An informational session for “Bearing Witness,” a program in which Holocaust survivors tell their stories to students in an intimate setting over a series of four lunches during winter quarter, will be held today.
Bearing Witness was started by UCLA students in association with Hillel at UCLA and Jewish Family Service of Los Angeles. It is funded by donations from the Donald A. Strauss Foundation and DOROT, a Jewish organization based in New York. The program is in its second year of existence.
According to the program’s Web site, “the goal of Bearing Witness is to empower students with personal stories of Holocaust survivors so that the memories and lessons of Hitler’s war against the Jews may be passed down to every generation.”
Students meet in small groups with a survivor for four lunches during one month. The survivors share with the students their experiences from World War II, as well as from before and after the Holocaust.
The students record the survivor’s story and their own reactions on a public Web site. This year, the goal is to document the stories using video in order to further exposure, said Anna Konstorum, a graduate student in the department of physiological sciences, and co-director of the program. “Documentation is important. Who knows if these stories will be told again,” she added.
Last year 10 seniors and approximately 20 students participated in the program.
The seniors were contacted through Jewish Family Service, which organizes Café Europa, a Holocaust survivor’s support group. Konstorum said it was an achievement to convince the seniors that their stories would be safe and respected within the program.
Konstorum said it is now more important than ever to expose people to stories of survivors as the number of survivors decreases and Holocaust denial becomes a more accepted movement. She said she hopes exposing young people to the reality will ensure that the tragedy will not happen again.
“By focusing on one-on-one interactions, both students and survivors are able to make connections that reach beyond the history of what they record into a future of friendship and understanding,” said Konstorum on the organization’s Web site.
The program seems to have been successful in this regard. One of the students who participated in the program last year wrote on the Web site his experience with the senior with whom he was paired.
“I personally have grown to consider John a mentor of my own where I can ask him for advice in regards to any issue I have. I hope to keep in touch with John even after this course ends.”
Konstorum, who participated as a student in the program last year, said, “The experience was one of the most amazing of my life.”
The program is nondenominational and open to all interested students. Last year’s stories can be viewed at www.webearwitness.org.