Holocaust symposium highlights victims’ hardships during WWII internment

Europe: World War II. It was an unthinkable nightmare. Havoc was being wrecked in all of her cities as Hitler marched through determined to exterminate anyone he deemed unfit to live in his perfect Arian society. The perfect citizens of this utopia had blonde hair, blue eyes and straight noses. Characteristics that not even Hitler himself possessed. People were forced to live in the most unthinkable conditions to escape his evil hand. Those who were caught stood little to no chance of surviving the Nazi grasp.

What happened in Europe during World War II was not an isolated event. Genocide has happened and is happening all over the world. It will happen while you are reading this. Bosnia, Rwanda and Darfur are all places that have endured onslaughts of murder and violence based on discrimination.

As Americans, we can never know the pain and suffering these bloody feuds bring to the people they touch. Now, through art, perhaps we can gain a better understanding of the plight of oppressed peoples and a better appreciation of our freedom.

The theatre department has partnered with other academic departments to hold the “Symposium on Holocaust Theatre: Staging Justice and Diversity in our Global World” in conjunction with its next production “Yours, Anne.” The symposium events will encompass the Holocaust during World War II as well as past and present oppression in other countries.

Karen Berman is the chair of the theatre department and the chair of this symposium.

“Because we are a teaching institution, we feel that each of our shows should be delivered in terms of both creative and scholarly information,” Berman said. “The creative part, of course, is the performance. We also want to deliver the critical thinking aspect so that we give our students, campus and our larger community a place to learn and deliberate ideas, as well as enjoying the performance.”

“Yours, Anne” is based off of the short life of Jewish Holocaust victim Anne Frank who died in a German concentration camp in 1945 at the age of 15.

“‘Yours, Anne’ gives us a marvelous opportunity to talk about important issues of today in terms of diversity and tolerance. For aspects of today, we are very interested in exploring the genocide in Bosnia,” Berman said. “We are also learning about the origins of the Holocaust and what was going on in Germany so that a Holocaust like occurrence will never happen again.”

There are 14 events being held over the next month including actual Holocaust survivors speaking about their experiences, music concerts and readings. Tosia Schneider, one of those survivors, will speak before the Nov. 20 performance of “Yours, Anne” in Russell Auditorium at 7 p.m.

A photo exhibit called “Bergen-Belsen Revisited: Photographic Memoir of Colonel Charles Curtis Mitchell” is being held in the Wooten-Garner House gallery from Oct. 15-Dec. 15. It is open for visitors all day free of charge.

“It is an exhibit of the liberation the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp,” Berman said. “What is meaningful about this liberation is that this is actually the camp where Anne Frank died. It makes it very poignant.”

The coming together of this symposium has taken the support of faculty members, student organizations, and religious leaders of the community as well as The Georgia Commission on the Holocaust and the Consulate General of Israel to the Southeast.
“There are many organizations interested in bettering out society now and this sort of civic engagement that allows our students to become better citizens of today,” Berman said.

All of the events include once-in-a-lifetime experiences. Everyone is invited to attend. They are all free with the exception of the performances of “Yours, Anne.”

Posted by Colonnade Archives on Oct 17 2008. Filed under Features. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry