Holocaust Awareness Series

List of Events

• Sunday, April 12

  Field of Flags Display constructed by CMU faculty, staff and students. 1:00 pm
• Monday, April 13

  Moment of Silence Dedication for the Field of Flags Display 10:50 am, Sponsored by the Social and Behavioral Sciences Department of Colorado Mesa University and constructed by both campus and community volunteers, the Field of Flags display on the green southwest of the University Center presents over 2,000 flags representing the major groups targeted by the Nazis during World War II, including Jews, Poles, Soviet citizens, homosexuals, communists/socialists, Jehovah’s Witnesses, Freemasons, Roma, Sinti, and the disabled. Each flag represents 5,000 individuals and the colors match the various known schemes used by the Nazis. Flags will be displayed the entire week, from Monday, April 1 through Saturday, April 6. Grand Junction Pipe and Supply generously donated the flags. Members of the Genders and Sexuality Alliance originally created the posted signs with details about the Field of Flags.
• Monday, April 13

  Screening of The Armenian Genocide, Vincent V. Patarino (Associate Professor of History, CMU) 6:30-8 pm, What are the implications when a people, or a nation, does not admit to genocidal actions? Even after almost a century, the Turkish people have not yet come to grips with the Armenian Genocide, which during the First World War, may have wiped out as many as 1.2 Armenian Christians. This film develops the stark facts of the genocide and investigates why the actions of the Ottoman Turks are considered “one of the greatest untold stories of the twentieth century.” Discussion will follow.
• Tuesday, April 14

  "Black Milk of Daybreak: Experiencing Paul Celan's Poetry in English," Dan Rosenberg (Associate Professor of English, CMU) 4:30-6 pm, Paul Celan is the most famous poet of the Holocaust, a survivor whose traumas shaped both his poetry and his tragically short life. His iconic poem is the first he published, “Deathfugue,” spoken (or chanted) in the collective voice of Jews in the Nazi camps. The poem’s roots are in translation—it was first published in Romanian translation in 1947 before appearing in the original German—but it poses unique challenges and opportunities for a translator. In this presentation, we will explore multiple English versions of this poem to see how different translators have tried to bring the majesty and horror of this canonical poem to life in our language.
• Tuesday, April 14

  "Representing Absence: Representing the Holocaust in Memorials, Monuments and Museums," Barry Laga (Professor of English, CMU) 6:30-8 pm, Clearly there is a danger in not representing the Holocaust, and this danger has led many, as scholar James Young points out, to draw ever more attention to the Holocaust. In fact, “Holocaust memory has begun to find its critical mass in something akin to a Holocaust ‘museum boom’.” Young goes on to point out that “Holocaust memorials are produced specifically to be historically referential, to lead viewers to an understanding or evocation of events.” However, reverential counter-monuments, complex in concept and vexing in design, challenge traditional assumptions about the purpose and role of monuments and complicate the debates about a Gedenkkultur or “remembrance culture.” This presentation will discuss the design, function, and impact of a collection of Holocaust memorials, ranging from early monuments built in Austria to recent counter-monuments in Germany.
• Wednesday, April 15

  "Japanese Imperial Legacy: The Colonial Period of Korea and its Archaeological Cultural Impacts," James Coburn (Lecturer of Archeology and Japanese, CMU) 4:30-6 pm, The legacy of the Japanese Imperial regime had a lasting impact on Asia since the late 1800s. While several countries were drastically affected by this sweeping militaristic regime, one country arguably is still being impacted by events that took place during the Japanese colonial period; this is Korea. Coburn will focus on two main aspects of archeological colonialism, which dealt with the erasure of culture during the prehistoric period. Additionally, we will see how cultural genocide dealt with the forced relocation and systematic destruction of key cultural ideas and sites. While each of these separately are significant in the larger legacy of the period, combined they shed new light on the depth of cultural genocide that the Japanese committed on the Joseon (Korean) people.
• Wednesday, April 15

  Screening of Paragraph 175, CMU History Club/Phi Alpha Theta Honor's Society 6:30-8 pm, Directed by Rob Epstein and Jeffrey Friedman, Paragraph 175 (2000) uncovered the treatment of homosexuals by Nazi Germany during the 1930s and 40s. Paragraph 175 was a section of the 1875 German Criminal Code, which stated that “Unnatural sexual acts committed between persons of the male sex, or by humans with animals, is punishable with imprisonment; a loss of civil rights may also be sentenced.” While seemingly ignored during the Wiemer Republic during the Roaring Twenties ushering in a “Gay Eden” in Berlin, later Nazi repression expanded and brutally enforced the law that remained on the books, sending thousands of homosexual Germans of various religions to prisons and concentration camps. Through personal testimonials of the last surviving victims, Paragraph 175 stresses both the brutality of state-sanctioned homophobia and the resilience of individuals who survived it. Members of History Club will pose discussion questions to facilitate discourse on both the historical and the current contexts still evident today.
• Thursday, April 16
  The Project Heroes Rise Up: The Heroes Independence Concert Time and Venue to be announced, Project Heroes’ mission is to redefine the Jewish narrative from victimhood to heroism. The “Rise Up concert, led by Gilad Segev, one of Israel’s most celebrated musicians, is an immersive, unifying experience that combines music, storytelling, and state-of-the-art stage design. Through a dynamic blend of live performance, documentary footage, and visual storytelling, the program honors the stories of Jewish heroes across generations – from the Holocaust to October 7th. In doing so, it moves audiences from remembrance to renewal, building toward a power and unifying sense of hope.