Holocaust and Genocide Awareness Week
Stories of Survival: Patricia Makaroff
Tuesday, April 26 at 6:00 pm - 7:15 pm, Armstrong Student Center 1082
Patricia Makaroff is a second-generation Armenian American who was born in Detroit, Michigan. Both her maternal and paternal grandparents were survivors of the Armenian Genocide perpetrated against Armenians by Ottoman Turks in 1915. Her grandparents settled in the Detroit area, where there remains a large Armenian community. She was married in St. John Armenian Church in Southfield, Michigan. She has lived in Oxford, Ohio with her husband Chris since 1989. Her 2 children, Erik and Katherine, are both Miami University alumni.
Sometimes called the first genocide of the twentieth century, the Armenian genocide refers to the physical annihilation of Armenian Christian people living in the Ottoman Empire from spring 1915 through autumn 1916. There were approximately 1.5 million Armenians living in the multiethnic Ottoman Empire in 1915. At least 664,000 and possibly as many as 1.2 million died during the genocide, either in massacres and individual killings, or from systematic ill-treatment, exposure, and starvation.
Sponsored by
The Office of Institutional Diversity & Inclusion, Hillel at Miami, Genocide and Holocaust Education Council, Chabad on Campus, Miami University Libraries, and the Center for American and World Cultures (Global Initiatives)
Stories of Survival: Henry Fenichel
Wednesday, April 27 at 6:00 pm - 7:15 pm, Virtual Event
Henry Fenichel was born in The Netherlands in 1938. Shortly after the Nazi rise to power, sensing the danger, Henry's parents sent a request for their relocation to Palestine where his father’s family resided. After Henry's father was deported and murdered by the Nazis in Auschwitz, Henry and his mother still had no response to their request to immigrate. They then went into hiding. When Henry was four years old, he and his mother’s hiding place was discovered and they were transported to the Westerbork transit camp. Shortly after arriving, they learned of a prisoner exchange that would allow a select number of Jews to escape to Palestine. Through a miraculous series of events, Henry's mother was able to get them on the list for “transport 222”. In June 1944, Henry, his mother and 220 other Dutch individuals left Bergen-Belsen concentration camp, eventually arriving to freedom in British Mandate Palestine.
Sponsored by
The Office of Institutional Diversity & Inclusion, Hillel at Miami, Genocide and Holocaust Education Council, Chabad on Campus, Miami University Libraries, and the Center for American and World Cultures (Global Initiatives)
Reading of the Names
Thursday, April 28 at 10 am - 5 pm, University Seal (Outside Upham Hall)
We will be reading the names of individuals killed during the Holocaust and other genocides. Naming those lost is a highly symbolic and personal way of remembering and honoring these individuals. This year Miami University students, faculty, and staff will read the names honoring victims of the Holocaust in addition to the Armenian, Rwandan, and Sikh Genocides.
Sponsored by
The Office of Institutional Diversity & Inclusion, Hillel at Miami, Genocide and Holocaust Education Council, Chabad on Campus, African Student Union, Diversity Affairs Council, Miami University Sikh Student Association, and the Center for American and World Cultures (Global Initiatives)
Resources
Bearing Witness Exhibition
Curated by Alia Levar Wegner, our Digital Collections Librarian, this exhibit tolds the compelling personal stories of 10 Miami alumni and faculty whose lives were affected by the Holocaust. Of them, an alumna named Hedi Pope (nee Politzer) is still with us at age 102, and we were able to travel to her home in North Carolina in early 2020 to interview her and record it for an oral history. You can find the video version of her story in December 2021 using the interview footage, footage from around her home, and archival documents/photographs.
A native of Vienna, Austria, Hedi's father was arrested during Kristallnacht and was imprisoned at Dachau, where he became ill and died. Hedi and her sister were hurriedly sent to America to live with cousins. After a stint on Broadway, Hedi was awarded a scholarship to Miami and graduated with her bachelor's in physical education, then earned her master's at Wellesley. She went on to found a successful dance school in Virginia.
Her story, and the stories of the other nine alumni and faculty Alia identified and researched, are compelling reminders of the destructive power of the Holocaust and genocide to completely uproot and disrupt life even for those who survive the physical violence. Part of the exhibition included a curated display case of diaries from Jewish Miami students who journaled for a class project during the 1940s as antisemitism and news of the horrors in Europe rose in America. In coordination with Hillel at Miami University, a group of Jewish Miami students wrote their own reflective journals.
Nancy & David Wolf Holocaust & Humanity Center
The Nancy & David Wolf Holocaust & Humanity Center exists to ensure the lessons of the Holocaust inspire action today. HHC educates about the Holocaust, remembers its victims and acts on its lessons. Through innovative programs and partnerships, HHC challenges injustice, inhumanity, and prejudice, and fosters understanding, inclusion, and engaged citizenship. HHC impacts more than 200,000 individuals each year.