Holocaust survivors discuss their lives, values

In Germany they first came for the Communists

I didn’t speak up then because I wasn’t a Communist

Then they came for the Jews

I didn’t speak up then because I wasn’t a Jew

Then they came for the Trade Unionist

I didn’t speak up then because I wasn’t a Trade Unionist

Then they came for me

By that time there was no one left to speak.

Pastor Martin Niemolier, survivor of Dachau

Although Erich Callmann, Jack Alder and Eric Cahn were too young at the time of the Holocaust to speak up, they do now.

Callmann, Alder and Cahn made up the Holocaust Survivors’ Panel, part of Holocaust Awareness Week, Wednesday at the Main Ballroom of the Lory Student Center.

About 200 students and community members attended the panel. Kyle McGilvray, a sophomore open option major, was one of the attendees.

“(The panel) gave (the Holocaust) a more human face, not just facts you read about in a book,” McGilvray said.

Each panel member shared their story of survival and discussed current events, but all focused on the idea of hatred in the world and how each person can make a difference.

“I feel you represent the future of the great nation we live in,” Adler said. “You should know first hand what uncontrolled hatred can do.”

Cahn agreed and discussed how a small group of people can also do unforgivable evil.

“If you get nothing else out of this it’s important to remember that one very evil man, Adolph Hitler and six others, a very small group of individuals, caused the Holocaust that killed 11 million people,” Cahn said.