Never Forget: Georgian Court Marks Holocaust Remembrance Day

Georgian Court University marks Holocaust Remembrance Day Monday, April 28, from 9:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. in its Arts & Science Center in Lakewood. The event, which is free and open to the public, is timed to coincide with “Yom HaShoah,” a day set aside to commemorate the lives and heroism of six million Jewish people who perished in the Holocaust between 1933 and 1945.

GCU’s program of remembrance includes speakers, a viewing the Holocaust Memorial Exhibition in the university’s art gallery, and musical performances.

Survivor Ruth Banker Rosenfeld, a hidden child of the Holocaust, will offer her first-person account of the atrocity and explain how she and her sister Helen Krysack Banker survived. Initially, they were hidden by Polish Christian families and later adopted by a family in Interlaken, New Jersey.

“The courageous acts of kindness by the righteous Christian family that took me in not only saved my life, but enabled me to live the rest of my life with optimism and hope, knowing that goodness does exist,” Mrs. Rosenfeld writes in her personal narrative. “I want everyone to realize that even a small act of kindness, relieving one child’s fear—even for an hour, or one man’s hunger—even for a day, or restoring dignity to a fallen person—even for a moment, is of immense significance. I know that to the downtrodden, just one moment of relief is the same as giving them life.”

GCU is working with the Center for Holocaust, Human Rights & Genocide Education at Brookdale Community College (Chhange) to share the experiences of people like Mrs. Rosenfeld.

“Each year, there are fewer and fewer survivors available to who can tell this story,” said Alice Velez, GCU director of development and the McAuley Institute for Lifelong Learning. “Holocaust Remembrance Day allows us an opportunity to come away with a deeper understanding of how something so horrific could have happened. It also gives time to reflect on the power of survival—the people who survived, the art that survived, and the music that survived.”

Other speakers include Dale Daniels, executive director of Chhange; and Lisa Festa, Ph.D., GCU associate professor of art.

At 11:00 a.m., Rev. John Zec, GCU program director and lecturer in music; Myra Malamut, former GCU music faculty; and GCU students Victoria Timoney, Kerrin McCarthy, and Jaella Molina will perform near GCU’s M. Christina Geis Art Gallery.

The current gallery exhibition is “Facing the Holocaust,” a multimedia showing by artist Kim Sing ’09. Organized by Kathleen Settles, GCU gallery director; Lisa A. Festa, Ph.D., GCU assistant professor of art history; and José Gonzalez, GCU lecturer in art, “Facing the Holocaust” includes children’s books, historic and modern photographs, maps, posters, and text panels. The exhibit also explores historical concepts, including anti-Semitism throughout the ages as well as the chronological history of the rise of the Nazi party, and the implementation of laws against Jews and other “undesirables.”

The exhibition highlights the ghettos of Warsaw, Poland, and Terezín, Czechoslovakia, as well as the concentration camps of Dachau, Germany, and Auschwitz/Birkenau, Poland. It also features the liberation of the camps near the end of the war and pays tribute to rescuers and the “righteous among nations.”

There is no admission fee for Holocaust Remembrance Day, but reservations should be made by calling 732.987.2263 or by e-mail at specialevents@georgian.edu.

About the M. Christina Geis Art Gallery
The M. Christina Geis Art Gallery spotlights works of established and up-and-coming artists in diverse media. The gallery is located on the second floor of the Arts and Science Center on Georgian Court’s Lakewood campus. Gallery hours are Monday through Thursday from 9:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. and Fridays from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. All exhibits are free and open to the public; no reservations are required. For more information, call Kathleen Settles at 732.987.2388.