By Julia Barnes, News Correspondent
Though the Holocaust came to an end nearly 70 years ago, the painful recollection still haunts many survivors and their descendants. Early Tuesday morning strangers and friends alike gathered in the Egan Research Center not to mourn the tragedies that occurred, but to commemorate the strength and courage of those who fought back. This reunion marked the beginning of Northeastern’s annual Holocaust Awareness week.
With the theme of remembrance and restitution in mind, those who came up to speak each provided different insights on how they related to and learned from this past atrocity.
The program began with a warm welcome from Uta G. Poiger, dean of the College of Social Sciences and Humanities. In her speech, Poiger raised the question, “How do we responsibly commemorate the Holocaust?”
Stephen W. Director, provost and senior vice president for academic affairs, answered this question in his opening remarks by emphasizing the importance of remembering genocide victims.
“We owe [genocide victims] a responsibility to stand against the ideology of hate,” Director said. “At Northeastern we’re proud that our community engages with hard questions.”
At the center of the commemoration were two thought-provoking presentations.
Hinda Tzivia Eisen, recipient of Northeastern’s Gideon Klein Scholar award for 2013-2014, presented first. Eisen is a candidate for masters of Jewish studies degree at Hebrew College’s School of Jewish Music.
Titled “‘Making Light’ in Darkness: The Westerbork Cabaret,” Eisen’s presentation examined the black humor involved in Holocaust entertainment and questioned whether this spirit could be revived.
According to her research, certain performances took place on Tuesday nights at concentration camps to entertain Nazi officers and inmates – conveniently after some Jews were transported to execution sites in the morning. Through footage and audio, Eisen particularly observed the cabarets directed by Max Ehrlich and Willy Rosen at the Westerbork Transit Camp – where Anne Frank and her family stayed before their exile to Auschwitz.
Eisen said she plans to continue her research and encouraged those who were interested to look on her website westerborkcabaret.wordpress.com for more information.
The second presentation came from Natalie Bormann and Veronica Czastkiewicz, Northeastern faculty members in the department of political science. Recalling their Holocaust Dialogue of Civilizations to Germany and Poland last summer, they described some of the anticipated and unanticipated challenges they faced while educating 23 Northeastern undergraduates, and the lessons they learned despite some conflicts.
Laurel Leff, associate professor of journalism and Stotsky professor of Jewish historical and cultural studies, gave closing remarks.
Overall, the well-attended event seemed to leave a positive impression for some faculty members and students.
One student who was particularly touched by the program was Jonathan Leeds. After hearing about the event from his English professor, the freshman business and finance major took time out of his busy schedule to honor his Jewish heritage and his deep passion for history.
He especially admired Bormann and Czastkiewicz’s keynote presentation and the way they pondered just how many tours of Holocaust sites would it take for the impact of the era to truly sink in.
“There’s no amount,” Leeds said. “Saying [the Holocaust was] terrible is an understatement.”
Leeds said he certainly plans to come to next year’s commemoration and will invite others who might benefit from listening. Though he said this would likely be the only commemorative event he could attend, he was glad it made a lasting impact.
“I’ll take away the fact that I haven’t paid much attention to history, and basically the importance that I have to learn a lot more.” Leeds said.