Tuesday, 5/6/97 Candlelight vigil honors genocide victims
Survivors bring destruction home to audience, personalize extent of
tragedy
By Judy Cha Daily Bruin Contributor Six million lives were
exterminated under the rule of one man. Adolf Hitler’s plan to wipe
out every trace of Jews in Europe sparked the horrific Nazi
genocide from 1933 to 1945. Commemorating the Holocaust, Jewish
groups on campus held a memorial service in the Viewpoint Lounge on
Monday to recognize the death and destruction of World War II. "As
long as the memory is alive and passed down, we will not allow
humanity to do that again," said Jack Maizel, a third-year
political science student and co-chair of the program. Students
gathered to listen to survivors of the Holocaust, who tried to
personalize the atrocity. "It provides me with a sense of comfort,
peace and tranquility, knowing their memory is still being
honored," said Liron Artzi, a third-year undeclared student. When
the first speaker began reading an excerpt from Elie Wiesel’s "The
Night," faces grew solemn and a heaviness filled the air. Those who
had experienced the horrors of concentration camps nodded in silent
affirmation as images of the Holocaust were evoked by the recital.
While powerful words held the audience in a trance, survivors were
summoned to the front of the room, lighting memorial candles one by
one – six flickering candles for six million Jewish victims. Some
students with personal ties to victims of the Holocaust felt the
service was consoling. "It’s an uplifting experience," Artzi said.
"It’s emotional." The service culminated when Henry Rosmarin took
the podium, saying "the horror of the Holocaust cannot be put into
20 minutes." Rosmarin was only 13 when Germany invaded Poland and
he was taken to Auschwitz, one of the six major concentration camps
in Poland. At the service, he recounted how playing the harmonica
saved him from extermination. Rosmarin was only following a guard’s
order to play the harmonica when, to his surprise, the guard
rewarded him with a loaf of bread. That one loaf of bread equaled
six days of life, he explained. "It was the gift of music that
turned out to be so important in saving my life," he said. It was
not until six years later, in January 1945, that Rosmarin was
finally liberated. "This is a day of commemoration," Rosmarin said,
referring to Monday’s ceremony. "We have come together to remember,
to speak out for the silenced – soon we will also be silenced."
Rosmarin concluded his emotional speech by playing a tune on his
harmonica. The survivors stood for living proof that people moved
on with their lives after the Holocaust, according to Mariana
Roytman, a first-year communications student and co-chair of the
program. A 24-hour candlelight vigil in the sculpture garden
followed the memorial service and will continue until 2:30 p.m.
today. Volunteers will take turns reading names of Holocaust
victims, putting an identity to the staggering six-million
statistic. "It gives passersby a good sense of the humanity of it,"
said Nathaniel Wyckoff, a biomedical and physics graduate student.
While reading names, Aviva Entin, a first-year business economics
student, realized that the same last names would come up over and
over again – some of them echoing names of her family and friends.
"It’s actually kind of cool," said Nick Fee, a third-year theater
student and passerby. "It’s refreshing to know that the tragedy of
it all hasn’t been forgotten." BRENDA ZUNIGA Rabbi Chaim
Seidler-Feller speaks at the memorial. External Links: Jewish
Student Union