Armenian, Assyrian and Hellenic Genocide News

Holocaust and Armenian Genocide remembered
by Rian Michel, The South End - March 29, 2001
Posted: Tuesday, April 03, 2001 03:30 am CST

Yesterday morning over 150 people, including high school students, instructors and community members, gathered in the McGregor Memorial Conference Center to remember the Holocaust and the Armenian Genocide. Each year the conference focuses on a different way of examining these past tragedies. This year the focus was on "Multimedia Approaches to Documenting the Holocaust and Genocide."

Ron Frank, owner of the film company Frank Productions, Inc., came to Wayne State University to show his new film "The Eternal Road: An Encounter with the Past." His hour-long movie, telling a personalized account of the Jewish community before the Holocaust, has been shown on PBS a number of times.

Frank said while working on the film "The Hunt for Adolph Eichmann" he realized more about the Holocaust than he had before. The Israeli Mossad hunted down Eichmann and brought him back to be put on trial.

"It's more than just genocide," he said. "The world wanted to forget."

The mayor of Chemnitz, Dr. Peter Seifert, invited the former citizens of the city back to their homeland in Germany which they had been exiled from years before. Frank's movie tells the personal accounts of these people returning home running alongside the story of an opera performed in Chemnitz.

The opera was originally staged in New York in 1937, after having been written three years earlier. It tells the story of a Jewish congregation in the 1930s. The night before they were exiled from their town, the Rabbi spent the evening consoling the people. The opera ends with the entire evacuation of the congregation.

"This was years before anyone knew the genocide would take place," Frank said. "The story of the opera mirrors the story of what happened to families like mine."

Frank is Jewish and has always been interested in the Holocaust as a part of his heritage. But he also lived in Israel for four years, which is what he said galvanized his interest to make movies about the Holocaust. He said there are lots of untold stories.

His aunt was one of the citizens thrown out of Chemnitz years before. She traveled back when invited by the mayor and was able to see her former neighbor for the first time in 60 years. Frank said it was a painful experience for many of them to come back, but they did it to remember.

When the opera was performed in Germany, Frank said it was fascinating to see Germans play the roles of Jews. He said it brought a sense of reconciliation.

Unfortunately, the Armenians can not feel this same reconciliation. The Turkish government still will not admit the occurrence of the Armenian Genocide in 1915. Christopher Simpson, Associate Professor at American University in Washington, D.C., delved into the realm of media to answer questions concerning the denial.

He said in order for a genocide to occur it must meet three qualifications: there must be an identifiable group being perpetrated upon, there must be an attempt to destroy a whole or part of this group, and acts to destroy the group must be carried out. Simpson said all three of these things exist with the Armenians.

"They (the Turkish government) diffuse, confuse and refuse evidence of genocide," Simpson said. "The Turks intended to destroy."

He said many of the people were murdered at killing grounds, a coordinated national system for destroying over a million people. There is an extra human trauma felt by the victims and their relatives because of the denial by the Turkish government.

"The affirmation (that this happened) is necessary to overcome this," he said. "We have an obligation to teach our children about it.

"Hitler used the non-recognition of the Armenian Genocide as justification that biologically one is better."

There are several cases of people in Turkey who spoke up to the Turkish government and found their next home in prison. A representative on the floor of the Turkish Parliament was thrown in jail for saying "I am a Kurd," because she used her native language, Kurdish, which is outlawed.

Simpson testified on Jan. 31 before the Maryland Senate and House to have April 26 declared as a day to remember the Armenian Genocide. He said members of the Congress have been threatened by the Turkish government. The resolution has already been passed by the Senate, they are just waiting for the vote to take place in the House.

Simpson used the video "Voices from the Lake" to illustrate the remembrance on video. One of the examples cited as evidence that the genocide occurred are diary entries by several different people, but detailing the same events of mass killing on the same days.

The men were all taken to jail and the women were told to turn in all their guns for the release of their husbands. They did, but the Turks told the government they confiscated 1,000 guns, not that they were turned in voluntarily. This led to the murder of the husbands in jail, and some of the wives and children.

"There is urgency to give meaning to the past. Stay strong and never give up," is what Simpson left with his audience.

Shortly after the film making portion of the program, Professors Dennis Papazian and Sidney Bolkosky from the University of Michigan-Dearborn joined artist Deanna Sperka for a panel discussion on compiling oral history.

Papazian and Bolkosky have both spent years finding survivors of the Armenian Genocide and recording their histories so the past can not be forgotten. Sperka recorded interviews with over 20 people from the terror in the Middle East.

"The strong do what they want, the weak do what they are told," said Papazian, Director of the Armenian Research Center at U of M Dearborn.

The research center recently obtained Turkish Parliamentary papers from 1908-1923 which document the investigation of the genocide. Papazian said the Turks were so effective at wiping out the Armenians because most of the survivors were children. When they came to Papazian and Bolkosky to tell their stories, for many of them it was the first time.

So far they have completed 12 oral histories which can be found in the research center's library, or on the Web site (holocaust.umd.umich.edu/).

Eileen Raider, Director of Special and Outreach Programs at WSU, said the program was originally started back in the early 1980s, but initially just as guest speakers. Eight years ago they changed the whole format and turned it into a day-long conference. Topics in the past have included: "Denying the Deniers," "A Century of Genocide" and "Refuting Falsification on the Internet." Raider said there were more people than have come in the past.

Guy Stern, Distinguished Professor of German and Slavic studies, has been helping coordinate the conference for many years for both historical and personal reasons.

"I was an exile myself. At age 15 I came to the United States before the Holocaust," Stern said. His family tried to leave Germany, but they were unable to get out and were all killed. He said he was also a non-commissioned officer in the U.S. Military Intelligence Service where he interrogated German prisoners of war after the Battle of Normandy up until 1945.

"This is a dignified way of commemorating the Holocaust and it is also a dignified and effective way of letting high school students and teachers see the types of activities we can hold at WSU."

Photo caption: (From left) Distinguished Professor Guy Stern lead the panel discussion between Ron Frank and Christopher Simpson concerning mutlimedia documentation of the Holocaust and the Armenian Genocide (photo taken by Rian Michel Parent, The South End).

Related Information...

Armenian, Assyrian and Hellenic Genocide News Archives