Holocaust Remembrance Week planners seek to increase awareness

By Bethany McCormack
Staff Reporter

Students planning Holocaust Remembrance Week hope that in addition to teaching students about past persecutions, the week will also educate them on recent social injustices, said Mandy Mahan, a junior religion major.

“(There are) things going on in different countries that resemble the Holocaust,” she said. “Genocide occurs every day, (but) a lot of people don’t know about it.”

Photo by Tim Cox - Skiff Staff Adrianne Anderson, a senior political science major, looks at a poster from the Holocaust display Monday in the Student Center Lounge. The display runs from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. today through Thursday in the Student Center Lounge.

Holocaust Remembrance Week began Monday and lasts through Friday. Events are sponsored by Uniting Campus Ministries and Hillel, a Jewish student organization, Mahan said. Mahan said this is the fourth year in a row that UCM has sponsored the event.

Heather Patriacca, a junior religion major, said students are often unaware of what is going on in the world around them and she hopes this week will help change that.

“I’d hope students would be able to relate (the Holocaust) to what is going on today and be more aware of their own surroundings,” Patriacca said.

Kelly Cowdery, a junior early education major, said she sees this week’s events as an important remembrance. “Often times we get stuck in our daily lives and forget about history,” she said.

Patriacca said the 12-hour prayer vigil, which will begin at noon Wednesday in Robert Carr Chapel, is the most meaningful event of the week for her. Individual students or groups of students can sign up in the Student Center Lounge for 30-minute time slots to pray or meditate, she said.

“Knowing the facts isn’t enough,” Patriacca said. “This allows students to reflect.”

A journal, which was started three years ago by UCM, contains prayers and responses from individuals who participated in the prayer vigil in the past. Patriacca said she was impressed by the range of responses in the journal, some of which convey sorrow, others frustration and others anger at God. The journal is on display in the Student Center Lounge.

One person wrote, “Remove the violence from my heart, as well as apathy and complacency. Let me cherish the peace around me. Let me never forget.”

Marcy Paul, the coordinator of the Women’s Resource Center, said the center decided to become involved with Holocaust Remembrance Day after becoming aware of the program “An Evening with Madame F,” which the center is bringing to TCU at 7 p.m. Thursday in the Pepsico Recital Hall.

“It (is) a program that highlights women who used their knowledge and talents to work their way through the Holocaust,” she said. “It’s an awareness for women. The strength these women had needs to be remembered.”

Bethany McCormack
b.s.mccormack@student.tcu.edu