Courtney Smolen, Administrative Assistant for the Office of Communication and Marketing at the College of Saint Elizabeth (CSE), 2 Convent Road, Morristown, NJ spoke to CSE Women’s College student Marie Noël, ’07 of Pleasantville, NJ – a Theology and Sociology student with a concentration in Social Work.

 

 

 

 

Ms. Smolen spoke to Ms. Noël about her speaking at the United Nations (UN). She will be speaking to the General Assembly at the UN’s second International Day of Commemoration of the Victims of the Holocaust, on Monday, January 29, 2007. Sponsored by the UN’s Department of Public Information, the ceremony will be webcast live from 10:30 a.m. to noon at: www.un.org/webcast/. 

 

In addition Ms. Smolen spoke to Ms. Noël about:
• Her cultural background
• Her experience on the 2006 March of Remembrance and Hope trip to Poland
• Her volunteer experience

 

What country are you originally from?
Originally I am from Haiti; I lived in Tibet, which is a little province about 30 minutes outside of Port-au-Prince (Haiti’s capital). My family and I speak Creole, however I was taught French, as it is the educated language of our region.

 

What was it like growing up in Haiti?
Growing up in Haiti was wonderful. We had our own land and we planted our own crops. Whenever I was hungry, I would simply go outside and pick from our mango tree and feed myself (laughs). However, in my part of Haiti, we did not have much water, so we were limited in what we could grow. We grew sugar cane, tomatoes, potatoes - anything that didn’t require a lot of water.

 

We were fine for awhile, but the drought got so bad that it came to a point where we couldn’t plant anything. There were nights when we would have to go to sleep hungry and that was okay because everyone else was doing the same thing. We would pray for rain sometimes. Anytime the sky would turn dark, we would start planting. Sometimes it would rain, and sometimes it wouldn’t. So, whatever we would plant would go to waste.

 

When did you arrive to the United States?
I came to the United States in 1997 with my older sister and younger brother. My dad was working in America for a while, helping to support us back home. My dad felt that my sister, brother and I would have a much better opportunity living in the United States.

 

Did you ever learn about the Holocaust while you were living in Haiti?
Never; I was mainly taught about our country’s history and not much else. The first time I heard about the Holocaust, was in my World War II history class in the United States.  It is one of the reasons I have become so interested in learning more about the Holocaust – so that I can share what I have learned with my family back home.

 

What made you interested in participating in this year’s March of Remembrance and Hope program?
During my first year at CSE, I went with the College’s Campus Ministry group to Washington, D.C. There, we visited the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. I was so overwhelmed by what I had seen – the photos, the shoes, the videos. I became lost in my thoughts. I had so many questions. I wanted to learn more.
 

During your trip to Poland, was there one place in particular that affected you the most?
The one place that had the most effect on me was Treblinka, a camp hidden in the remote forests of northeastern Poland.  What struck me most about Treblinka is that it is completely different from any other concentration camp which we had visited. At Majdanek and Auschwitz, you’d see the wire, the little beds, the shoes, and the glasses; in Treblinka, you’d see nothing but stones, as a sober reminder of those who were executed. Even our tour guide, Chaim from Israel, said the world would have never known about Treblinka, had it not been for those who were able to escape.

 

When we first arrived, Chaim wanted us to be silent, because we were entering a sacred place. At first, there was nothing to see. Yet, when I entered the sacred place, I had this chill come over me.

 

For those who died in such places as Majdanek and Auschwitz, there is a place where you can go and learn about those who had died there; they know who you were, they know your name. There is some type of memory about them there for you to see like their shoes, or their glasses. For them, their memory lives on. But to be killed in Treblinka, there is absolutely nothing about those who were killed to go on, not even their names. People can’t even put flowers down for them, because they don’t know who they are; they don’t have a name, they don’t have an identity. They truly are the forgotten people.

 

Did your relationship with your peers change throughout this trip?
We have become family. I honestly believe we would not have survived the experience, if it wasn’t for the presence of one another. We had people of all different ethnic and religious beliefs traveling with us, including Holocaust survivor, Pinchas Gutter of Toronto, Canada. We knew we had to lean on each other for support. We cried with each other, we laughed with each other, we ate with each other. It got to a point on the trip where there were no students or professors - we were all at the same level.

 

Does Pinchas have memories of the Holocaust?
Pinchas overwhelmed me; he is such an amazing person. When we visited Majdanek, Pinchas had reminisced about his sister, that he could no longer remember her face; the only thing he can remember about her is her long, blonde hair. As he reminisced about his mother and sister, he fell silent for a long while. Such sadness.

 

 

 

 

Can you compare a genocide situation, like the Holocaust, with such places as Darfur?
After the Holocaust happened, so many people said “Never Again,” yet, what happened in Rwanda, where was everybody? It happened, and it is happening again in Darfur. So my mission is to teach people the meaning of “Never Again.”

 

Are you involved in any public service/volunteer work?
Since my freshman year at CSE, I have been involved in a number of social service organizations – both on-campus and off. I have been a member of the Campus Ministry, the Students Take Action Committee (STAC), and the Education Opportunity Fund program for four years. In addition, I have also volunteered for the Association for Retarded Citizens (ARC) of Morris County.

 

How does it feel to be speaking at the United Nations?
It is an honor.  Certain honors you don’t take for yourself, you take them on behalf of other people who helped get you there. It is an opportunity for me to share with the world the stories of those survivors and the victims of the Holocaust. Surely, this is for them, and their honor.

 

How has CSE helped shape the way you see the world and yourself in it?
CSE has played a tremendous role in my life. I am envisioning my future and I can say for that everything that I will become, I am grateful to CSE. At CSE, I got in touch with the most important thing - myself. Here, you don’t have to be anyone else but yourself. CSE has opened a lot of opportunities for me with the help and support of my advisors and friends. They have encouraged me to become something more.

 

I see myself as a Social Worker and as a college professor of Theology. Currently, I’m looking at graduate schools that offer either Sociology and Theology or Sociology and Ministry combined. To me, the most important goal is to make the world a better place through education and teaching others.

 

Do you want to teach in the States or in Haiti?
I do hope to teach in the United States for a while; however, my goal is to go back to Haiti and to do something worthwhile for my country.

 

Click here, to watch a video excerpt of an interview with Ms. Noël.

Click here, for more information about this year’s March of Remembrance and Hope.

Click here, to view the 2006 March of Remembrance and Hope trip photo album.

Click here, to find out more about the College’s Holocaust Education Resource Center.