SOUTHEAST UNIVERSITY REMEMBERS HOLOCAUST

Three survivors of the Holocaust will participate in a panel discussion and a fourth survivor will tell her story during a Common Hour presentation, both events in observance of Holocaust Remembrance Week April 13-17 at Southeast Missouri State University.

"Even though the Holocaust is thought of as history, it has significance today," said Dr. Mitchel Gerber, associate professor of political science and a Holocaust expert, who is coordinating the week's activities.

"When genocide occurs today in places like Rwanda and Bosnia we are aware of the inhumanity of humankind. We should be on our guard. We have a moral responsibility to keep that from happening again. We must never forget the many tragedies that occurred under the Nazi regime and must use that knowledge to prevent any acts of contemporary genocide."

Three Holocaust survivors will convene for a panel discussion from 3:30-5:30 p.m. April 15 in the University Center Ballroom. Members of the panel will be Jerry Koenig, Rudolf Oppenheim and Judy Doneson. Gerber will chair the panel titled "Disparate Holocaust Experiences: A Serious Reflection and Reexamination of Survivors and a Holocaust Film Scholar."

Koenig and his family were forced to move into the Warsaw Ghetto. Confronting deportation to the Treblinka Concentration Camp, Koenig and his family hid on a small farm in Poland. He is currently a docent at the Holocaust Museum and Learning Center of the Jewish Federation in St. Louis.

Oppenheim, as a German Jew, was compelled to leave an "Aryan" school as a child. After Krisalnacht, Oppenheim and his family emigrated to Shanghai, China, with 20,000 other German and Austrian Jews. He also is a docent at the Holocaust Museum and Learning Center of the Jewish Federation in St. Louis.

Doneson is a scholar in the field of film and the Holocaust. She is the author of The Holocaust in American Film, and a contributor to the recently published Spielberg's Holocaust: Critical Essays on Schindler's List and A History of Jewish Women in America. Her articles on film and the Holocaust, and popular culture and the Holocaust have appeared in Holocaust and Genocide Studies, Studies in Contemporary Jewry and other scholarly journals. She currently is the administrative director of the Holocaust Museum and Learning Center of the Jewish Federation in St. Louis and professor in the Department of Performing Arts at Washington University, where she teaches a course on "Schindler's List."

"The three have disparate experiences," Gerber said, "which should add to the interdisciplinary nature of the event."

He hopes those who hear the panelists' presentation are moved by their stories of the Holocaust, during which 11 million people were annihilated.

"These were human beings and human lives -- generations that were lost," Gerber said. "We'll never see the potentiality of what was lost -- energy, talent, innocence and creativity."

Earlier in the day April 15, Marylou Ruhe, who survived the Lodz Ghetto in Poland, the Auschwitz Death Camp and several enforced labor camps, will discuss her experiences during a Common Hour presentation scheduled for 12:30 to 1:20 p.m. in the University Center Ballroom.

Ruhe is a writer of short stories based upon her memories of the Holocaust and also is a docent at the Holocaust Museum and Learning Center of the Jewish Federation in St. Louis. The Common Hour presentation is free and open to the public.

"The Holocaust is something we shouldn't forget," Gerber said, "because once this generation of survivors dies and we have no oral history, it will be buried with them. That's why this is such a wonderful opportunity to hear these stories from them."

Other events scheduled for Yom ha-Shoa, 1998 Holocaust Remembrance Week at Southeast, include a student-faculty panel discussion, which will be held at 3 p.m. April 14 in Crisp Auditorium. Faculty members of the panel will be Dr. Lynn Margolies, assistant professor of foreign languages; Dr. Joel D. Cameron, assistant professor of history; the Rev. Judy Breiner of the Wesley House; and Gerber. Several students currently enrolled in Gerber's "UI440 The Holocaust" course also will participate. Title of the discussion is "The Holocaust: The Critical Questions."

Following the discussion, the film "Schindler's List" will be shown from 3:30 to 6:30 p.m. in Crisp Auditorium.

At 7 p.m. April 16, a faculty panel present a brief discussion on the theme "Silence No More: Speaking Out About the Shoa." Following the discussion, the French film "Night in Fog" will be shown. Both events will be held in Myers Hall.

Throughout the month of April, Kent Library will showcase displays, designed by Gerber, of photos and literature about the Holocaust.

Holocaust Remembrance Week activities are being sponsored by the Political Theory Club, Wesley United Methodist Campus Ministry, Student Government, Catholic Campus Ministry, the Baptist Student Center, the College of Liberal Arts, Student Affairs and the School of University Studies.