Thursday, students will shift attention from the problems in the world today to remembering an atrocity that changed the world more than half a century ago — the Holocaust.
Both university and campus organizations will hold events as part of Holocaust Remembrance Month. Alpha Epsilon Pi and B’nai B’rith International will hold a march for students to gather in honor of those killed in the Holocaust.
“(Alpha Epsilon Pi branches) all do it together,” said Jarrad Gold, president of Ohio University’s branch of the international Jewish fraternity said. “It’s on 100 campuses across the country and across the world. It places an emphasis on showing that we’ll never forget.”
This is the first year that the march will take place on OU’s campus. Participants in the march will wear all black and hold signs that show their respect for victims of the Holocaust.
“People associate (the Holocaust) right away with the Jewish people, but there were a lot of other groups killed,” Gold said. “Not only that, but it’s something as a world and a community we can never forget.”
That night, Baker University Center Ballroom will play host to a keynote speaker, presented by the Black Student Cultural Programming Board, Multicultural Center, Hillel at OU, Alpha Epsilon Pi, Jewish Women of Ohio and Senate Appropriation commissions. Fay Malkin, a Holocaust survivor, will share her story with OU students.
“This generation will be the last generation to be able to speak to a Holocaust survivor,” said Winsome Chunnu-Brayda, associate director of the Multicultural Center. “We think it’s such a profound moment in history, and it’s important for students to hear from people who actually lived through the experience.”
Malkin lived in Sokal in Ukraine, which was part of Poland during the Holocaust. Her family, along with others, hid in a hayloft above a pigsty for 20 months. She was one of the 30 Jewish people who survived out of the 6,000 that previously had lived in Sokal. The Polish Catholic woman who housed their family saved 16 of the 30.
For 60 years, Malkin did not discuss the experience, and only recently returned to Sokal to film a movie, “No. 4 Street of Our Lady,” about her story. The film was based on diaries kept by Moshe Maltz, who lived in the attic with Malkin.
“People would ask me, why didn’t I speak to students, but (I thought), ‘why would they want to listen to our story?’” Malkin said. “In society today people say, ‘oh, this happened to me as a kid and my life is over,’ … you have to unvictimize yourself, and you have to go on.”
IYG:
WHAT: Fay Malkin
WHEN: 7 p.m. Thursday
WHERE: Baker University Center Ballroom
ADMISSION: Free
eb104010@ohiou.edu
