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Memorial Underway To Remember Victims Of Genocide

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  • Memorial Underway To Remember Victims Of Genocide

    MEMORIAL UNDERWAY TO REMEMBER VICTIMS OF GENOCIDE
    By Bob Norberg

    Santa Rosa Press Democrat
    http://www.pressdemocrat.com/article/2009 0108/NEWS/901080297/1349?Title=SSU_memorial_will_r emember_victims_of_genocide
    Jan 8 2009
    CA

    A memorial to the survivors of the Holocaust and other genocides
    is being erected at Sonoma State University as a reminder of the
    inhumanity that has happened and a warning that it can take place
    again.

    "Any type of unjust treatment is completely reprehensible," said Jann
    Nunn, an SSU associate art professor who is creating the memorial.

    "This is a university campus, this is an obvious place to do this
    so people won't forget these things happened. It is only through an
    educational effort that we can do that."

    The idea for the public memorial grew out of SSU's Center for the
    Study of the Holocaust and Genocide and from a lecture series several
    years ago that featured genocide survivors.

    "We decided we needed a more lasting memorial and we need to educate
    students about present-day genocide," said Elaine Leeder, the chair
    of SSU's Social Sciences Department. "It is more relevant today."

    The memorial is not just a reminder of the Holocaust, however. It
    is also for the survivors of genocide in Armenia, Darfur, Rwanda and
    Cambodia and Native Americans in the United States.

    "What makes this one remarkable is it doesn't focus on a single
    genocide, but on the universality and the commonality with respect
    to genocide," said David Salm, a Santa Rosa businessman and a major
    contributor to the project. "It has brought numerous communities
    together, creating a coalition and an awareness that there has been
    suffering across the globe and we are all brothers in this."

    For Leeder and Salm, the memorial also has personal meaning.

    Leeder's father fled Lithuania before World War II and her mother
    fled Poland, where Leeder lost 100 relatives in the Holocaust.

    "The Holocaust has been part of my life since I was born, it is what
    we talk about," Leeder said. "Especially now, it has been over 60
    years and there is something in the Bible that says after 60 years
    you speak about the traumas in your life."

    Salm's parents fled Germany.

    "My family was enormously lucky, my parents, who were both born
    and raised in Germany, were able to leave under great duress, they
    arrived in this country as penniless refugees, but filled with enormous
    gratitude and hope," Salm said.

    The memorial is being erected in the Irna and Arthur Salm Grove,
    named after his parents.

    The memorial, which will cost about $100,000, consists of 45 feet or
    railroad track that will merge at a 12-foot glass, illuminated tower,
    with bricks engraved with the names of some genocide survivors inlaid
    around the tracks.

    To raise money for the memorial, the engraved bricks are being sold
    for $100 and $250, with 300 bricks sold so far.

    The tracks have been put in place, while the glass tower, made of
    5,000 individual pieces, is taking shape in Nunn's studio.

    "It's a big monument ... twelve feet tall and ten feet wide," Nunn
    said. "I felt like it needed to be a big statement. Because it is
    a multi-genocide monument, there are plenty of people who have been
    affected by it, just in Sonoma County. Our thoughts are there would
    be a lot of people interested in this project, and by purchasing a
    brick, that is a way to participating in having a lasting memorial."

    The memorial dedication is scheduled for March 29.
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