Image provided by: Clackamas Community College; Oregon City, OR
About The Clackamas print. (Oregon City, Oregon) 1989-2019 | View Entire Issue (May 15, 2019)
Holocaust survivor LAUREEN NUSSBAUM SPEAKS ON UPCOMING PLAY PHOTO AMD STORY BY JASON StSSON NEWS EDITOR @NEWSMANJAY Laureen N ussbaum y a H olocaust survivor and childhood friend of Anne Frank, visited Clackamas Community College Over .spring, break for a Q&A. The event was arranged by theater instructor-Jim Eikrem in advance o f the departm ent’ s spring play“ And Then They Came for Me: Remembering the World of Anne Frank,” which will open May. 23 and run through June^2. Eikrem arranging for Nussbaum, his former German professor at Portland State University, to come to campus in conjunction with the play was the result of good tim ing. “ When I knew we were considering this play I im m ediately thought of Laureen Nussbaum* I started to do a little bit of research online to see if she was even still alive,” Eikrem said. “ She’ s 92 years old. ” Eikrem soon found an interview Nussbaum did in Seattle last y ear-h alive no doubt — and was able to get in touch with her through the world languages department at PSU. , “ It was really serendipitous, the fact that she was down here and available. That’ s why she ended up down here on spring break,” Eikrem said; Ju lie A k e rs, a th e a te r fa c u lty m em ber, is at the director’ s helm in E ikrem ’ s’ stead w hile he is on sabbatical fpr spring term . Éikrem spoke about th is decision and the form ation of the forthcom ing play, which intërsperises interviews with two Holocaust survivors and friends of Anne Frank between live actors recreating scenes from their lives. “ I was lookin g for a sabbatical replacem ent and she [Julie Akers! suggested this play. She said, T v e done this in the past.’ She has a s e lf- proclaimed mission of trying to get all the high schools in Oregon, or at least the Portland area, to either see it or do i t ,” Eikrem said. “ And so, when she mentioned this I thought — I just jumped on it. Tthought this would be a great thing to do. ” Ak-ers confirm ed as m uch while also touting the importance of à bill requiring Holocaust education that is currently in the Oregon legislature, “ And now that I mention this thing about the Senate approving this [Senate B ill 664] — take this play to every high sdhool and let It be a part of their curriculum,” Akers said. “ That’ s mygoal. Education, education, education.” Nussbaum arrived on the dimly lit set and sat w ith Eikrem and Akers to field q u estion s from th e pair, speaking mainly on her fam ily’ s story and their relationship with the Frank family. She spoke specifically of being closer to Margot, Anne’ s older sister, while referring humorously to Anne as a “ ch atterb o x.” Nussbaum also reminisced fondly of putting on a play of.her own with the Frank children. I “ [The play was] called the Princess with the N ose,” Nussbaum said. “ I was stage director and Anne was the princess. ” A fter th is and some other more s o m b e r - t o n e d q u e s tio n s fo r N ussbaum , the forum was opened fo the audience. Nussbaum worked d ilig e n t ly th r o u g h a t t e n d e e s ’ q u e s tio n s — th e 9 2 ,-y e a r -o ld displaying a slight lack of hearing but no shortage of livelihood. The inquiries varied in subject — from Germ an propaganda to a more innocuous question about how N ussbaum ’ s day was going — but seemed to coalesce around one issue: how to best learn from the past to prevent the sam e type of atrocities from repeating. On this topic, though, Nussbaum made it,clear that she’s felt disappointed in the decades since the Holocaust; she expressed dismay that , genocide continues today and with how history is taught. “ t h e way. we learn history, our country is always the good guys and th e other guys are always the bad guys..; The Cold War, I’ m sure, was very difierent from the Soviet Russia side,” Nussbaum said. “ As long as we learn these things m yopically, I’ m afraid genocide will progress.” An aphoristic truth seemed to linger behind much of the discussions — that those who don’t learn from history are doomed to repeat it. Some in attendance spoke of parallels between what allowed the Holocaust to happen and present day, both in th e U .S , and around the world. Nussbaum herself touched on th e topic several tim es w hilqt,also taking aim at Am erican exceptionalism, stating that a similar attitude was common in Nazi Germany. In response to one audience member’s question of what an average person can do to figh t the injustices they perceive today, Nussbaum stated that open-mindedness is first, while also advocating for speaking up'against those injustices and understanding adversaries, “ Cognizance of what your adversary thinks. Try to find common ground. Don’t just write them o ff,” Nussbaum sa id . “ B ecause, th e y d o n ’ t ju st disappear if you write them off. ” In a polarized’political environment where many view those on the opposite end of the political spectrum as their enemies, it seems Nussbaum’ s advice maybe especially pertinent, indeed, if there is an antidote to the poisons of the past and present it may well lie in education — but also in understanding fhose we position ourselves against. Julie Akers, left, and Jim Eikrem interview Laureen Nussbaum about genocide, politics and her life on March 25 at a public event in the Niemeyer Center. Clackamas Print -------- ----------------------------------------------- theclackam asprint.com Nay 15, 2019
