Vigil held to mark Holocaust 24-hour vigil held on Green

University students and faculty of mixed faiths continuously read a list of names of Holocaust victims from Wednesday to Thursday night, in observance of Holocaust Memorial Day. Organizers of the event traditionally read a list of victims, to emphasize that they were not anonymous individuals. But yesterday's ceremony held special significance to many University students and faculty, since a large portion of the names read were names of friends or relatives. The vigil, which took place on College Green, started with a solemn candle-lighting ceremony. Six students told stories of their families' experiences during the Holocaust and lit one of the six yellow memorial candles, which represented six million Jews killed by the Nazis. After the lighting, organizers presented a series of slides from concentration camps. The name reading began immediately after. David Braun, the organizer of the event, told the crowd that their "presence and the participation of the entire campus is the highpoint of this depressing time of year." Braun also spoke of the desecration of a flyer outside the Rosengarten Reserves Library that advertised the moment of silence held yesterday at 11:55 a.m. The College junior said that "if people like this exist then we have even more reason to remember this tragedy." College freshman Shawn Ruby, who is a board member of Hillel, said the vigil was held "to make sure [the Holocaust] is never forgotten, because if it is, it can happen again." "Remembering also raises peoples' consciousness as to the bigotry and racism that exists in the world," he added. Approximately 60 people attended the opening ceremony. One person, who asked not to be identified, called the turnout "disappointing," adding that "a school that has so many Jews should fill the Green. People's priorities are screwed up." The vigil closed last night in a ceremony that drew about 150 people. Students and clergy members, including Reverend James McGuire of the Newman Center and Rabbi Howard Alpert of Hillel, delivered short speeches. Alpert spoke of the need to recognize that the experience of the Jews in Europe was not unique. "In the historical memory of each people and of each race there is the pain of their own Holocaust," he said. "To recognize the Holocausts of other peoples does not belittle the memory of our own . . . and, in fact, sensitizes ourselves to both their grief and our own." The vigil was concluded by a candlelit march to Superblock where the Kaddish -- the Jewish prayer for the dead -- was recited.

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