Awareness Week recalls, educates about different genocides
Professor Paul Von Blum spoke on a panel discussing perspectives on genocides on Monday. Von Blum is the son of a Holocaust survivor.
Hear more about Von Blum’s personal experiences above.
By Naheed Rajwani
April 25, 2012 1:13 a.m.
Sacks of skulls damaged by machetes lined the red-bricked wall of a church.
With one click, the image on the projector changed.
Now, bones, shoes and clothes lay scattered on the ground.
Taken in 2006 in war-ravaged Rwanda, these photographs were among several others displayed at a panel Monday evening, the first in a series of events being held as part of Genocide Awareness Week at UCLA.
The events are sponsored by the Armenian Students Association, Amnesty International and several Jewish organizations on campus as well as the Cultural Affairs Commission.
Most Armenians commemorate April 24 as the first day of the Armenian Genocide, said Razmig Sarkissian, a third-year English student and president of the Armenian Students’ Association.
“We wanted to diversify and reach a broader audience (this year) ““ not just teach the Armenian community what they already know as the Armenian Genocide, but to teach them about genocide in general,” he said.
The United States has recognized that large numbers of Armenians were killed between 1915 and 1923 in Turkey, using in recent years the term “Medz Yeghern,” meaning “Great Calamity” or “Great Crime,” but has not formally termed the events as genocide, said Richard Hovannisian, professor emeritus of Near East history who specializes in Armenian history.
The International Association of Genocide Scholars does classify the killings of Armenians at the time as a genocide.
“The survivor generation of the Armenian Genocide did not have much of a voice; they were scattered around the world, trying to put their lives back together,” Hovannisian said.
But their grandchildren’s generation has found a voice because they have learned how to reach political institutions internationally to campaign for recognition of the Armenian genocide, he said.
The main focus of this year’s Genocide Awareness Week reaches beyond the Armenian genocide. Events will also focus on Rwanda, Cambodia, Armenia and Sudan’s Darfur region, as well as the Holocaust in Nazi Germany.
Paul Von Blum, a professor of communication studies and Afro-American studies, teaches a class on race, racism and law at UCLA. He is also the son of Holocaust survivor.
At Monday’s panel, he spoke about his personal connection to the study of genocides and African American studies.
In the 1970s, Von Blum visited Theresianstadt, a concentration camp located in present-day Czech Republic, for his research.
“I was full of extraordinary emotions when I visited (the camp),” Von Blum said in an interview.
“Unlike some of the other art research where I had (a) connection to the artist, this (visit) was far more deeply personal because I had a family connection to the location.”
His grandparents were incarcerated there before they were relocated to Auschwitz, a concentration and extermination camp established by the Nazi regime.
In 1944, his grandparents died in a gas chamber in Auschwitz. His father managed to escape from Berlin on a boat bound for Philadelphia.
In addition to sharing his personal experience, Von Blum hopes to educate his students about other instances of genocide, he said.
“Generally, the U.S. population and the UCLA population all know about the Nazi Holocaust, but a smaller percentage of people know about the Armenian Genocide or other genocides that took place after World War II,” Von Blum said. “It is important that we keep these memories alive.”
