Never again

On Wednesday, November 27th, Popi Asteriadou, Head of the News Department at TV100, the Municipal Television of Thessaloniki, gave a lecture entitled "Documenting an elusive presence: A film on Auschwictz-Birkenau," for the benefit of NUin, Study Abroad, and degree students at ACT. The event was co-organised by ACT professors Nikos Dimitriadis and Maria Kyriakidou under the auspices of the Michael and Kitty Dukakis Center for Public and Humanitarian Service.

By Nikos Dimitriadis

Following Ms. Asteriadou's introduction, we watched two documentaries on the Holocaust, one regarding the presence of Thessaloniki Jews in concentration camps during World War II, and the other about the so called "March of the Living 2013," an annual silent march in memory of the Holocaust victims. Later on, students read poems which were written in and about the concentration camps. The culmination of the event was the presence of Mr. Heinz Kounio, a survivor of the Holocaust, together with his daughter and grandson.

It was a once in a lifetime opportunity for all those present to speak with one of the few survivors of the city. Mr Kounio kindly answered all questions and gave the most worthy lesson to us all when he stated that, despite his most appalling experience, he is "still a human being."

One of the NUin students present at the event, Grace Sandick, shared her emotions after the event.

“Being Jewish I have grown up hearing stories, learning lessons and watching videos about the Holocaust. One might think that after all this time the power of what humans can do to other humans might have lessened. However, this could be no farther from the truth and the event in Bissell library only proved that more. The videos created by Popi Asteriadou showed her journey from gathering interviews and videos, and then to actually going to the concentration camp Auschwitz were moving beyond words. Although the stories and history were familiar to me from Hebrew school, members of my congregation and my grandparents’ friends, the videos still hit me in a new powerful way. However, nothing was more powerful than getting to meet Mr Heinz Kounio, a survivor of the Holocaust. Not only was this man impressive because of his survival in his early life, he was inspiring because of his life after the Holocaust. He never lost his faith, never regretted his heritage and is still - to quote him directly - 'a human being.' While his survival is incredible, his strength after his liberation from this atrocity was what struck me the most. He spoke for those who could not, he chose to bear that burden on shoulders that were already weak from life and yet he was the strongest 90 year old man I have ever met perhaps the strongest man I’ve ever met, period. I wish there were words I could use, speak, or type that could ever convey how incredibly powerful, moving, and inspiring the experience of meeting him was, but I think his own words, the ones he said to me as I left are the only thing that can hope to do it some small amount of justice, “לעולם לא עוד”… Never again...”