A Lot of Planning and a Little Coincidence: Loras Adopts Holocaust Theme for 2008-09 Academic Year
By Leah Corkery (’09)

“Our experience ultimately went far beyond learning about the Holocaust.”
-Craig Schaefer, professor of communication arts

The decision of the Loras College Arts & Culture Series to adopt a focus on the Holocaust for their 2008-09 event calendar served as the catalyst for the rest of campus. Some campus events and initiatives were reshaped to complement the theme while others by mere coincidence found their plans already did. It took months of planning, but the result is a theme for the 2008-09 academic year that addresses global human rights and discusses the history and impact of the Holocaust.  

The fall semester began with the reading of Elie Wiesel’s Night, selected by the First Year Experience Committee, chaired by Lisa Grinde, Ph.D., associate professor of psychology. A series of small group discussions of the work were hosted by the Loras Literary Society. The autobiographical novel, which won the 1986 Nobel Peace prize, is acclaimed as the most pivotal writing of the post-World War II period and is based on Wiesel’s own experience as a Holocaust survivor.

In September, Loras was fortunate enough to welcome Inge Auerbacher, a Holocaust survivor and human rights activist, to speak on campus. As a child, Auerbacher spent three years imprisoned in a Nazi concentration camp in Czechoslovakia, from which only one percent of 15,000 children survived. During her presentation, Auerbacher discussed life before and after the Holocaust and provided visualization by showing slides of her experience, including photos of her village, the village of her grandparents and the camp where she was held. She also detailed her return trip as an adult to the Terezin concentration camp and related stories of friends and family during the struggle, including losing her grandmother. 

 “It’s not very often you get the chance to hear about these things from people who experienced it first-hand,” said Liz Ball (’09) (Marion, Iowa), who attended the event. “It’s great that Loras students were able to hear her story and connect it to things we already knew and read about the Holocaust. Hearing someone speak about it is so much different than reading about it in a textbook.”

Two courses added to the curriculum certainly approached the subject of the Holocaust in a different manner as well. Degenerate Art, an art history course taught in the fall by Jennifer Walker, adjunct faculty of communication arts, discussed the role of art in Hitler’s regime and the ethics of its use to propagandize. “It was a really interesting course,” said Lauren Lehenbauer (’09) (Davenport, Iowa), an integrated visual arts and sport management double-major. “It’s hard to believe how far Hitler and the Nazis went to silence the Jews and anyone else they didn’t like.”

The second course, Documenting the Holocaust, fit into the academic year’s Holocaust theme rather serendipitously. Craig Schaefer (’89), professor of communication arts, had planned for the January-Term course independently and was pleasantly surprised to find others on campus had recognized the same rich opportunity for learning. Schaefer and his 12 students traveled to Germany to film a documentary and were able to visit many locations important to the Holocaust and its history, including a number of concentration camps and the Holocaust Memorial in Berlin. 

They also conducted a number of interviews with German adults and high school students about their perception of the Holocaust, personalizing the historical event. Schaefer explained that there are two experiences when making a documentary film, “You must approach the subject objectively and at a distance, but yet you want to take in the full emotion of the experience. So for our students, it’s about as complete a learning opportunity as you will find.”

In the month of April, two events brought the Holocaust theme to an end with those who had instigated its start: the Loras College Arts & Culture Series.  The first of the events, To Do Justice was a day-long event held on April 1, and the second event, Genocide: From the Holocaust to Darfur, was held during Common Time on April 8.

The To Do Justice event explored the historic 1945 Dachau War Trial, which tried nearly 40 Germans at the end of World War II for the war crimes committed at Dachau, the first Nazi concentration camp in Germany.  The event included a presentation by Emmy-nominated Joshua Greene, and a viewing of his documentary, “Voices from the Holocaust.”  The film was followed by lunch and a talk by former Des Moines Register columnist and Loras honorary degree recipient Chuck Offenberger, discussing the importance of such workshops and the presence of similar ethical issues today.

The persons involved and the approaches taken by both the prosecution and defense teams during the Dachau trial were explored through presentations by Joshua Greene and Douglas Bates III.  Greene had thoroughly researched prosecutor Robert Denson in the creation of his documentary and Bates, as the son of the chief defense attorney, had witnessed firsthand the affect the trial had on his father. Following the presentations, members of the award-winning Loras Mock Trial Team Chase Gruszka (’09) (Streamwood, Ill.) and John Healey (’10) (Neenah, Wis.) re-enacted the actual closing arguments of the Dachau War Trial. The day-long To Do Justice event was brought to a close with a panel discussion featuring a group of local law professionals, moderated by Loras Regent Teresa Hoffman.

The final event on April 8, Genocide: From the Holocaust to Darfur, focused a 21st century lens on the discussion of genocide. The group of students who traveled to Germany for Schaefer’s January Term course presented their completed documentary. The film, “Documenting the Holocaust,” featured the experiences, thoughts and emotions of the 12 students as they learned about the Holocaust – a history which can seem far removed from the lives of today’s American students. 

Following the film, Epsicopal priest Fr. Samuel Peni, a native of Sudan, shared the story of civil wars that have ravaged his country for years. He explained what is happening currently in Darfur, connecting the genocide occurring there today to that of the Holocaust. When asked by a Loras student what the Loras community could do to help the situation, Peni answered simply, “pray for us.” 

Ultimately, by adopting the Holocaust as a theme for the 2008-09 academic year, the Loras Community has placed an importance on addressing global human rights. For this, Ball applauded the theme choice, “The Holocaust might seem like something that happened a long time ago, but by continuing to discuss it we’re reminded of what can happen when human rights are ignored.”