Hillel and AEPi co-hosted a walk around the Nott to commemorate the Holocaust this past Thursday. This came on the annual Yom HaShoah, or Holocaust Remembrance Day, which is the 27th day of Nisan in the Hebrew calendar.
Henry and Sally Schaffer Professor of Holocaust and Jewish Studies Stephen Berk, who teaches a class on the Holocaust every spring, and Rabbi Bonnie Cramer, the director of Hillel, gave remarks on the Holocaust.
Berk spoke about the historical context of the Holocaust and the 1900 years of anti- Semitism that predated the genocide.
The Holocaust was the systematic extermination of six million Jews that took place during World War II. Nazi Germany, in collaboration with other governments and local political groups, carried out the mass murder, which resulted in the death of two thirds of European Jewry and the destruction of Jewish communities and culture. Approximately 12 million people were murdered during the Holocaust, but Jews were the only group of people that were meant to be killed in their entirety. Before the murdering of Jews took place, the Nazi government had been persecuting and scapegoating the minority population since they had came to power, but many people, including Jews, ignored these warning signs.
“We are the canary in the mine,” Berk said. He explained that throughout history, while Jews were always the first people targeted, more groups of people followed that persecution. He also talked about the struggles of survivors and stated that those who were able to move forward with their lives after the genocide were heroes.
Both Berk and Cramer mentioned other people targeted by the Nazis and connected it to the present rise in anti-Semitism, along with other forms of discrimination such as racism, homophobia and Islamophobia and the responsibility people have to speak up against bigotry.
Berk made a point of mentioning how during and immediately after World War II, it was believed that the Nazis were mentally inferior; however, this was not the case. Intellectuals, doctors and otherwise fully capable individuals led to the persecution, torture and slaughter of Jews and were enabled by the silence of both the national and global community.
Berk referenced a quote made by the 18th-century Irish statesman Edmund Burke: “The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing.”
After the remarks, the students in attendance led a walk around the Nott. After circling the building, students and faculty gathered in front of the entrance and spoke the names of lost relatives and survivors of the Holocaust.
The walk ended with a reminder issued to the students to remember the past and speak up in the face of injustice