Students and staff read victims’ names.
By: Rachel Silverman
Standing before a small podium, Arlene Pedovitch took a deep breath and began to read.
She read the names Josef Bandola and Jacques Banet. She read Johann Baran, Anastasia Baranow and Vaclav Baranikov. In fact, she read for 10 minutes and only made it partway through the Ba listings.
"You can read for a long, long time and not get through the names," Ms. Pedovitch said upon stepping away from the microphone at Princeton University’s 1879 Arch. "There are lists and lists and lists of names. This is only those killed in Auschwitz," she said, nodding over to the thick book.
"When I read I always take a moment to remember my grandparents’ name, as well as my sister," the university’s Center for Jewish Life director shared softly. "My father is a Holocaust survivor," she said, as the names poured out overhead.
"Ita Sara Bass … Franz Batek … David Batavier," graduate student Marc Berenson read.
During the Holocaust years, which lasted from 1939 to 1945, each one of these persons was carted off to a life inside ghetto walls, labor camps and, ultimately, the gas chambers. When the final count was tallied, more than 6 million Jews perished in Hitler’s slaughterhouses.
To commemorate this dark chapter in history, the Center for Jewish Life held two Holocaust remembrance events this week.
"We’re doing a musical commemoration of the Holocaust Wednesday night," Rabbi Uri Cohen, who acts as the center’s educational director, said Tuesday. "We’re having Koleinu, the Jewish a cappella group of Princeton, perform songs associated with the Holocaust," he added.
"A Holocaust survivor will be with us and speak of his experiences in the concentration camps," said student organizer Deborah Arotsky, who heads the Princeton Israel Public Affairs Committee. "Horrible as it may be, his story needs to be heard."
"We’re also doing a name reading," the rabbi continued, referring to the three-hour vigil on Thursday afternoon. "We’re reading from Death Books from Auschwitz, Volumes II and III. Its 750 pages of last name, first name, birth date and death date. The Nazis were very efficient that way," he said.
"It doesn’t really matter where we start or finish," the rabbi continued. "Each of these people had a full life, now they are reduced to a name."
For many people, this type of genocide is difficult to comprehend, as the events of the Holocaust seem to play out like some kind of incomprehensible nightmare.
"The problem in general with Holocaust memorializing is how do you relate to the enormity of it?" Rabbi Cohen said. "We can’t afford to let it be just another ritual. We need to make it as meaningful as possible."
Ms. Arotsky agreed. "Participation in this event is crucial, because we are not merely spectators of history, but products and also contributors," she said.
For freshman Suzanne Levy, a first time name reader, Holocaust memorial day offered a chance to do exactly that.
"Serena Baum, Utek Baum, Rudolf Baum, Senta Baum …" Ms. Levy read, as she proceeded down the page.
There were 26 Baums in all.