The interconnected nature between the Holocaust and modern genocides is being explored this week during Holocaust and Genocide Awareness Week: And Then They Came For Me, hosted by Never Again!, a student organization.
Holocaust and Genocide Awareness Week commenced Sunday evening on the steps of Sturm Hall with a 24-hour litany reading of the names of all the people who died in the Holocaust.
Numerous programs throughout the week are designed to support the goals of Never Again! in preventing other genocides and speaking about past ones.
Tonight, Never Again! hosts keynote speaker Lani Silver, an oral historian and political activist. She is speaking about the Holocaust and its connection with genocide, racism and social justice in the modern day. The speech is from 7-9 p.m. in Lindsay Auditorium.
On Thursday there will be a survivors panel in Lindsey Auditorium. The panel includes two Holocaust survivors and a Darfurian refugee. It begins at 7 p.m.
This Sunday is Yom HaShoah, Holocaust Remembrance Day. In honor of this, an interfaith service and candlelight vigil are being held outside of Evans Chapel at 7:30 p.m.
The event concludes Monday, April 16 with a lecture titled, “Memory and Justice: A Jewish-Arab Journey to Auschwitz.” Stuart Schoffman will speak at 7 p.m. in the Gottesfeld Room at the Ritchie Center.
We are “working toward awareness and activism,” said Joel Portman, president of Never Again!, which was started during fall quarter 2006.
Portman and Lindsey Synalovski, vice president of Never Again!, are the driving forces behind creating a weeklong event that brings together both the Holocaust and other past and present genocides.
“It’s really important to include other genocides…they’re part of each other,” said Synalovski.
Portman added that through understanding the causes and the implications, one can actually cause change.
“If you prevent the underlying causes, you prevent the genocide,” he said.
“Impact is our biggest thing,” said Synalovski. The group hopes to use shock value in posters and events in order to affect as many people as possible. Oftentimes, “people recognize [the atrocities] but then they aren’t willing to do anything about it,” said Synalovski. Through shock, she hopes that people will be enraged enough to actually offer to help or at least begin to discuss the subject.
“Our generation is the last generation that is actually going to know a Holocaust survivor.” After that survivor dies, it will be the current generation telling their stories, said Synalovski. Consequently, Never Again! wants to create awareness now and promote activism within the DU community.
Never Again! will help to inform students and get them talking about the subject. “After that, it is up to them,” to make something happen, said Portman.
He added, “Our goal is to affect everyone on campus whether or not they come to an event.”
The purpose of Never Again! is to inform members of the DU community and members of the outside community “about the Holocaust, the implications of hate and prejudice, and the reoccurrence of genocide throughout the world today,” according to the group’s Web site.
For more information, email Joel Portman at jportman@du.edu or visit http://www.du.edu/orgs/neveragain.
