MEMORIAL UNDERWAY TO REMEMBER VICTIMS OF GENOCIDE
By Bob Norberg
Santa Rosa Press Democrat
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.