Spartan Daily - Serving San Jose State University since 1934

Issue date: 4/17/07 Section: News

As part of Genocide Holocaust Week, the Jewish Student Union teamed up with Hillel of Silicon Valley to create a memorial dedicated to the more than 6.3 million people who died during the Holocaust and to commemorate those who survived it.

Amir Margittai, the president of the Jewish Student Union at San Jose State University, said his grandfather, a survivor of the Holocaust, never speaks about his personal experiences and the torture he had to endure during the Holocaust.

"My grandfather has a number tattooed on his arm," Margittai said. "He showers with his shirt on every time because he doesn't want to look at it. Even when he goes into the pool he has his shirt on. He doesn't want to accept that it happened."

Margittai said he has grandparents on both sides of his family that are survivors of the Holocaust.

"A lot of us here today have family that went through (the Holocaust)," Margittai said.

He added that aside from observing Holocaust Remembrance Day, the overall message of the exhibit is about awareness and what can be done to stop genocide that exists in the world today.

The memorial, which was located in the middle of Paseo de Caesar Chavez, caught the attention of passers-by throughout the day yesterday.

"The idea was to be on the main part of campus, and actually make people stop and realize what we are trying to inform people of," said Vanina Sandel, the Hillel director of Jewish campus life.

Different colored flags, which represented seven groups of people including the Jews, gypsies, the disabled, Jehovah's Witnesses and homosexuals, who were persecuted during the Holocaust, were spread around the entrance of the tented memorial.

A chronological-pictorial timeline hung inside the tent, which covered a 14-year period beginning in 1933 when Hitler became chancellor of Germany and the Nazi campaign was implemented.

Margittai said that he is pleased with the way the memorial came together this year.

"The size of it and the amount of information we have this year to inform people of this topic is something I am proud of," Margittai said.

"When you consider the fact that in Britain they stopped teaching about the Holocaust because it offends people, I do not want that to happen in the United States," Margittai said. "I think we still need to learn about the Holocaust, even though it is hard for people to learn about it, and they don't feel comfortable talking about it - the fact is that a lot of people died."

Continued...

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