Monday, November 5, 2007

Special program

At 4 p.m. Wednesday, Nov. 7, two Holocaust survivors will be speaking in Room 255 of the Eagle Student Service Center about their experiences and their recent book about being separated after being sent to the Nazi death camps and how they found each other again. Rosalie and William Schiff live in the D/FW area, and it's a real privilege to have them as speakers on our campus.

The event is free and open to the public.

3 comments:

BrittPg said...

Wow. I didn't even hear about this event.

I had the privilege of interviewing Craig Hanley, the writer of the couple's memoir book, when I wrote for the NTDaily.

He told me some unbelievable details about their incredible story. We are really fortunate to have them speak here.

PESpencer said...

Testimonials are powerful. The delivery of Rosalie and William's testimonies to the UNT audience and others refelcted how photographs played a big role in their memory. What we easily call up on the Web today and the exchange of information was not possible behind the walls of the ghettos in Poland and elsewhere. Handwritten letters and film were smuggled out at great risk for those who dared to do it. For students who want an in-depth understanding of the Holocaust I recommend that they take a course in Jewish studies. I was fortunate to have taken a course in Holocaust literature at the University of Texas at El Paso from a professor whose grandfather was a Holocaust survivor. I recommend that you read "Survial at Auschwitz" by Primo Levi and "The Destruction of the European Jews" by Raul Hilberg as well. The biggest question mark embedded in my mind is how educated Germans with degrees in medicine, philosopy and law could have succumbed to Hitler's propaganda. It is well documented who these people were. What this tells me is that any human being is capaabe of being influenced by any man or woman if the environment and the timing is fertile for the propagandist. I would like to see today's youth take off their iTunes headphones and become more informed and concerned about war and genocide (Darfur) instead of being totally consumed with cheap entertainment that will do nothing but distract them from understanding the bigger issues confronting our global society. Just think of the ordinary citizens who lived walking distance from the extermination camps during WWII who said they did not know what was occurring when they even got a whiff of burning bodies from the smokestacks at the crematories. Go to my blog pespencer2008.blogspot.com to see a picture of Oskar Schindler's gravesite. Shindler was a Catholic entrepreneur who saved hundreds of Jews who were employed at his factories and who were kept from being shipped to the death camps.

Nathaniel said...

Yes! it was a good story to listen to.Unfortunately, there were not many students probably because the announcement was not well done to cireculate the entire UNT Campus.
However, their story is not only infromative, but also educative.

Nathaniel