A survivor of Nazi concentration camps spoke to a rapt Northwestern audience about the importance of helping oppressed groups throughout the world as part of Holocaust Remembrance Day on Thursday.
The annual worldwide commemoration is meant to show solidarity with all groups that suffered persecution under the Nazi regime. Events this year, which were directed by Weinberg junior Sammie Offsay, included a talk with a Holocaust survivor, as well as a silent march titled “We Walk to Remember.” Although Offsay was the main organizer, student groups like NU’s chapter of STAND, Rainbow Alliance and NU Hillel were among the dozens of sponsors that also took part.
“The Holocaust is a very horrific example, but there are other communities that have experienced oppression,” said Michael SiMonday, executive director of NU Hillel. “Of course Jews have suffered, but this is also about broader human suffering, and we should stand in solidarity with those groups too.”
Estelle Laughlin, a Holocaust survivor who lived in the Warsaw ghetto and later in concentration camps, opened the observance with a speech about her experiences during the Nazi occupation of Poland.
“I feel compelled to apologize for the sadness of my story,” Laughlin said. “I tell my story with the hope that you will be inspired by the compassion and love that shines through human beings even at the hardest of times.”
Laughlin took the audience through her experiences both before and during the occupation of her country. She said the brutality of the Nazi occupiers, whomshe referred to as “common thieves” and “barbarians,” gave her a clearer understanding of the limits of human cruelty, as well as the importance of finding joy in all aspects of life.
However, she was sure to point out that she described the German occupiers very “self-consciously.”
“By no means do I wish to say that all German people had no hearts,” Laughlin said.
Another theme that Laughlin stressed was the importance of preserving individual identity in the face of persecution. In addition to the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, an armed Jewish resistance against German occupiers in 1943, Laughlin discussed smaller acts of rebellion, such as the celebration of Jewish holidays or owning forbidden books.
“There was tremendous resistance, there was tremendous fighting back,” said Laughlin, who now is a volunteer at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C. “Sometimes people ask me, ‘Why didn’t you fight?’ We did. We fought back with every fiber of our being.”
Offsay said the event was particularly important because the number of documented Holocaust survivors is steadily shrinking, marking the end of an era for those directly affected by the Holocaust. According to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, there are roughly 195,000 survivors on record, a growing number of whom are deceased.
“It is hard to imagine something like that ending so permanently in your lifetime,” Offsay said. “When we realize that we can take advantage of this resource, it is the best possible thing we can do.”
The silent march took place later in the afternoon, and many of the participants wore black to mark the occasion. While they walked, students handed out fliers listing the groups that were persecuted under the Nazi regime.
This year Offsay focused on bringing in student groups from across campus and took over the event from Alpha Epsilon Pi, which organized it last year. She said she is optimistic about the future of the march and looks forward to building on the framework she established.
“I thought it was a very powerful event,” Offsay said. “I thought that it gave those who attended a commitment to the memory, and it was a great first step in bringing all of these groups together.”
