Springfield College Holocaust Remembrance Tomorrow will Feature Victims' Names Reading, Survivor's Lecture and Film Screenings
April 7, 2010SPRINGFIELD, Mass., April, 7, 2010 – Commemorating the Holocaust on April 8, Springfield College students and members of the faculty and staff will read aloud the names of victims of the Holocaust, hear from a Holocaust survivor, and screen two short films on themes of the Holocaust and ethnic persecution. The Yom HaShoah events will be open to the public free of charge.
Springfield College Holocaust Remembrance Schedule:
Reading of Holocaust Victims’ Names
9 a.m.--noon, and 1--6 p.m.
Springfield College Naismith Green
Discussion: Ervin Straub, Holocaust survivor
Marsh Memorial Chapel, noon
Straub, who is a professor emeritus of psychology at the University of Massachusetts and founding director of its Peace and Violence Doctoral Program, will discuss his experiences during the Holocaust and subsequent work to promote world peace. Straub has worked extensively in Rwanda helping people from different factions heal from their genocide and hate crimes. He is the author of books including “The Roots of Evil: The Origins of Genocide and Other Group Violence” and “The Psychology of Good and Evil: Why Children, Adults and Groups Help and Harm Others,” and his forthcoming book, “Overcoming Evil: Genocide, Violent Conflict, and Terrorism.”
Film Presentations: “Jai” and “I’m Still Here”
Marsh Memorial Chapel, 7 p.m.
“Jai”
This short film is the story of two children who notice a number tattooed on their grandmother’s arm. When the girl asks about it, the grandmother does some quick math and says that it is the "number of life." When the grandfather discovers the girl marking a number on her arm, the girl notices that his number does not add up to 18 like her grandmother's. He shows how it can be made to equal 18 and claims that the grandmother is always right. The girl then goes to her older brother to mark a number on his arm, and he explains that the number is from the Nazis, but the grandmother must have forgotten due to old age. The girl then says that she will remember for her grandmother. "Jai," in Spanish with English subtitles, was shown at the San Francisco Jewish Film Festival and can be seen on U-Tube.
“I’m Still Here: Real Diaries of Young People Who Lived During the Holocaust”
This 45-minute film brings to life the diaries of young people who witnessed first-hand the horrors of the Holocaust. Through an emotional montage of archival footage, personal photos, and text from the diaries themselves, it celebrates a group of brave, young writers who refused to quietly disappear.
