Santa Rosa Press Democrat, CA
Jan 10 2009

Honoring those who lived

SSU’s artist sculpture recalls past, present inhumanity, warns it can
happen again

By BOB NORBERG
THE PRESS DEMOCRAT

"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 dean 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 American Indians 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," Leeder
said. "It is what we talk about. 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," Salm said. "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."

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

The memorial, which will cost about $100,000, consists of 45 feet of
railroad track that will merge at a 12-foot-tall, illuminated glass
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 . . . 12 feet tall and 10 feet wide," Nunn
said. "I felt like it needed to be a big statement. Because it is a
multigenocide 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 participate in having a lasting memorial."

The memorial dedication is scheduled for March 29.

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