teachers in the region at a low cost to provide resources for teaching the Holocaust in their classrooms, according to Pessin. Each trunk contains multimedia content chosen with input from local educators and compiled in Rubbermaid boxes.
“I was tossing and turning the night I heard the story [about Bishop Williamson],” Pessin said. “It dawned on me that that’s what we do. We could send a message and a possible piece of help.”
This Tolerance Trunk was designed specifically for the pope. It’s in a wooden crate ornamented with lettering and graphics by DU professor Rick Griffith and his graphic design studio, MATTER.
A number of Holocaust survivors also supported the project, joining DU students, faculty and community members in signing the open letter printed on the lid of the crate. Three Holocaust survivors, 95-year-old Sam Fireman, Fanny Starr and child survivor Rosalyn Kirkel discussed their experiences at Pessin’s reading of the Open Letter.
The letter explains the purpose of the trunk and encourages the pope to share its contents, noting that the material is meant to “inspire a spirit of openness and care for fellow human beings.”
“I think sending the trunk is a great idea. This incident makes me concerned about the Catholic Church going back on the Vatican II and what that means for religious tolerance and the future of the papacy,” first year graduate student Robynne Locke said.
“I feel like we were the only students here, and having Holocaust survivors here – that’s a big deal,” said graduate student Teresa Montoya.
Additional signatures were collected Sunday at the Fred Marcus Memorial Holocaust lecture, which included a screening of the film “Nicholas Winton: The Power of Good.” The program was introduced by survivor Tomas Graumann.
The trunk will be sent to the Vatican tomorrow with delivery confirmation to ensure it has been received.
“We want at the very least to get confirmation of delivery, but we really hope to get more of an in-depth response,” Pessin said.
