I’ve mentioned before that I was accepted as a fellow into the summer institute at Not So Local College in their Holocaust studies center, right? I’ve been trying to get in to this fellowship for literally years – since about 2005, when I first heard of it, in fact. It’s only offered in even years, though, and I didn’t get in in 2006.
Anyway, things are rolling as far as this experience goes. I received a box of books from the UPS guy a few weeks ago – about 12 pounds of books, to be exact – and I’ve been getting regular emails from the director for days now concerning schedules and guest speakers and what we should bring with us in the way of dress (if you’re wondering, casual, for the most part, but semi-formal for the welcome dinner).
In amongst the books was a listing of room assignments, complete with the names and contact information of the people with whom we’ll be sharing rooms. It turns out that my roommate lives just a few towns over from me, and I sent her an email a few weeks ago to introduce myself and suggest a meeting.
We’re having lunch this afternoon.
I’m very excited to meet her. She seems, from her emails, to be someone with whom I will connect relatively easily. She’s a former high school teacher who moved back to New England and started working in creating community and diversity awareness programs for schools. I’m still a little unclear on what it is exactly that she does, but what I do understand of it intrigues me.
We’re meeting at a little local place in the old mill buildings by the river downtown. I sent her an email with enough of a self-description that she should be able to pick me out of a crowd and I’m eager to see how the reality of her compares with what I’ve imagined from her emails. I’m fully expecting to have a wonderful time, and my hope is that we’ll like one another enough to not mind having to share a tiny dorm room for a week in July.
Hey, Mrs. Chili! I’ve been reading for a while now, but I haven’t left a comment yet.
I attended a week-long seminar for my job last fall, and I ended up rooming with an AMAZING chick from Texas. At first, I was uneasy (oh, alright – I was pissed off that I didn’t get a single room), but it turned out to be great. She was funny, she didn’t hog the whole bathroom counter (we were staying at a hotel, not a dorm, so I’ve got the ups on you for that), and we ended up spending most of the seminar together, bitching about the colossal waste of time the whole week was. My roommate doesn’t live in the next town over, hell, she doesn’t even live in the next STATE over, but we’ve stayed in touch ever since.
just out of curiosity does the holocaust studies include gay men who were killed?
http://queersunited.blogspot.com/
Interesting you should ask that. Observe the email conversations I had about this back in late April, early May:
Tom, I’m wondering if there are (or if arrangements can be made for there to be) materials and lessons on the Holocaust in the Institute from the gay and lesbian perspective? This is an issue that I work with a lot – I’m an active ally in my community – and I’m really interested in this part of the GLBTQ history and how it still impacts GLBTQ treatment around the world.
Anything? Any suggestions on where I can go to do my own research?
Love!
Chili
You will receive a booklet from the US Holocaust Museum on this, but we do not have any experts on this particular approach.
Tom
So I emailed the Holocaust Museum in Washington DC:
Hello!
My name is Mrs. Chili and I’m going to be attending Not So Local College’s summer institute for Holocaust studies this July.
I’m very interested in the experience of GLBTQ people during the Holocaust. When I contacted Tom at the Center, he told me that the program didn’t have much information about the plight of GLBTQ victims. This is an area of particular interest to me as I am an advocate for gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgendered and questioning people in my community.
What resources are available to me / the Center for the study of this aspect of the Holocaust? Are there any educational outreach programs that can be brought to the summer institute, or that I can access as an advocate and a teacher, that specifically address the issue of GLBTQ treatment during the Holocaust?
Any information you can offer would be greatly appreciated. I look forward to hearing from you.
Sincerely,
Chili
To which the Museum replied:
Dear Chili,
You can find information on this topic on our website, http://www.ushmm.org.
We have an online exhibition entitled “Nazi Persecution of Homosexuals”
and there are articles in our Holocaust Encyclopedia.
The website also has a Special Focus related to this topic: “Nazi
Persecution of Homosexuals” and a special exhibit: “An Underground Life:
Memoirs of a Gay Jew in Nazi Berlin by Gad Beck”.
Our Center for Advanced Holocaust Studies (CAHS) had a symposium which
is accessible on-line as well. See USHMM Center for Advanced Holocaust
Studies: 2000 Program on the Persecution of Homosexuals (Center for
Advanced Holocaust Studies Spring 2000 Program recorded in RealAudio)
Sincerely,
Michele Shulman
There won’t be a particular workshop on this perspective during the institute, but I am doing my own bit of research about it. It’s important that we recognize that the Holocaust was a HUMAN tragedy, not just a Jewish one.
Warmly,
Chili
This sounds like an amazing opportunity. You are right-the Holocaust was a human tragedy. I remember trying to explain it to my kids. Seven million-how do you explain that?
This program sounds like such an incredible learning opportunity! I cannot wait to hear more about it.
Unless your roommate is totally different than you expect, you’ll get along fine. Look at all the other people you’ve met from online and have a great time with! You seem to be able to perceive people well.
And you’ll have so much fun in the class. All that knowledge flying at you!
Good for you! I am betting that the two of you will get along famously.
So? How did lunch go? And am I picking Punkin up at school as planned or are you holding her back?
oh wow!! congrats!!
I’m jealous of your opportunity to immerse yourself in this topic.
I am also dismayed that the holocaust is still seen as a Jewish tragedy. Certainly the Jewish community suffered the greatest loss of lives from any ONE community, but of the 11 million who were killed, 5 million were NOT Jewish. We owe a huge debt to Jewish survivors because they have very courageously spoken about their horrific experiences, but so many victims have been forgotten.
Hitler ordered the killing of Gypsies, homosexuals (that’s where the pink triangles originated – Hitler ordered that all suspected homosexuals wear pink triangles for identification), Jehovah’s Witnesses, priests and pastors, disabled individuals, black people (the children of mixed race couples were sterilized), and citizens of Poland, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Ukraine, Russia, Holland, and France.
Unfortunately, Hitler had plenty of hate to spread around.
If you haven’t seen the documentary “Paper Clips”, you MUST see it!
Jules, I’m astounded by how many of my students DON’T know where the pink triangle symbol comes from.
I’m often shocked and saddened by the outrage that some (granted, not many, but some) Jews feel when attention is paid to the other victims of the Holocaust. We can’t compare suffering, but neither can one group lay claim to a more profound suffering than another. Recognizing the Holocaust as a human tragedy and not just a Jewish one doesn’t diminish the terrible price the Jews paid.
What an interesting post and comments! I try to teach my students a full picture of who was persecuted during the Holocaust. They never seem to think of other groups of people who were victims, too.
I can’t wait to hear how lunch went and more about the box of books!
I am so happy you’ll be having this experience, this tremendous learning opportunity.
“Recognizing the Holocaust as a human tragedy and not just a Jewish one doesn’t diminish the terrible price the Jews paid.”
That’s beautifully said.
The holocaust was a human tragedy on a scale almost too large to comprehend. If you look at JUST the Jewish losses, according to the United State Holocaust Museum, 2 out of three, 6 million, Jewish lives were lost. More, European Jewry has never been the same; before 1945, 60 per cent of the world’s Jewish population thrived in Europe, post the war, 33 percent remained there, while a full 51 per cent had moved to the Americas.
That said, HUMANITY paid the ultimate price, not the Jewish people and there remains so much to learn and consider about the terrible, slippery slope of inhumanity for SO MANY groups that brought on that devastation.
I just watched this Werner Herzog movie, Invincible. It’s sort of odd and a little meandering but it’s an interesting story that’s apparently been part of Jewish/Holocaust lore since the 30s. I recommend it.