Part of the legacy of the Holocaust’s largest revolt is on display at Ohio University.
On April 19, 1943, almost 1,000 Jews in Poland’s Warsaw Ghetto revolted against their German perpetrators with homemade pistols and revolvers.
With a population of up to 600 Jewish students at Ohio University, Holocaust Remembrance Day has never been ignored. This year, an exhibit in Baker University Center is giving OU students a glimpse into life in the ghetto through the eyes of Jewish children who lived it.
“In general, children are inspiring and sweet, so people aren’t aware of differences among them,” said Frances Donahue, program coordinator at Cincinnati’s Center for Holocaust and Humanity Education, which the exhibit is leased from. “These are feelings everyone experiences at some point. They’re universal emotions.”
Though the art of the Holocaust’s depiction of Jewish youths facing fear, starvation and isolation might be uncomfortable for some, Hillel’s Rabbi Danielle Leshaw said it’s a way to drive the message home for students.
“It might be because students are on the threshold of adulthood that (this art) affects them in a certain way,” she said.
But Matt Newman, an OU junior and former president of the Jewish fraternity Alpha Epsilon Pi, said he feels the Holocaust’s presence every day of his life. Newman’s grandfather survived concentration camps throughout Europe for two years before boarding a boat to Cleveland.
“It makes me proud because a lot of families didn’t survive,” Newman said.
And though his grandfather, the only survivor of 12 siblings, died when Newman was just 5 years old, he said his experiences continue to empower him today.
“This is like a proud-to-be-a-Jew day,” he said. “The present and future are based on history, and the past makes us who we are.”
Leshaw said there are about 200 Jewish households in the Athens area in addition to the student population.
“The Holocaust is a very present theme in a Jewish person’s life,” Leshaw said. “(Remembrance Day) is an opportunity for both Jewish and non-Jewish people to come together and commemorate.”
Next week, in conjunction with OU’s Multicultural Center, Hillel will host Wanda Wolosky, a survivor of the Warsaw Ghetto who will speak in Baker University Center Theatre about her experiences.
“There’s a lot of lessons to be derived from (children),” Donahue said. “Even though it’s 2012 and we live on a different continent, those lessons are applicable today. Racism is still a problem, and it’s important to be vigilant.”
oy311909@ohiou.edu
