GRAND JUNCTION — A couple of weeks after he moved to Grand Junction from the Front Range in 2003, someone threw a bagged rock into Vincent Patarino’s yard. Inside the bag was a flyer plastered with racist comments.

The transplanted college history instructor asked himself, “Where have I moved to?”
Patarino is a lecturer of history at Mesa State College.

In the spring of 2004, Patarino organized a Holocaust Awareness Week on campus.
Holocaust Awareness Week is an interdisciplinary series of events that explore various aspects of modern genocide. The weeks’ events are timed to coincide roughly with Holocaust remembrance events planned worldwide.

Patarino was motivated to organize the event for two reasons: The racist material dumped in his yard and to honor a beloved professor and mentor who had died.

“He was a well-known professor (of German history) on the DU campus,” Patarino said. “It was to serve his memory and continue his legacy.”

Patarino has since been joined in organizing the event by MSC modern historian Elizabeth Propes and various community members.

Holocaust Awareness Weeks focus on modern era acts of genocide, including all of the groups targeted by the 1940s Nazi regime, as well as the Armenian massacre, the Cambodian genocide, ethnic cleansing and genocide in Rwanda, Iraq and the Balkan region, and the current genocide taking place in the Darfur region of the Sudan.

People think it can’t happen here, but that thinking is dangerous, Patarino said.
“There’s a lot of intolerance here,” he said.


2008 Events Schedule

• Tuesday, April 8, 6:30-9 p.m.
MSC, Saccomanno Lecture Hall
Vincent V. Patarino Jr., “Blind Spot: Hitler’s Secretary,” film and discussion
This award-winning documentary looks at the remembrances of Traudl Junge, Hitler’s secretary.

• Wednesday, April 9, 7-9 p.m.
Saccomanno Lecture Hall
Susan Konantz, “The Use of Fantasy in Holocaust Novels Written for Teens.”
Presentation and discussion.

• Thursday, April 10, 7-9 p.m.
Saccomanno Lecture Hall
Dr. Barry Laga, “Monuments, Memorials, and History: Remembering the Holocaust.”
A “tour” of Holocaust memorials, from early attempts to memorialize death camps to the U.S. Holocaust Museum.

• Monday, April 14, 11 a.m.
MSC, Main academic quad
Moment of silence dedication for “Field of Flags” display.
More than 2000 flags will be displayed representing all of the major groups targeted by the Nazis in World War II, including Jews, Poles, Soviet citizens, communists, socialists, homosexuals, Jehovah Witnesses, Freemasons, the Roma and the disabled. Each flag will represent 5,000 individuals. The flags will be displayed from April 13-19.

• Monday, April 14, 6-8:30 p.m.
Saccomanno Lecture Hall
Dr. Timothy Casey, “The Power of Holocaust Study: ‘Paperclips,’” film and discussion.
A documentary about a small town middle school in Tennessee, and 6 million Jewish Holocaust victims.

• Wednesday, April 16, 6:30-9 p.m.
MSC, Houston Hall, Room 130
Congregation Ohr Shalom Darfur Action Committee, “The Devil Came on Horseback,” film and discussion.
This documentary exposes the tragedy taking place in Darfur, as documented by American witness, former Marine Brian Steidle. New York Times journalist Nicholas Kristof broke the story and published Steidle’s photographs in 2005.

• Thursday, April 17, 7-9 p.m.
Saccomanno Lecture Hall
Professor Jim Curtsinger, “The Marsh Arabs of Southern Iraq: Reclaiming Wetlands and a Way of Life.”
The Marsh Arabs’ culture dates back 7,000 years. Their lush wetlands homeland was poisoned, burned and drained by the Saddam Hussein’s government in retaliation for Shia opposition in southern Iraq. Hundreds of thousands were forced from their homes. This presentation will look at the prospects for success of the Marsh Arabs in reclaiming their marshes and way of life.

All events are free and open to the public. For more information contact 248-1490.