In honor of Yom HaShoah, or Holocaust Remembrance Day, members of the Boston University Hillel Holocaust Education Committee publically read names of Holocaust victims at Marsh Plaza on Monday.
The memorial, lasting from 12 p.m. to 4 p.m., was a way for the BU community to remember those who died in the Holocaust.
As names were read, volunteers handed out 1,000 memorial buttons and biographical cards, which they received from the U.S. Holocaust Museum in Washington, D.C.
Although Yom HaShoah is usually celebrated on April 11, when the actual date falls on a Sunday it is observed on the following Monday, according to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum website.
Members of BU Hillel Holocaust Education Committee said it’s significant to honor those who died.
“It’s important in the conversations that the committee had Holocaust remembrance for those who were affected, whose families perished, but there’s also a need to have a more public presence,” said College of Arts and Sciences sophomore Rafi Spitzer. “The greater Boston community should be aware of Holocaust remembrance and so with that we decided to publicly read names.”
Spitzer, chairman of the Holocaust Education Committee and member of the Hillel Student Board, explained that reading names is significant because though they read names for four hours, the amount of names read aloud barely touched the number of those killed in the Holocaust.
“We went through about 1,700 names,” he said. “It’s less than a fraction of one percent.”
About six million Jews died in the Holocaust between 1933 and 1945, he said.
CAS sophomore Bena Reiter, also a member of the Holocaust Education Committee, said she was touched by the significance of the ceremony.
“When you hear six million it’s just a number, but when you hear names, it’s putting a name to the number,” she said. “The first two hours were children’s names and that really got to me, especially hearing their ages.”
The group received the names from a Holocaust Museum in Israel, explained Reiter.
According to an email from BU spokesman Tom Testa, reading the names of Holocaust victims is a common way of memorializing the Holocaust in many communities, along with lighting memorial candles and reciting a Jewish prayer called the Kaddish.
In addition to Monday’s memorial ceremony, the Holocaust Education Committee showed “Schindler’s List” on Sunday and hosted Dr. John Saunders, a survivor of the Holocaust, at the Hillel House on Monday.
“Between these different aspects there was a way for everyone to remember the holiday,” Spitzer said.
CAS freshman Rachel Kessler said it was a touching form of remembrance.
“It made everyone who walked by take a moment to acknowledge what was going on,” she said.
Holocaust Remembrance Day was a part of BU’s Israeli Culture Week, which leads up to Israeli Independence Day on April 25.
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