By Vicki Ungvarsky
Imagine touring the hallways of a location where at least one million human beings died. A
place where only approximately seven thousand survivors were found and liberated on
January 27, 1945. If you went to Tri-C Western Campus’s Holocaust Remembrance Day
event organized by the Veterans and Military Connected Services on the eightieth
anniversary of this major moment in history, you were able to have this experience through
a virtual-reality tour of Auschwitz-Birkenau in Poland. It was a complex of over forty
concentration and extermination camps which were operated by Nazi Germany in
occupied Poland during World War II. A presentation also took place.
One million was not even close to the total number of annihilated Jewish people
throughout the Holocaust. Six million Jews died at the hands of National Socialist German
Workers’ Party, also known as the Nazis. After the college’s event took place, during an
interview with Dr. Matthew Miller, the Veteran and Military Connected Services Program
Manager and Crile Archivist, stressed the fact that “Tri-C never forgets! That’s what the
saying is!” in reference to the Holocaust. We discussed how the Nazis had a twenty-five point
platform which expressed extreme nationalism, racial antisemitism, and outrage
over the Treaty of Versailles, which left Germany liable for World War II and its expenses. It
was the twenty-fourth point that targeted Jewish people. Per the point, it served to combat “Jewish materialistic spirit” even though it supported Christendom and other religious
denominations.
In 1935, the Nuremberg Laws were passed under Adolf Hitler, the infamous totalitarian
dictator at the time. There were two parts of the law. The Law for Protection of German
Blood and German Honor which forbade Germans to marry Jews and the Reich Citizenship
Law which stated that Jews were not citizens of Germany. As a result, Jewish people were
stripped of their citizenship and basic rights.
Dr. Miller informed me about the Wannsee Conference which took place in January of 1942
during which “they decided exactly how they were going to do it,” referencing when the
leaders of the Nazi Party convened and decided how they were going to kill Jews.
Concentration and labor camps were not the only places where Jewish people were killed.
Many others also died in killing centers, mass shooting operations, and during other acts of
violence. Other groups were slaughtered as well. Some groups included were non-Jewish
Poles, Roma, the differently abled, gay, and bisexual men, and political oppositionists.
Many, many members of the military died. On the Allies side, four thousand five three
hundred ninety-nine Americans, three hundred eighty-three thousand from the United
Kingdom, and eight million seven hundred thousand Soviets died in the war efforts. Civilian
lives were also lost.
World War II and the Holocaust – so many lives to mourn and so many survivors to be
honored. The Holocaust was a genocide.
When asked about present or future events organized by Veterans and Military
Connected Services and/or the Crile Archives, Dr. Miller mentioned that (at the time this
article was written) there is a poetry contest for veterans happening and there will be
activities for Memorial Day and the recognition of D-Day.
