Professor shares importance
of Holocaust film portrayal
■ Lawrence Baron, a professor
of modern Jewish history,
said the impact of Holocaust
movies cannot be ignored
By Serena Markstrom
Oregon Daily Emerald
The first Holocaust film
Lawrence Baron showed his 9-year
old son was “Life is Beautiful.” Af
ter the film, the boy asked his fa
ther: “Why did they shoot that
funny man?”
A tough question. But one that,
in this family, began the task of
learning about a time in history
many critics say no one who wasn’t
there can truly understand and that
no film can adequately portray.
Monday night about 50 people
attended Baron’s presentation,
“Ashen images on a silver screen,”
sponsored by the University Harold
Schnitzer Family Program in con
junction with Yom HaShoah.
“I take movies very seriously,”
Baron said. “(These images are) so
prevalent, I don’t think we can ig
nore their impact.”
News brief
Men’s Center focus
of today’s discussion
The University Health Center
will hold a meeting today to dis
cuss the Men’s Center, focusing on
results from a recent survey and the
future structure and advisory board
Remember
continued from page 1
The ceremony began Monday at
7 p.m. with candle lighting, prayer
and song, in both English and He
brew. A group of about 20 people
lighted six Yahrzeit candles, which
are used to remember the dead in a
time of mourning. Each candle rep
resents a million of the individuals
killed in the Holocaust.
While lighting the candles, the
group sang Hanna Senesh’s poem
“Elli, Elli,” which she wrote while
detained in a concentration camp.
Senesh died behind enemy lines as
a soldier fighting against the Nazis.
They also sang “Hatikva,” which is
the national anthem of Israel.
“It is very important to honor the
memory of those who were killed
because it can happen to any group
of people,” Oregon Hillel student
life coordinator June Sedarbaum
Harris said.
Oregon Hillel member Matthew
Peltz said he believes this event is
especially important today because
of the current bombings of syna
gogues in France.
“These events are similar to the
events that occurred before the
Holocaust,” he said. “Discrimina
tion still happens today, and people
downplay it.”
Oregon Hillel women’s collective
Baron teaches modern Jewish
history at San Diego State Universi
ty. He also directs the Lipinsky In
stitute, which functions range from
supporting teaching and research
in modern Jewish history to offer
ing internships in Judaic studies.
Though critics of Hollywood de
pictions of the Holocaust have de
nounced them as glossing over or
romanticizing it, Baron argued that
the way Steven Spielberg and oth
er directors have handled the sub
ject serves an important education
al purpose.
Baron said it is always a chal
lenge to go back in history and por
tray it accurately. He said few film
makers claim to have made the de
finitive Holocaust film, but instead
they seek to bring a focused part of
it to the screen. They seek to indi
vidualize mass-destruction.
“The greater the scale of vio
lence, the easier it is to be unmoved
by it,” Baron said. “It loses its form
and shape.”
Admittedly there are distortions,
but Baron said to try and document
it purely, without any creative
adaptation, results in a less effec
tive movie.
Katy Kinports, a junior Judaic
studies major, said she thought the
big-name Holocaust films like “Life
is Beautiful” and “Schindler’s List”
do gloss over the enormity of the
Holocaust, but other, less commer
cially successful films, are more in
formative.
“It’s important that there be
movies to get people thinking about
serious issues like the Holocaust,”
Kinports said. “There are other
ways to learn about it (too).”
Senior Robb Beck said he thought
Baron did a decent job of covering
the idea of representation and the
tension between story telling and
historical documentation.
Baron will lead a seminar,
“Christianities of Complicity and
Compassion,” today at noon in
Room 375 McKenzie Hall. Fruit,
cookies and beverages will be
served, and guests are encouraged
to bring their lunches.
E-mail hired education editor Serena Markstrom
atserenamarkstrom@dailyemerald.com.
of the Men’s Center.
The University’s Men Health
Team, consisting of several stu
dents and staff members, proposed
the idea for the center. The purpose
of the Men’s Center is to provide
male University students with help
and support on a variety of health
related issues. These issues include
substance abuse, anger manage
ment and diversity issues.
The center would operate similar
to the University’s Women’s Center
and would hold events aimed at
improving men’s health.
The meeting begins a 6 p.m. in
the Coquille Room of the EMU. For
more information, contact George
Hanawahine at 346-2770.
— Katie Ellis
chairwoman Andrea Lipstein
agreed.
“It’s an important day to remem
ber what horrible things happen in
this world so they don’t happen
again,” she said. “It’s a way to raise
awareness.”
JSU members and members
from co-sponsoring Oregon Hil
lel, a nonprofit Jewish organiza
tion for college students, will be
taking turns reading names. How
ever, University students, Lane
County community members and
anyone else interested in reading
names can sign up for 10 minute
time slots. People can also sign up
for longer time slots, and in past
years, individuals and groups
have read for up to two hours,
Kent said.
Many greek houses have called
out names in past years, and the
University’s Lesbian, Gay, Bisexu
al, Transgender, Queer Alliance
also participates, because the Nazis
killed many gays during the Holo
caust, Kent said.
“This is not just a religious event,
it is a cultural event,” JSU Co-Direc
tor Shainah Falk said. “This event
is to create sympathy for all those
who died and to remember how
tremendous and sad the Holocaust
was. The Holocaust actually hap
pened, even if people deny it, be
cause there are survivors.”
JSU will be reading the names
of those who died from a book ti
tled “Gedenkbuch.” The group
has read the names listed alpha
betically in this book for the past
five years. Each year, the group
reads a different set of names
starting with the letter of the last
name they ended with the year
before. This year the group start
ed with the letter “M.” The book
does not contain all the 6 million
people’s names, but is a fairly ac
curate account of the people who
died, Kent said.
Kent said he believes this annual
event is important for everyone to
participate in and learn from.
“I did not lose anyone in my fam
ily to the Holocaust, but many peo
ple had their entire families wiped
out,” Kent said. “I am remembering
those that have no one else to re
member them by.”
JSU encourages anyone who
wants to participate in the event to
come and sign up for a time slot at
the tent in the amphitheater.
The ceremony will conclude at 7
p.m. Tuesday with a small prayer.
Next year, JSU and the Oregon Hil
lel plan to hold a week-long educa
tion forum about the Holocaust
with their annual Holocaust Memo
rial ceremony.
E-mail reporter Danielle Gillespie
at daniellegillespie@dailyemerald.com.
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