2008 Woodie Awards
Survivor of concentration camp speaks, aims to spread knowledge
Amy Wachler
Issue date: 4/17/07 Section: Campus
Instead of the typical line of students waiting to swipe meal cards Friday, April 13 at Harris Dining Hall, a crowd of students, staff and community members gathered in the front lobby for Yom HaShoah - a special Holocaust Remembrance Shabbat Service and dinner held by Hillel.
The event was one of several ceremonies and speeches planned as part Miami University's Holocaust Awareness and Remembrance Programs, organized and sponsored by members of the Association of Jewish Students, Hillel and other campus organizations.
Jenny Jacob, a junior at Miami and Holocaust Awareness and Remembrance Committee chair, created the program after realizing that many of her peers had little knowledge about the Holocaust.
"We specifically paired up with campus organizations like Spectrum, the Interfaith Circle and the Comparative Religion Student Association in order to stress unity and diversity, (as well as) to involve more people and get more participation," Jacob said.
Jacob said that besides remembering the lives of the millions killed during the Holocaust, the program also aimed to spread awareness about what happened to non-Jews, such as homosexuals and "righteous gentiles," those who risked their lives in opposition again Nazis.
The Shabbat service invited several Holocaust survivors, including Conrad Weiner, who was three years old when the Nazis took him and his family from their home in Romania to a concentration camp.
Though Weiner's testimony of the horrors he witnessed during the war, he said that the extraordinary examples of camaraderie and kindness shown by Jews in the camp taught him valuable lessons about the power of humanity.
He said that he is often asked about his feelings toward Germans, and his response was that carrying anger and scorn for others only perpetuates hatred throughout
the world.
"If I were to hate, the Nazis would have won," Weiner said.
He also expressed gratitude for having had the opportunity to receive an education, find a successful job, and raise a family in the United States.
The event was one of several ceremonies and speeches planned as part Miami University's Holocaust Awareness and Remembrance Programs, organized and sponsored by members of the Association of Jewish Students, Hillel and other campus organizations.
Jenny Jacob, a junior at Miami and Holocaust Awareness and Remembrance Committee chair, created the program after realizing that many of her peers had little knowledge about the Holocaust.
"We specifically paired up with campus organizations like Spectrum, the Interfaith Circle and the Comparative Religion Student Association in order to stress unity and diversity, (as well as) to involve more people and get more participation," Jacob said.
Jacob said that besides remembering the lives of the millions killed during the Holocaust, the program also aimed to spread awareness about what happened to non-Jews, such as homosexuals and "righteous gentiles," those who risked their lives in opposition again Nazis.
The Shabbat service invited several Holocaust survivors, including Conrad Weiner, who was three years old when the Nazis took him and his family from their home in Romania to a concentration camp.
Though Weiner's testimony of the horrors he witnessed during the war, he said that the extraordinary examples of camaraderie and kindness shown by Jews in the camp taught him valuable lessons about the power of humanity.
He said that he is often asked about his feelings toward Germans, and his response was that carrying anger and scorn for others only perpetuates hatred throughout
the world.
"If I were to hate, the Nazis would have won," Weiner said.
He also expressed gratitude for having had the opportunity to receive an education, find a successful job, and raise a family in the United States.
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