News Reporter
wpjohnst@mavs.coloradomesa.edu
What began in 2004 as a small gathering of professors raising awareness about the Holocaust, is now a two-week event of remembrance at CMU.
Assistant Professor of History Dr. Vincent Patarino founded the Holocaust Awareness weeks on campus.
Patarino started the event shortly after coming to CMU. The first year was successful, so he made it an annual event.
“After the first two or three years, we started to re-initialize it a little bit to think of genocide in a broader sense,” Patarino said. “The success of this event has grown throughout the campus, with this year’s turnout being the most so far. The series has grown. The audience levels have grown. Usually 25-50 students will attend each event in the series.”
This year’s event included films and presentations about the Holocaust and genocide throughout the world.
Patarino hopes that more focus can be brought to current world events, while still incorporating the Holocaust. Among this year’s presentations was an expanded discussion about genocide in Nigeria and Wendy Kesselman’s adaptation of “The Diary of Anne Frank,” performed by CMU’s theater department.
According to the CMU box office, an estimated 1,000 patrons attended the four shows and 1,000 middle school students attended the matinee showings.
The Field of Flags was displayed in a field near the University Center to honor the lives of those that died during the Holocaust, with each color representing a specific group or race of people.
Senior Robert Archer is a history major that helped set up the flag display.
“It’s kind of like a communal experience as far as getting around the people who are aware of this,” Archer said. “It’s almost like a sense of camaraderie.”
For the last three years, Archer has actively participated in the Holocaust Awareness events. He said this year’s set of events were the best.
“If you look at the set of events this year, we have had a very international approach,” Archer said. “Yes, we have paid attention to the Holocaust in Europe in the 1940s, but we have also expanded to look at genocide in Asia, Cambodia and Burma. But we are also paying attention to the events going on in Africa.”
Patarino said even though there was much campus involvement, he is not finished expanding.
“I think there is still a lot of room to grow,” Patarino said. “We are still making the transition from a college to a university. One of the things that distinguishes a university is the different groups hold series and conferences, which should happen a lot [more often.]”
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