The Independent Student Newspaper of Northern Kentucky University.

The Northerner

The Independent Student Newspaper of Northern Kentucky University.

The Northerner

The Independent Student Newspaper of Northern Kentucky University.

The Northerner

Holocaust exhibit ‘very powerful’

The walls of the Fine Arts Gallery were lined with more than just art during the month of November. Mounted throughout the gallery were 15 accounts of local Holocaust survivors, told through personal photographs that shared the story of a family and the effects genocide had on the childhood of present-day survivors.

Director of First Year Programs Vicki Stieha had the initial idea to bring this exhibit to NKU but claims the event would have never taken place without the help of many people at NKU.

Stieha explained that as the committee read “Kindred” they noted “the author’s references to the similarities between man’s inhumanity to man in both horrendous periods. Slave labor in the Nazi labor camps and that in our own history are eerily similar,” she said.

Suzanne DeLuca, History of First Year Programs, offered insight with a view of what struck her as a powerful aspect of the exhibit: the fact that these present-day survivors were only children at the time of this great tragedy. “‘Her Story Must be Told’ is very powerful because it shows that these people were only children at the time and how that affected their childhood,” Deluca said. “It shows the strength it took to survive and flourish after the Holocaust had ended.”

Nancy Kersell from the Holocaust Resource Center said she hopes the exhibit “will show our university’s commitment to confronting racism, indifference and prejudice. Hopefully it will increase awareness among our students that the best way to eradicate intolerance is through increasing our knowledge about other cultures and embracing them.”