DU students turn eyes to Holocaust, genocide

Reading names of Nazis' victims highlights week

Betsy Lehndorff, Rocky Mountain News

Published April 10, 2007 at midnight

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A gentle breeze pulls words from Kathleen Snow's lips and scatters them into the air.

"Hiam Ravich, wife and daughter . . . Michael Minna . . . Freida and three daughters . . . Yisreal Krukoff and wife, Chayah, and son, Aryeh."

Students on the University of Denver's Campus Green pass by, many unaware that Snow and 30 other students are reading in 15-minute shifts the names of Jews, homosexuals, gypsies and others killed by the Nazis.

It is a litany the volunteers began at 7 a.m. Monday and that would continue for 12 hours.

When her turn is over, Snow's mood is somber.

"It was moving, especially the ones that said a name, his wife, and three daughters," the 19-year-old Catholic says. "It gave me the chills."

Joel Portman, president of the campus group Never Again, organized Monday's event as part of Holocaust and Genocide Awareness Week.

The day before, volunteers planted 2,200 flags on the green near Driscoll University Center.

"Eleven million people - that's the total number of people the Nazis killed during the holocaust," Portman said. "Each flag represents 5,000 people, the approximate undergraduate population at DU."

The group worked with two lists of names supplied by Rachel Pinsker, Hillel director at the University of Denver.

One, a copy of a copy several times over, contained 19,200 names; the other was a list of children.

If the names of all 6 million Jewish victims were read aloud, it would take 24 hours a day for two years, Portman said.

The Holocaust occurred between 1938 and 1945, and raised such global awareness that it was thought that such genocide would never again occur.

"It was really the first that brought the world's attention to the fact that we can't let an entire group of people be killed," Portman said. "But it's happened again in all these other places.

"I don't think any person can really sit back and watch 2 million people being displaced from their homes in Darfur.

"I don't think any person can really be OK with that."

Solemn week

Holocaust and Genocide Awareness Week at the University of Denver will conclude Sunday with Yom HaShoah, an interfaith service at 7:30 p.m. outside Evans Chapel, 2199 S. Vine St.

Here are other events planned for the week. All are free and open to the public:

• 7 p.m. today: Oral historian Lani Silver will speak about her experiences while interviewing 1,400 Holocaust survivors. The event takes place in Lindsay Auditorium at Sturm Hall, 2000 E. Asbury St. A reception follows at 8:30 p.m.

• Noon Wednesday: DU history professor Elizabeth Karlsgodt will talk about Nazi art pillaging; at Hillel, 2390 S. Race St.

• 7:30 p.m. Thursday: Holocaust survivors will talk about their harrowing experiences at Lindsay Auditorium.

• For more information, go to du.edu/orgs/neveragain.IN THEIR OWN WORDS

Three college students talked about what it was like to read the names of Holocaust victims Monday on the University of Denver Campus Green:

• Kathleen Snow, 19, freshman, of Denver, majoring in economics and Spanish

"I just got the chills. Just thinking about them as real people, not as numbers . . . Whole families were wiped out, murdered, and that made it more real . . . I think it's horrifying it's still going on in Darfur . . . We said it would never happen again, and (yet) it still persists today . . . I'm in economics because it's a driving force for a lot of the problems in the world. But it can also be a solution."

• Lacee Hennessy, 19, sophomore, of Santa Cruz, Calif., majoring in mass communications and art history

"I was taught about the Holocaust, and when I was a junior in high school, we went to the Holocaust Museum in Washington, D.C. I couldn't talk to anybody when I came out. I didn't have the words. The stories are really gross. There was a room full of children, women's shoes, and I was ashamed. My family's German, although I'm fourth generation."

• Mike Miles, 18, freshman, of Denver, majoring in international business

"I went to Poland in the summer of 2005 and attended Jewish day school there. It sparked my passion, especially seeing the camps - around 15 death camps where these people we are reading the names of died . . . Humbling is a bad word. I feel it's my duty to honor these peo- ple, and as I read, I think I am doing that. You can't just forget the Holocaust and genocide - you have to be aware."

lehndorffb@RockyMountainNews.com or 303-954-2792

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