For 26 years now, Students for Holocaust Awareness at Colorado State University have hosted a Holocaust Awareness Week. From March 28 to April 4 this year, events were hosted in remembrance of the Holocaust in and around the Lory Student Center.
These events not only exist to bring remembrance to the victims and their families; they are also used to educate others and share stories from people of diverse backgrounds.
“(Holocaust Awareness Week) provides a space for education, remembrance and reflection in a time when antisemitism is rising,” said Lauren Maskus, a CSU student and the president of Students for Holocaust Awareness. “We’re helping to shape the next generation’s understanding of history and social responsibility.”
“Holocaust Awareness Week is not only about Jewish history; it’s a universal call to remember what happens when hate goes unchecked,” Maskus said.
Most schools in the United States are not required to teach the Holocaust, and it is therefore becoming a topic that fewer and fewer people understand.
“A concerning amount of people, especially young people, don’t know the Holocaust happened,” said Scott Gerstel, CSU Hillel campus director. Holocaust Awareness Week aims to fight this.
The first event occurred at 1 p.m. on March 28 on the LSC Plaza, which featured the Field of Flags setup and ceremony. The Field of Flags was set up in the grassy area between the LSC and the Glover Building. The flags are organized by color, each one representing a different ethnic group victimized during the Holocaust. One flag represents 5,000 lives lost. Throughout the week, volunteers participated in reading victims’ names, an four-day event titled A Litany of Martyrs.
Due to unforeseen circumstances, the headlining event, Evening with a Survivor, was cancelled. The speaker was Oscar (Osi) Sladek, who was born in 1935 in Prešov, Czechoslovakia — now the Czech Republic — to a family of musicians. They fled the Nazi regime into the Tatra Mountains and then passed through the Russian front. He explored his talent for music in Israel and later joined the Israel Defense Forces. In 1958, he moved to California, met his wife and then they relocated to Denver.
This talk has been rescheduled to May 5.
The Auschwitz concentration camp was liberated in January 1945. The number of people who escaped the over 44,000 incarceration sites are now dwindling 60 years later. Photos, even ones in museums, are showing age.
“It starts to feel more like a relic,” Gerstel said.
Tuesday, April 1, was a movie night, and the movie screened was “Tragic Awakening.” This documentary explored the ever-present trend of antisemitism and the rise of it since the October 7 attack in Israel, which was the largest massacre of Jewish people since the Holocaust. This event has dramatically escalated the conflict between Palestine and Israel.
Wednesday, April 2, featured a lecture entitled My Parent, The Survivor at the LSC. The speaker was Ilan Levy. He shared and spoke on the experiences of children whose parents survived the Holocaust. Attendees were encouraged to partake in the conversation.
The Litany of Martyrs ended April 3 after four days of reading and culminating, totaling 16 hours of reading names.
The final event of Holocaust Awareness Week was Friday, April 4. The final event was a memorial and a walk. A memorial service for Holocaust victims was to be accompanied by a Walk to Remember by AEPi, a fraternity dedicated to developing future leaders of Jewish communities. Unfortunately, as the event was entirely outdoors, it was cancelled due to the weather.
Holocaust Awareness Week is about sharing the past and encouraging people to interact with it. Through volunteering for the Litany of Martyrs or asking questions at My Parent, The Survivor, a major purpose of this annual weeklong event is to encourage people to confront and understand history.
“Whether it’s someone learning something new, asking deep questions or just taking a moment to reflect, you can feel the importance of what we’re doing,” Maskus said.
This event highlighted stories, knowledge and experiences shared by many. In today’s day and age, it is important to learn from the past. Events such as these allow people process the loss, understand the causes and fully grasp the consequences of tragedies such as the Holocaust.
“Holocaust Awareness Week is not only about Jewish history; it’s a universal call to remember what happens when hate goes unchecked,” Maskus said.
Reach Audrey Weishaar at life@collegian.com or on Twitter @CSUCollegian.
