Professor Judith Rood, a Jewish Christian presented pictures of her grandparents and great grandparents that experienced the Holocaust during Thursday night’s session of Holocaust Awareness Week. The week, beginning April 7 and continuing to April 11, was the creation of Rood and about 10 of her students in the Jewish/Muslim/Christian relations class.

“We want to reach out to the Jewish and Muslim community,” senior and political science major Kelly Adams said. “We want to empathize with the Jewish point of view.”

Professor Rood shares personal Holocaust stories

Thursday night’s session brought a personal feel to history as Biola professor Rood revealed some intimate facts about a part of her family that endured the Holocaust during World War II.

“My great grandfather worked in Germany all his life, yet it wasn’t enough to save his life,” Rood said.

Rood explained some of her family’s history as she showed on maps where her great grandparents spent their last months. As she went through her family’s timeline and explained how the Holocaust affected each of them, she pointed out that they all led normal lives before the tragedy.

“Their powerful memories began to transform my dreams,” Rood said.

Students thankful for opportunity to remember

“Years have gone by since I’ve absorbed the effects of the Holocaust. It’s good to reabsorb the realities of it,” said senior political science major Joelle Hasty.

Although she did not make Monday’s Holocaust remembrance chapel, Hasty was present at all other events for the awareness week.

Friday features film screening and fast

Friday’s event presented another angle and a different feel.

“It’s both an academic and spiritual fast for the ‘Shoah’ film,” Adams said in anticipation for Friday’s “Shoah” film, showing and 10-hour fast. “Shoah” is a documentary that speaks about the events that went on during the Holocaust. Each attendee fasted for the duration of the film which lasted 10 hours. However, some students involved in putting the weekend together committed to fasting the whole week, willing to give up something dear to them for seven days in preparation for the film showing.

“My friend and I fasted for the week from things we could do without,” Hasty said. The activities for the “Shoah” film, fast and session of repentance and confession was scheduled to last from 9 p.m. Friday night until early the next morning.

Remembrance chapel concludes awareness week

The last event for the awareness weekend occurred on Monday where students and faculty were invited to a Holocaust remembrance chapel in Crowell Auditorium at 7:30 p.m. Students had the opportunity to read from primary sources and documents from the Holocaust. Attendees reflected on these commentaries of people who lived through it.

After the event, everyone participated in prayer and reflection. Students, faculty and members of the La Mirada community came to share, reflect and pray.

“The event was put on to promote awareness to avoid making the same mistakes again,” Hasty said.