The Holocaust Memorial Observances of Greeley and Northern Colorado will host events next week including a memorial service, films and presentations from a survivor.
The annual Voices of the Holocaust event starts Sunday, April 6 and runs through Sunday, April 13 in Greeley and Eaton. All but two of the scheduled 11 events are free and open to the public.
Child survivor and author Janet Singer Applefield will come in from the East Coast to give three presentations during the week. Two presentations will be for designated groups.
The public presentation will start at 7 p.m. Wednesday, April 9 at Aims Community College’s Welcome Center in Greeley.
On Tuesday, Singer Applefield will address Eaton High School students and community members at Eaton High School. The next day, she will speak to Greeley eighth graders at Union Colony Civic Center in Greeley.
Singer Applefield, 89 and a resident of suburban Boston, last year published the book “Becoming Janet: Finding Myself in the Holocaust.” She was born Gustawa Singer in Poland in 1935.
Janet Singer Applefield, 89 and a resident of suburban Boston, was a child survivor of the Holocaust in Poland, where she was born in 1935. Four years later, Singer was separated from her parents. (Courtesy/Janet Singer Applefield)Laura Manuel, the Holocaust Memorial Observances of Greeley and Northern Colorado committee chair, said the reason for the events is to give people a sense of history and to “prevent hate from taking over the world again.”
Manuel and Johnson said the organization has always had a live speaker as part of the annual programming. The women called these guests “direct witnesses to history.”
The Holocaust Memorial Observances of Greeley and Northern Colorado has always had a “direct witness to history.” Last year, the speaker was Colorado resident Barbara Steinmetz. In 2023, New Jersey resident Fred Heyman, then 94, addressed a crowd at Aims Community College on hate speech.
Manuel said the organization is likely nearing the end of benefitting from live speakers with direct experience of the Holocaust. The child survivors, such as Singer Applefield, are aging into their 80s and 90s.
“It’s impactful to hear from someone who lived through it at the time, even if they were a child,” Johnson said.
There are two primary times of the year when Holocaust memorial observances are held, Johnson said.
One is in late January: International Holocaust Remembrance Day.
The Greeley and Northern Colorado observance is held this month during an Israeli commemoration called Yom HaShoah. This is literally translated as the “day of the burning,” Johnson said, and it’s a day of remembrance in Israel and worldwide.
Voices of the Holocaust schedule
All film screenings will be followed by discussion. Films may contain content not suitable for children.
Sunday, April 6
6 p.m., Interfaith Memorial Service at Beth Israel Congregation, 1625 Reservoir Road in Greeley. The service will remember those who lost their lives, those who survived and those who risked their lives to save others. The officiants will be Rabbi Sara Gilbert, the Rev. John Bliss, the Rev. Tamara Torres McGovern and the Rev. Matt Villareal.
Monday, April 7
6 p.m., Book discussion on Applefield’s book “Becoming Janet: Finding Myself in the Holocaust,” at Centennial Park Branch Library, 2227 23rd Ave. in Greeley. Manuel and Mary Billings will facilitate the discussion. Copies of the book will be given to the first 25 registrants. The books will be available at the Centennial Park Branch Library until the discussion.
Tuesday, April 8
7 p.m. Film screening: “Bonhoeffer: Pastor, Spy, Assassin” at Kress Cinema and Lounge, 817 8th Ave. in Greeley. Running time: 2 hours, 12 minutes.
Wednesday, April 9
7 p.m. Singer Applefield presentation at Aims Community College’s Welcome Center, 4901 W. 20th St. in Greeley. Singer Applefield’s talk will focus on her story with a lesson on the power of courage and resilience against bigotry and hate.
Thursday, April 10
11:30 a.m., Nazi Civil Religion during the Third Reich: Secular Religiosity and Violence in Hitler’s Germany by Aims history professor Michael Booker. The 90-minute presentation will look at the rise of the Nazi regime as a messianic civil rights movement, which offered German Aryans the promise of a new life in a transfigured world.
Noon, Holocaust 101 with University of Northern Colorado history professor Joan Clinefelter at LINC Library, 501 8th Ave. in Greeley. Clinefelter’s presentation is part of the city of Greeley’s History Hour series in collaboration with the Holocaust Memorial Observances of Greeley and Northern Colorado.
Clinefelter will give the same presentation from noon to 1 p.m. Thursday, April 24 in the Community Room of the Greeley History Museum, 714 8th St. in Greeley.
7 p.m., Film screening: “Run Boy Run” at University of Northern Colorado’s Lindou Auditorium in Michener Library. Running time: 1 hour, 53 minutes.
Friday, April 11
1 p.m., Film screening: “One Life” at Farr Library, 929 15th St. in Greeley. Running time: 1 hour, 15 minutes.
Sunday, April 13
Noon, Klezmer Concert at Unitarian Universalist Church, 929 15th St. in Greeley. The genre of Klezmer music was nearly wiped out during the Holocaust. The music will celebrate Jewish composers who died.
All events are dedicated to the memory of former committee member the Rev. Rick Mawson, who died in December. Mawson, ordained in the United Church of Christ, was active in the Greeley community over the past two decades, working with First Congregational United Church of Christ, the University of Northern Colorado’s campus ministry, PFLAG Greeley and the Greeley Interfaith Association.
Manuel and Johnson said Mawson was instrumental in getting the organization involved with Holocaust education.
To contribute to the Holocaust Memorial Observances of Greeley and Northern Colorado, go to holocaust-memorial-observances.org.
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