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Hillel and the Holocaust studies department are sponsoring a Holocaust Remembrance Week April 15 to 22.

“The Holocaust is one of the great atrocities of humanity,” Alan Steinweis, director of Holocaust studies said. “There are a lot of people who are still alive who lived through it.”

Steinweis said that it is important to study this historical event to recognize the danger signs so it does not happen again.

Vladimir Lermant, a first-year student and member of Hillel’s planning board for the week, said the Holocaust is one of the most important events of recent history.

“It’s our duty to remember our past – make sure it doesn’t happen again,” Lermant said.

The opening ceremony on April 15 will center around a presentation in the Davis Center given by Gabe Hartstein, the child of a Holocaust survivor. 

April 18, psychologist and playwright Henry Greenspan will be giving a talk about his one-man play “Remnants,” which was performed at Theresientadt, a theater space used during the Holocaust.

Greenspan will perform scenes from “Remnants” on April 19 and give a talk titled “How survivors became fashionable: Holocaust survivors in the American imagination.”

Miles Schoenberg, a first-year student and committee head for the events, said that the week will pay tribute to those who were lost in the Holocaust.

“We’re trying to bring the community together to make it a really important week,” Schoenberg said.

He said he was personally affected by the magnitude of the Holocaust when he visited the concentration camps with a Jewish youth group.

When Schoenberg learned of the chance to be on the committee, he said he was the first person to volunteer.

“It’s just something I think everyone really needs to be aware of,” Schoenberg said. “This is something that actually happened.”

Other events include showing “Life is Beautiful” and “Korczak,” two Holocaust related films. There will also be a Shabbat dinner to pay tribute and a litany of names read outside of the Bailey/Howe Library for an hour each day. 

The closing ceremony will take place at the Davis Center and will be a period of reflection with a candle lighting ceremony and poetry. 

“There’s still genocides going on,” Schoenberg said. “We need to keep realizing that we’re lucky that we’re not in that position.”

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