FMU held a Holocaust Remembrance Day program in collaboration with Sigma Tau Delta and Snow Island Review on Jan. 28 in the Lowrimore Auditorium in the Cauthen Educational Media Center to reflect, remember and honor the lives of those impacted by the Shoah.
The event featured poem and memoir readings from Shoah victims and survivors, including “Fear” by Eva Picková, read by Madison Woodle; “The Butterfly” by Pavel Friedmann, read by Britney Harisson; “Homesick” by an anonymous author, read by Kaylee Hewitt; and “Never Shall I Forget” by Elie Wiesel, read by Isaiah Davis.
Following the poetry readings, a panel discussion took place with history professors Scott Kaufman and Alena Eskridge-Kosmach, alongside Larry Falck, director of multimedia services. The discussion focused on important historical contexts, including the rise of antisemitism and Nazi ideology, the challenges faced by survivors in rebuilding their lives after liberation and the impact of the genocide around the world.
During the panel, Falck shared that “Holocaust” is not the appropriate term to call the genocide that took place.
“In the Bible, there is a holocaust offering, that’s an offering by fire,” Falck said. “And so we don’t want to think of the Jews who were killed and burned as an offering. That’s kind of a sick way to think about it. Shoah is a Hebrew word. There is a Jewish holiday to commemorate the memories of the Shoah, it’s Yom HaShoah.”
When Eskridge-Kosmach brought up the topic of Shoah denial, Falck responded with an article he had previously read about deniers in Iran.
“Just use the words of the Nazis themselves,” Falck said. “They kept meticulous notes from the Nürnberg trials and they flaunted more-or-less what they did.”
Towards the end of the event, Kaufman shared that there is a rise of Antisemitism in our country. He also expressed concern that when people ignore expert historical knowledge and instead seek out information that aligns with their beliefs, it can lead to history being “twisted” and “devalued,” making it easier for people to dismiss the past.
“We are seeing more cases of Jews getting harassed, attacked at the synagogues, cemeteries…We are seeing a repeat of our past in some respects and this is why I think it’s so important for us to have these kinds of discussions,” Kaufman said. “We’ve got to be willing to look at our past, to study our past, to understand what happened in the past and why it happened and to understand that the people who write about the past are individuals who have done the research, who can explain it, and are not individuals who are simply basing it upon hearsay and conjecture.”
Elizabeth Zahnd, professor of French and coordinator of the modern languages-French program, attended the event and believes it is important to honor the victims and recognize past events to prevent their recurrence.
“It’s important to commemorate the victims of the Shoah and to learn about history and not hide it from young people today, and to make sure everybody really acknowledges what happened so that it doesn’t repeat again,” Zahnd said. “I would want people to realize the importance of learning history so that we don’t repeat it. I just think it’s so crucial not to hide the past, even if it’s ugly, but to learn about it and learn from it so that we can make better decisions now and in the future.”