From Individual to Collectve Memory

Elliot Asarch, Kennan Cronen, and Chris Eldredge

Rena Drexler

How preserve memory of Holocaust? Chris

Rena’s experiences before and during the war

Kennan Keeping the memory alive: How Rena remembers the

Holocaust afer the war

Elliot Collectve memory of the genocide

Polish neighborhood Was ant-Semitsm in small towns But Rena “did not experience a lot” Had to wear a star Forced into Gheto for several months Arrived in Auschwitz in 1941

14 years old Separated from family upon arrival

All but one sister died

Auschwitz-Birkenau Age 14 to 19 Sorted possessions of

incoming Jews Money, jewelry

Barracks Dirty water

Thyroid problems later

Barracks at Auschwitz-Birkenau, circa 1945

Survived by being a hard worker One of fastest Nazis could fnd

Took clothes, bread Traded with other prisoners

Snuck showers Rubbed blood on cheeks

Before SS ofcers came by for selecton Faith and hope

“Maybe tomorrow will be a beter day.” “Every day you were so scared. Would I survive tomorrow?”

Weighed 95 lbs. Russians invaded May 8, 1945 Revisited old neighborhood afer war

Drexler at camp afer liberaton, circa 1945

Life Afer the Holocaust

May 8, 1945 Liberaton

No assistance or care Return to Poland Travel to Munich,

Germany Finding a brother and

a husbandPrisoners liberated at Dachau

•Return to Auschwitz•Stayed quiet for years because Rena didn’t want her children to “grow up feeling sorry” for her. •52057•“I was tired of waking up and feeling like a prisoner again”•Will only discuss her personal memories of the Holocaust for Three Months out of every year.

Memories of the Holocaust

Never Forget•Now Rena makes a habit of traveling as extensively as possible in order to speak and spread the memory and the first-hand facts.•Rena will go anywhere, anytime - speak to any group - to keep the Holocaust from becoming just another footnote in the history books for future generations.

•Articles•Schools•Churches•programs such as this one•Swimming in Auschwitz

The American DreamThree years afer arrival, in 1954, Rena and her husband opened up a successful kosher delicatessen.

Has managed to provide her children with an education. One child has attended John Hopkins University and another one graduated from UCLA and successfully practicing law

“Because I have been to hell and back, more than ever I appreciate the freedom and greatness of the United States”

– Daily News in 1993

A term coined by Maurice Halbwachs Collectve Memory is the aggregate of many individual

memories These memories are passed from generaton to

generaton Includes:

What a society teaches their children What a society chooses to memorialize in museums

-Survivors telling their individual memories to younger generatons as in Bearing Witness

-Memoirs such as Elie Wiesel’s Night -Poetry writen and Diaries kept throughout the

War -The Shoah Educaton Project -Museums or Memorials such as Yad Vashem

Steven Spielberg founded the Shoah Foundaton in 1994 to record video testmonies of survivors and frst-hand witnesses of the Holocaust

The individual memories of thousands of witnesses has been recorded and added to our aggregate memory

The Shoah Foundaton has created lesson plans incorporatng these testmonies to further teach the new generaton about the Holocaust

A screenshot taken from the USC Shoah Foundaton website

-A major part of the collectve memory of a group of people is the memorials they construct to remember the past

-Unites States Holocaust Memorial Museum (USHMM)

-Remember the Children: Daniel’s Story -An exhibiton at the USHMM that tells the

story of Daniel, a fcttous child based on the collecton of the individual stories

-This exhibiton symbolizes the collectve memory of the children who died in the HolocaustRailcar on display in the permanent

exhibition of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington D.C.

"Bearing Witness." Personal interview. 24 Feb. 2008. "DELI OWNER RECALLS HOLOCAUST BECAUSE SHE MUST." Daily News of Los Angeles (CA) 16 Mar. 1993,

Valley, News: N3. NewsBank. Web. 28 Feb. 2010. "KEEPING MEMORY ALIVE - AUSCHWITZ SURVIVOR WON'T FORGET HORRORS." Daily News of Los

Angeles (CA) 28 Jan. 2005, Valley rop, News: N3. NewsBank. Web. 28 Feb. 2010. Mashian, Natalie. "Rena's Story." Bearing Witness. Hillel at UCLA. Web. 28 Feb. 2010. <htp:

//webearwitness.org/the-stories/ucla-2007_2008/renas-story/>. SHARON MOESER. "Celebratng Life; 3 Holocaust Survivors Reunite and Remember :Valley Editon. " Los

Angeles Times 30 Dec. 1996,Los Angeles Times, ProQuest. Web. 28 Feb. 2010. Halbwachs, Maurice. On collectve Memory. The University of Chicago Free Press. 1992 Global Directory of Holocaust Museums htp://www.science.co.il/holocaust-museums.asp Archives and Recordkeeping glossary htp://john.curtn.edu.au/society/glossary/index.html The Uses of Memory: An Introducton David Paul Nord . The Journal of American History, Vol. 85, No. 2

(Sep., 1998), pp. 409-410 Published by: Organizaton of American Historians Stable URL: htp://www.jstor.org/stable/2567745

From Individual Memory to Collectve Memory

Elliot Asarch, Kennan Cronen, and Chris Eldredge

Rena Drexler