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Honour, Respect, Remember - January 26th
2007
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January 26th 2007, Friday was the Holocaust Remembrance Day. Jewish students hosted
a ceremony open to all, in the lecture room. Coupled with stories of their grandparents and close
relatives, they sang songs to honour the victims, and showed images of, the Holocaust. The session
was touching and concluded with the simple symbolism of lighting remembrance candles.
A group of students visited RISA DI SAN SABBA in Trieste- the closest Nazi concentration camp
to the school. Exhibited there were stories of 20 children between 5-12 years old from Auschwitz.
Their images were both moving and disturbing, as they showed life in a Nazi camp from a child's
perspective. The camp itself cast a weighty gloom upon all those who entered. Cells for two people,
of infinitesimal size, memorials, the "room of crosses" and the "death cell" were open to the
public. The room of crosses, a large hall filled with sinister looking beams that led to doors at
various levels, was particularly unsettling.
Also in attendance were camp survivors, old and worn, returning to remember and honour their
past. Most would not say anything, though while standing in front of a display case, a voice said,
"I remember that. I was there. I was five." It was a survivor, as she introduced herself after
taking a moment to wipe a stray tear. She was a small old woman whose only indications of ever
being in a camp were reddening eyes and an adamant stand that the Holocaust was "not something to
forget." Her husband, a French native, whose family had fled from France because of accusations of
being fascist, was also in attendance. He too had seen the event and lived in a camp, though was
Catholic. "I was born a Catholic, but when I was ten I saw these horrors (he points at the display
case) and from then on God did not exist."
Salma (Canada) |
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