January 30 marked the eighty-fourth year since Adolf Hitler was “elected” chancellor of Germany. What followed in the years after his rise to power was destruction on a massive scale, both in the form of a world war and in the slaughter of millions of innocent Jews.
Wars have always been a part of history, but genocide on this scale was unprecedented. Millions were complicit, complacent, or directly involved in the systematic extermination of Jewish, Roma, Slavic, Black, homosexual and disabled people. So many were targeted, and so many were comfortable turning a blind eye like the thousands of Germans who ignored the death camps practically in their own backyards. Chapman University in the City of Orange is one of many modern organizations that seeks to honor those who suffered at the hands of the Nazis and shed light upon how such a tragedy could occur.
Every year, they host a contest in which they challenge American students to watch survivor testimonies and then connect the survivor’s stories to their own lives. The students then create an art piece based on this connection.
Joylyn Souter, the English teacher who hosts this contest at Poly, has seen many terrific and moving projects come out of the contest. One can never really underestimate the connections that can come from watching these testimonials. It is a common mistake to view Holocaust survivors as a type of war hero or valorous figure. They are human beings, just like the rest of us, and that is the most important thing to remember.
There is power in these connections, these stories, such as that of former contest winner Danielle Spriggs. She sat down and opened her backpack to eat her lunch, and discovered that a pear her mother had packed for her was crushed and smeared all over the other food, rendering much of it inedible. She ate what she could and when the bell rang for class she went to class disappointed and still a little hungry.
Soon after, Spriggs would hear the story of Ilse Diament, who was freed from Bergen-Belsen by British Soldiers near the end of the war. After she was released from the camp, a doctor gave her a can of pears. The taste, even after years away from the hell that was Bergen-Belsen, was a sign of freedom to Diament.
Something as ordinary as a pear can connect people in two different situations and backgrounds, almost a hundred years apart. Unfortunately, the contest closed on Monday, February 6. Interested students are encouraged to see Ms. Souter in room 203 to partake in next year’s contest.
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