Over a long weekend in February, 32 students traveled to Germany with Hillel on a trip to examine how the community of Berlin has dealt with the legacy of the Holocaust. We looked specifically at the ways in which the Holocaust has been memorialized so that the history is not overwhelming but rather pervasive. In Berlin, the present is infused with bits of memorialized history. These memorials serve as reminders, not only for the historical events that took place but also for how those events have transformed the community.
A particularly striking Holocaust memorial was located in Berlin's Bavarian Quarter, a once-vibrant center of Jewish life. This memorial was designed to commemorate the restrictive Nazi laws that were imposed on the Jews in the years leading up to the Holocaust. The memorial is composed of 80 street signs that are spread out around the busy Bavarian Quarter. On one side of each sign is a law stating a specific limitation placed on Jews, and on the other side is a simple picture which represents that limitation. These signs hang on lampposts all throughout the Quarter and serve as reminders of the marginalization of Jewish life during Nazi rule.
Walking through the Bavarian Quarter, it was easy to imagine what the neighborhood once looked like. Since the Holocaust, it has again become a bustling area with busy streets. The memorialized lampposts, however, remind those who pass through that this neighborhood is drastically different from the way it once was. The lampposts compose a "web of remembrance," which chronicles the persecution of the Bavarian Quarter's 16,000 Jews. This web illustrates how the rights of a group of people were slowly stripped away in a modern, intellectual community. It asks the questions: How could it come to this? How did the community allow Jews to be marginalized, especially when these restrictions were placed so publicly?
Tuesday, April 21 is Yom HaShoah, Holocaust Remembrance Day. It is essential that we use this day as an opportunity to think about addressing prejudice in our own community, in our country and in our world. As part of a series of Yom HaShoah events, a group of students who went to Berlin have created a replica of the Bavarian Quarter memorial here on the Tufts campus. Ten street signs hang on the lampposts leading up to the library steps. As you walk the library steps, ask yourself how you would react if such laws were introduced in your own community.
Prejudice does not become powerful overnight. Rather, prejudice takes small steps, building momentum over time. By ignoring even the smallest signs of hatred, we give intolerance dangerous power. We cannot afford to be passive when any "sign" of intolerance appears in our midst. The students who built this replication hope that by installing the "signs" that many people in Berlin chose to disregard, we at Tufts will hopefully be provoked to think about and address the intolerance that goes unnoticed in our community.
Join us. On Wednesday at 12:00 in the afternoon on the library patio, 17 campus groups will join to make a pledge to "Never Again" allow prejudice and injustice to remain unchallenged. Please show your support by attending this short ceremony.
--
Yael Stern is a sophomore majoring in cognitive and brain sciences.
