Illinois Wesleyan University recently held its first Holocaust Remembrance Week and featured cultural events in memory of the historic tragedy. Sonja Fritzsche, assistant professor of German and Eastern European Studies, organized the event and said that the week was recognized as Holocaust Remembrance Week because it worked well with guest artist/lecturers Akiva Segan's presentation and the Jewish holiday of Passover beginning at sundown on Wednesday, April 12. Additionally, “it's tied together to the International Studies theme of individuals making a difference,” Dr. Fritzsche said. The first event of the week was the screening of “Naked Among Wolves,” which was shown on Sunday, April 9 in Beckman Auditorium. This movie was part of the international film series. Fritzsche chose the film because it took place in a concentration camp and it was the first German movie to focus on the horrific conditions inside concentration camps during World War II.
An artist hailing from Seattle, Washington, Segan was chosen to display his art exhibit and host a guest lecture because, “he's making a difference. I want to encourage other students that no matter how small, they too can make a difference,” Fritzsche said.
His art exhibit, 12 selections from his Holocaust series, “Under the Wings of G-D,” and his art series on contemporary victims of hate, war and genocide “Sight Seeing with Dignity,” are featured on the first floor of the Ames Library from April 10 through May 26.
His first series, started in 1991, depicts Jewish and non-Jewish Holocaust victims, persons of anti-Nazi resistance and other individuals who helped save Jews at that time.
Segan's first artistic response to the Holocaust was in graduate school. He traveled to Poland in 1985, visiting Auschwitz and other death camps. “Poland so impacted me,” he said. Changing his thinking and direction in his artwork, Segan began a drawing within months of his visit.
The massacre of 1.7 million people in the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia sparked an artistic response for his second series of “Sightseeing with Dignity.” Speaking about more contemporary issues like Vietnam and the Iraqi war, Segan said, “I don't believe one can teach the Holocaust in schools without relating it to contemporary events and issues. Schools are too politically sensitive”.
Segan's art exhibit is the first to be displayed in the Ames Library. The artist also spoke to classes of Soviet history, Yiddish Culture and German on Monday through Wednesday.
On Tuesday, April 11 in Beckman Auditorium, Segan also hosted a guest lecture, “Background and Influences to the Under the Wings of G-D Holocaust Art and Sight Seeing with Dignity Art Series.” The lecture was followed by a public reception.
Segan showed pictures of his surviving and deceased family members and of the Holocaust, propaganda portraying ugly stereotypes of Jews used by Hitler for identifying them, photos of Jewish people in ghettos and concentration camps, and selections from his art pieces influenced by the photos.
An attendee of the lecture, Michelle Bourgeois was interested by the specific choice of the use of wings in many of his art selections. “I found the images [of ghettos and concentration camps] to be upsetting, but at the same time, his artwork almost provided comfort with his addition of wings behind each person. To me, the wings connote comfort and security amidst the pain because through his portraits, they could almost fly away from their oppression,” Bourgeois said. Segan's visit was sponsored by International Studies, Russian and Eastern European Studies Team, German Studies, IWU Hillel and the IWU Student Senate.
The article included a photo [Dan Wood, photographer]
of the wings drawing “Two Standing Children”