2008 Woodie Awards
"Hatred is Always Wrong"
Holocaust survivor Maria Clark shares her experiences with Rollins' Communication Ethics Students.
Brian Hernandez
Issue date: 4/8/05 Section: News
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Clark's lecture was held in the Crummer Sun Trust Auditorium on Wednesday, March 30, to coincide with students course material that relate to death and violence.
After a brief introduction by Dr. Newman, who thanked his guest for honoring two decades of his classes with her eloquence, Clark stood up amidst authentic regalia of the Nazi regime, and began to recount a personal journey that began with opulence and the promise of youth, but met with devastating hardship along the way.
Born to a wealthy family in Vienna, Austria, Clark explained that although she spoke five languages and possessed the equivalent of a current high school education by her twelfth birthday, she knew very little about the inhumanity that existed beyond the doors of her childhood home.
It wasn't until she found herself a prisoner in one of the Nazi's many concentration camps that Clark's maturation culminated at the pointed end of a hatred-empowered bayonet. "People on the street would spit in our faces, but we couldn't wipe it off," shared Clark. "We could only just stand there."
Her eight-month fight to stay alive in the camps came as a result of the Nazi's intent to acquire her family's fortune, which Clark explained was a common routine for looting the aristocracy of a conquered nation. Upon hearing news that she was being "reeducated" in Berlin, Clark's family signed over all of their possessions to the Reich and agreed to emigrate to Germany in order to free her.
Clark's vivid descriptions of her abduction, incarceration, and exposure to brutality, resonated amongst the intimate gathering of students, but her explanation of the physical hardships in the camps struck a chord in the consciousness of the audience. "You don't know what hunger really is," Clark stated. "Hunger invades your entire being and forces you into situations you cannot have imagined."
The candor Clark shared in the lecture not only served to bring the course material to life in a sweeping torrent of emotion-laden imagery, her passionate ability to entrench the audience within her journey brought many to tears and consistently filled the room with a reverent stillness.
For many of those in attendance, Clark's portrayal of her experiences after incarceration also served as a revealing look into the stoic determination of a woman intent on living. From enduring the torture of allied bombardments of Berlin and the Gestapo's deathgrip on the populace, to suffering the indignity of sexual assault at the hands of Russian invaders and the loss of a husband and child, Clark provided an unflinching glimpse into many life altering segments of her past.
Clark's background in education was evident throughout, as she peppered the staccato of imagery with meaningful insights, concisely structured to inspire the audience to frame the messages within the context of their own lives. "Each of us has the duty to inspire others to be tolerant," shared Clark. "The opposite of love is not hatred--it is indifference."
Hamilton Holt Senior Melissa Andrews was profoundly moved by Clark's statement and the significance it beckoned. "It saddened me to realize how we as a society have become indifferent to the injustices we encounter on a daily basis," said Andrews. "Not only should we fight for ourselves but also for those around us. Collectively we are stronger."
Espousing the strength found in carrying oneself with dignity and hope, Clark ended her talk by sharing her rewarding experiences while serving as an interpreter for the American Army, assisting with the liberation of concentration camps, and eventually being reunited with the former husband and child she thought she had lost over 60 years ago.
"It is amazing to me how strong her will to survive was during the Holocaust," shared Holt Senior Catharine Schram. "I'm not sure if confronted with the same situation I would have been able to survive. Her human strength is an inspiration to me."
Although Clark's journeys have taken her back to Germany on many occasions, she now calls central Florida her home. Fortunately for Rollins and the many students who have had the privilege of participating in the lectures, Clark and Dr. Newman have maintained a lasting friendship which should ensure her return in the future. For those unable to attend, however, Dr. Newman has advised that they are working on a collaborative book that will provide an introspective view of Clark's experiences, as well as highlight her significant contributions toward expanding the scope of Holocaust awareness.
To expand on the reasoning behind the need for continued Holocaust education, Dr. Newman explained that to forget is to allow the injustices to prevail.
"One of the seriously unanswered questions about the Holocaust is this: How could a nation that gave us (the world) such brilliant medicine, contributed so much to the science, literature and great music become almost overnight a killing machine?
How did the great physicians of Germany become killers so rapidly? How could it be that the SS would gas as many as 10,000 prisoners per day in each of the death camps and then at the end of that day return to their wives and children at home, have dinner and go about their family life as if they had just returned from an ordinary day at the office? Why did the world remain silent for so long? Maria Clark told me that she will never forget the faces of the children whose lives ended when they were turned into wreaths of smoke beneath a silent blue sky. She shares those thoughts with survivor, Elie Wiesel.
When we bring Professor Clark to the classroom she does not answer these questions. She cannot. No one can. What she does do is to make us confront the moral questions and her presence and that of other survivors recall those questions in the hope that when all of the survivors are gone, the world will still remember and confront those moral questions.
The very survival of the human race may well depend on our never forgetting to continue to pose those questions. A society can only stand so much erosion of its moral principles before it collapses," stated Dr. Newman.
Professor Clark has taught and lectured at Stanford University, Northwestern University, N.Y.U. and Columbia as well as major universities throughout Europe.