“The Stories That Live Fellowship” came together in the Owl’s Nest Tuesday night to present a Holocaust Survivor lecture event.
The program, which was launched in 2015, connects college students with local survivors in order to create good relationships and inspire understanding. The students are provided with preparation, financing and training. They then design retelling projects in a variety of different medias to keep the survivors story alive for future generations.
Senior early childhood education major, Rachael Kolmins, is the president of Chabad, a jewish club here on campus and coordinator for The Stories That Live. Chabad is an organization for Jewish people, promising to help and guide Jewish students. Through Chabad, The Stories That Live was conceived.
“Our goal is to essentially reach as many Holocaust survivors as we can in this area,” Kolmins said.
The program encourages Holocaust survivors to speak at schools, allowing a wide understudy of students to meet survivors and hear their personal experiences of the Holocaust and the lasting impacts of antisemitism. The Stories That Live impressed and motivated in excess of 1,000 understudies throughout the Philadelphia area.
“We wanted to be the ones that retell their story and be a voice for them,” Kolmins said.
She then shared her own experience with the fellowship.
“I, personally, went to Poland a year ago, and that was the first time I went to concentration camps and this really inspired me to look more into it and to really get to know a survivor, so this experience has been very rewarding. This is our time to be a voice,” Kolmins said.
Sophomore history and education major, Jason Lee, comes to events like these with his historical methods course as a part of the center of genocide and holocaust studies. As a student that loves history, Lee claims the topic is emotional for him to learn about, but intriguing to study. He hopes that this center at Rowan can grow and further expand its events.
“It’s really important to student history and to study our past, especially the Holocaust and genocide because it’s a major topic that should continue to be discussed for generations,” Lee said.
The Stories That Live endeavors to have the presentations be technology based so that people can see them forever. Everything is online at www.storiesthatlive.org, where students can apply to join the movement. It is somewhat selective, and students who wish to apply are required to go through an interview process, but new members are encouraged to join the project and become a voice in keeping the memory of the survivors alive.
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