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MARQUETTE -- With Holocaust Remembrance Day fast approaching, people worldwide commemorate the lives of millions who were murdered by German Nazis under the dictatorship of Adolf Hitler during World War II.
Locally, the Marquette Interfaith Forum and Temple Beth Sholom will present a Holocaust Memorial Service at 7 p.m. Tuesday at St. Paul's Episcopal Church, located at 201 E. Ridge St. in Marquette. The annual event will feature guest speaker and Holocaust survivor Martin Lowenberg and is open to the public, free of charge.
Lowenberg will be presenting three other times in Marquette County during his visit to the Upper Peninsula. He will be speaking to an assembly of Gwinn High School and middle school students on Monday; a Northern Michigan University history class Tuesday afternoon; and the Marquette West Rotary Club on Wednesday.
Aaron Scholnik, a Temple Beth Sholom board member, MIF coordinator and member of the Marquette Male Chorus, will be singing as part of the service Tuesday evening. Scholnik said Holocaust service memorials generally have relevant music presented by chorus groups, the opportunity to participate in prayer, readings by multiple and diverse religious and faith groups in the area, and a talk by somebody knowledgable about the Holocaust, whether it be survivors or adult children of survivors who have passed on.
"What we've tried to do is utilize the rare resource of someone who can give the firsthand account of what happened during the Holocaust and not only participate in a memorial service but also to participate in community education," Scholnik said. "We also try to work in conjunction with people that teach history, especially European history, and history of the Holocaust at NMU."
Scholnik said the service and assemblies allow people to see guest speakers on a human level, "rather than just someone at a podium," because they get to hear their personal experiences and sometimes get the chance to speak to them directly or ask questions.
Lowenberg, who was born in Germany in 1928, encountered Nazi anti-Semitism at the age of 5. Even though his family fled the country, they were all eventually captured by the Nazis. Lowenberg survived as a slave laborer in the concentration camps, but the rest of his family was exterminated.
After the war, Lowenberg came to the United States and settled in the Detroit area. For work he provided linens and other dry-goods supplies to hospitals and hotels throughout Michigan. He visited the U.P. annually on business, and later made local visits to talk about the Holocaust. Lowenberg is a member of the Speakers Bureau of the Holocaust Memorial Center in southeast Michigan and has spoken at various schools and communities throughout the Midwest.
Even though the Holocaust might be considered "dry history" by today's students, Scholnik stressed the importance of learning about the genocide of over 6 million Jews because the issue of genocide, dehumanization and corruption still persists throughout the world.
"We can learn something from how these things developed," he said. "What we try to stress is that the Holocaust … is the best documented genocide in history. Genocide has happened before and it unfortunately continues to happen and that's why it's important that we try to learn from the Holocaust so that maybe we can help prevent them from happening."
A social reception with dessert will be held at Temple Beth Sholom following the memorial service. Scholnik said the social hours generally last about an hour and a half and give people an opportunity to talk one-on-one with the speaker.
Jaymie Depew can be reached at 906-228-2500, ext. 206. Her email address is jdepew@miningjournal.net.