Holocaust Memorial Day Proves to Be Time of Reflection for Students

On a cold, gray Thursday in the midst of finals, about one hundred Columbia students paused in the Satow Room to honor Yom HaShoah, or Holocaust Remembrance Day.

The Hillel-organized ceremony, planned by Sarah Weiss, BC '10, was meant to allow the community a chance to “stop and commemorate the Holocaust and to place it at the forefront of our minds,” said planning committee member Emma Lebwohl, SEAS ’11.

The ceremony was followed by a procession to the sundial, marking the beginning of a 24-hour name-reading in memory of the 6 million Jews who perished during World War II.

Keynote speaker and Holocaust survivor Sol Rosenkranz shared his harrowing experience living through six different concentration camps. Born in a small town in Western Poland, Rosenkranz, a small man with piercing eyes, was one of only two survivors out of a family of nine.

He recalled close scrapes with death, including memories of being threatened at gunpoint and weeks of near-starvation. Though he developed various creative strategies to survive, such as a sign language he used to discreetly communicate with his family while traveling, he ultimately attributed his survival to luck. “I was so lucky ... unbelievably lucky,” he said.

When asked by an audience member if he has been able to forgive the Nazis, he responded, “I have been able to forgive but not forget. You must forgive or you will destroy yourself.”

Rosenkranz’s speech was followed by a recitation of the Kaddish, the Jewish mourning prayer, and then a Yartzeit candle lighting ceremony to commemorate the lives lost in the Holocaust. Students also read poems and personal writing exploring their own connection with the fall out of World War II. One speaker said, “6 million Jews and 6 million others have died—but remember these millions were made up of one person, plus another, plus another.”

After the ceremony, audience members proceeded to the sundial to remember these individuals. Despite rain and wind, the sundial was completely surrounded as two Hillel members huddled under an umbrella and began to read out names of Holocaust victims. Others lit candles and placed them around the sundial.

Some described the ceremony as a deeply touching experience. Nicole Mizrahi, BC ’10, felt that the emotional weight of ceremony transcended words, but did express her conviction that “it is important to remember these events because sadly, in the coming years, there will be no one to tell the story,” referring to the dwindling numbers of Holocaust survivors. But Sarah Ishal, BC ’10 said that the passing on of stories was the real point of the event.

“There will be people to tell these stories,” Ishal insisted, because “we must pass it on.”
Chanel Tran, CC ’11, called the name-reading ceremony “moving” and expressed her hope that the name-reading would prompt student reflection.

“As students pass, they will pause to remember these individuals and wonder what their stories were.”

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