Monday, January 29, 2007 marked the 62nd anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz – the Nazi’s most notorious death camp during World War II.

 

The day also marked the second International Day of Commemoration in memory of the victims of the Holocaust. Sponsored by the United Nations’ (UN) Department of Public Information, the day’s theme was the “Focus on Youth and the Lessons of the Holocaust.”

 

Among the distinguished speakers was College of Saint Elizabeth (CSE), 2 Convent Road, Morristown, NJ, Women’s College student Marie Mirlande Noël, ‘07, of Pleasantville, NJ. Ms. Noël spoke to the international community about her travels to Poland in May 2006 on the March of Remembrance and Hope program: an educational leadership program designed to teach students of different religious and ethnic backgrounds about the dangers of intolerance through the study of the Holocaust and to promote better relations among people of diverse cultures. She spoke about the concentration camps that she, and her fellow peers visited, and how she is taking up the cause of Holocaust remembrance.

 

“Yes, I went to Poland. I am a witness because I visited, I saw, I smelled, I touched and I felt,” she said. “I visited Lodz, Krakow, and Warsaw; I went to the Jewish ghettos and their synagogues where they celebrated love, community, friendship and new births. I visited the cemetery where they used to say farewell to their loved ones. I also visited the stations where the trains used to take them away from their homes, the life they always cherished and knew; taken to the places of no return – all because of the dangerous hatred that can grow in the human heart.”

 

Yet, even with the lessons learned about the Holocaust, says Ms. Noël, genocide still continues today in such places as Darfur.

“We owe it to the victims, both those who perished and those who survived, to not remain silent and to fight for justice for all,” said Ms. Noël. “We must work together to insure the well being of every man, woman and child…Let us all come together and become what God intended, Humans with a sense of being.”

 

Long Island Lodge President Asher J. Matathias attended the UN’s annual observance. He was impressed with Ms. Noël’s introspective presentation. “[Ms. Noël moved] the attendees with her passionate, bilingual, report of her 2006 March of Remembrance and Hope to the camps of hell in Eastern Europe,” he notes. “She walked the walk of inmates; touched the ovens that turned victims’ bodies to ashes; and found amazing grace in contemplating, accepting, respecting, and even celebrating differences among people. So much wisdom coming forth from the mouth of one so young.”

 

Also attending this year’s commemoration was CSE Biology student and former Lipper Intern, Ninochka Jean-Pierre, ’07, of Orange, NJ. Ms. Jean-Pierre was moved to tears at her friend’s speech, saying, “I’ve heard so many survivor testimonies while being a Lipper Intern at the New York’s Museum of Jewish Heritage – A Living Memorial to the Holocaust, and through the College of Saint Elizabeth’s Annual Week of Holocaust Remembrance program. Marie’s speech rolls all of them into one, and it simply touched my heart.”

 

A Theology and Sociology student with a concentration in Social Work, Ms. Noël came to the United States from Haiti in 1997. She first learned about the Holocaust in her World War II history class at Pleasantville High School. She later traveled with the CSE Campus Ministry group during her freshman year, where they visited the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. It was there that she became interested in learning more about the Holocaust.

 

On November 1, 2005, the UN General Assembly adopted resolution 60/7 designating January 27 as an annual International Day of Commemoration in memory of the victims of the Holocaust.

 

Click here to read Ms. Noël’s speech.

Click here to watch U.N. speech.

Click here to watch WMBC-TV’s video.