On Thursday, April 11 at 6 p.m., the Idaho State University department of history will be hosting a Holocaust memorial event.
Dr. Justin Dolan Stover, a lecturer in the history department, was key in organizing the event, hoping for a “solemn night of memorial commemoration.”
“The program is very simple,” says Stover, involving both a “brief overview of why we’re here,” and testimonies by two Holocaust survivors. It will also include a time for audience questions.
A candle-light vigil will follow the lecture and testimonies, led by the Temple Emmanuel, a local synagogue.
The vigil will also include the recitation of a traditional prayer for the dead, in honor of the victims of the Holocaust.
The event, co-sponsored by the Idaho Humanities Council, falls three days after the National Day of Remembrance for the Holocaust, in the week designated by the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum for remembrance and reflection.
Although the Day of Remembrance has been observed in the United States since 1982, this is the first year events will take place on the ISU campus.
Organizers hope this will be the first year of what will become an annual event.
The theme for this year’s memorial services is Never Again: Heeding the Warning Signs.
Stover feels that remembrance of events like the Holocaust are extremely important. “I think there’s always a need to remember not only those who perish in wars as veterans, but also those who perish as collateral damage.” More specifically than innocent civilians, Stover also feels it is necessary to remember “those who perish as a result of race, or sexual orientation, or social outlook.”
Stover also feels that Holocaust remembrance may be especially relevant to Idaho residents, specifically in the wake of the Coeur d’Alene neo-Nazi reemergence in recent decades. Stover recognizes “a duty in this kind of event to acknowledge that in the very recent past there has been a resurgence in this outlook.”
Organizers expect a varied audience, including various student groups that are “overtly concerned with religious rights, civil rights, and equality.”
Stover stresses the importance of listening to “a generation that is dying out, they’ve become old…I think it’s a great opportunity to hear living history. Not only for [attendees’] own agenda, but to get an education, or to feel that they’re not alone in their fight.”
Stover hopes attendees can learn from the event, and through it bring “something into their own communities that they can uphold…This is a place for us to build, now.”
Stover has many goals for the evening. “I hope the ISU community realizes the importance of learning from living historical subjects.”
The Holocaust memorial event will be held in Rendezvous Complex Room 203. The event is free and open to non-ISU students, although seating is limited.