Week-long Holocaust remembrance set

The student group Jewish Coalition has organized campus events for Holocaust Remembrance Week May 1-5.

An opening ceremony on Library Mall at 4 p.m. Monday will be followed by a 24-hour reading of names of people who were killed during the Holocaust. Participants, including Madison Mayor Susan Bauman and other local officials, will read names while in a wood and barbed wire structure.

A child of a Nazi and a child of a Holocaust survivor will speak at the same event Tuesday, May 2 at 4 p.m. at the State Historical Society Auditorium.

“It is almost unprecedented on the UW campus for children of war enemies to speak together at a Holocaust program,” says Jennifer Richmond, co-president of Jewish Coalition. “This is the essence of what Holocaust Remembrance Week is about: Listening and learning to and from each other. Holocaust Remembrance week is also about the destructive effects of hate. Programs of tolerance, like this, are the central to our goals.”

William McConahey, a US army veteran who liberated a concentration camp, will speak on Wednesday, May 3 at 7:30 p.m., in Memorial Union. Check “Today in the Union” for room. McConahey won many awards for his service including the Silver Star, Bronze Star and the French Croix De Guerre.

Lucy Smith will speak about hiding to escape the Nazis in Poland during the war Thursday, May 4, at 7 p.m. in Memorial Union; check TITU for room. Other events also are planned.

Holocaust Remembrance Week is co-sponsored by Jewish Coalition, Hillel, the Anonymous Committee, the Wisconsin Union Directorate, St. Paul’s University Catholic Center, Associated Students of Madison, and the Madison Jewish Community Council.