Her speech was the main event of CSU’s Holocaust Awareness Week, an impactful and increasingly important event that is organized by Students for Holocaust Awareness, with tributes starting Friday, February 20th and going through the 26th.
To begin the week, a Field of Flags was placed outside the Lory Student Center. The display of different colored flags represented 5,000 victims from various groups, including people who were Jewish, Roma, disabled, and many more.
The following Monday, February 23, the Litany of Martyrs was held from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. in the plaza of the LSC. Here, volunteers read out the names of those who died during the Holocaust.
Mrs. Renee Rockford also wrote a brief narrative to accompany each pictured survivor. Rockford is the CEO of the Jewish Federation of Colorado and the co-creator of “The Triumphant Spirit: Portraits & Stories of Holocaust Survivors, Their Messages of Hope & Compassion,” a traveling exhibit that displays life-sized photographic portraits of Holocaust survivors.
The main event for Holocaust Awareness Week is its “Evening with a Survivor,” which brings a person who experienced the Holocaust first-hand to speak on campus, answer questions and meet members of the audience.
Talia Byrne-Haber, a recurring attendee of the evening, explained how impactful the event is for her to be a part of. She is especially fond of meeting those who experienced tragedy and still find joy in the world.
“Every single Holocaust survivor I’ve ever met has been so happy, so kind and wonderful, and it’s so touching to hear their stories,” Byrne-Haber said.
Unfortunately for those in attendance, the event is becoming more and more difficult to put on. Last year’s evening was cancelled due to the keynote speaker, Osi Sladek, becoming ill when it was originally scheduled. People with an interest in hearing stories from survivors are facing similar issues all over the world as those storytellers age.
“It’s getting harder and harder to put on because our survivors are getting older,” President of Students for Holocaust Awareness, Jax Maynor, said. “It’s harder for them to travel; they’re more susceptible to illnesses.”
However, Boulder, Colorado, resident and survivor, Barbara Steinmetz, believes that it is important to tell her story and share her perspective on the events of today’s world.
Steinmetz began her storytelling journey 18 years ago after being encouraged by her husband. She shared her story as a “tribute to [her] courageous parents.”
Born in Györ, Hungary, in 1936, Barbara Steinmetz began her fleeing journey around Europe at just four years old. Now standing in front of a ballroom full of hundreds of people, she told her audience, “The inhumanity hasn’t stopped.” Steinmetz says her reasons for telling her story have changed; “My story of 80-some years ago is a bridge to what is happening in our world and in our country.”
She brought up the Colorado ICE Detention Centers and called attention to the similarities she sees between them and the concentration camps of the past, telling the crowd how “frighteningly familiar” it all was.
“After the war, America was ready to move on…whenever my mother was ready to tell her story, people said, ‘Barbara, put it behind you.” What I hope you take from my story is that you speak up…“I’m just a bellringer, I hope you are too.”
These words highlight the importance of the Holocaust Awareness Week and the value of teaching people about the past to bring attention to the present.
Rabbi Yerachmiel Berelik, who is the faculty advisor for the Student Holocaust Awareness group, has been with the organization for about 20 years. After Steinmetz’s talk, he shared a few words about the privilege he felt working with the Holocaust survivors, especially as someone who grew up surrounded by a very large Holocaust community.
“I find it so incredibly uplifting…I’ve worked with so many of them; they just lift me up.” He goes on to detail the importance of the stories told by the survivors.
“My hope is that people are able to walk away and take some of the lessons imparted from these heroes and give back to the world, which so desperately needs some more kindness, some more love, some more hope, some more joy. A realization that differences do not need to separate us. Darkness doesn’t need to stifle us.”
As the Holocaust gets further buried by time, the importance of emphasizing the stories of the survivors who still have the privilege of sharing them grows.
Co-sponsors of the event were ASCSU, RHA, Chabad Jewish student org, Hillel, Advisory Council for Jewish inclusion, LSC, AEPi
