IC News

On Tuesday, April 25, Hillel at Ithaca College had the honor of hosting Roald Hoffmann, a survivor of the Holocaust, as a featured speaker at Muller Chapel.

The mood was reverent in the chapel as nearly 250 Ithaca College students, faculty, and community members came to learn from Hoffmann and bear witness to his story. In his talk, entitled “Returning, Remembering, Forgiving,” Hoffmann detailed the horrors he and his family had faced under Nazi invasion, and spoke to the lessons he hopes listeners will take and pass on to future generations.

When introducing Hoffmann, President La Jerne Terry Cornish highlighted the importance of holding space for stories like these and never forgetting the conditions of the past.

“Each year that we have an opportunity to hear from Holocaust survivors like Dr. Hoffmann is a blessing,” President Cornish said to the gathering. “It's also an opportunity to bear witness to the legacy of survivors and to honor the memories of those who were lost. We reaffirm our collective commitment to never forget the Holocaust, to learn about the conditions that made such horrors possible, and to fight tirelessly to ensure that this never happens again.”

Hoffmann also encouraged the audience to continue sharing the stories of the Holocaust with future generations.

“You’ve heard my story, and the stories of others who have had saviors. Who will speak for the thousands of those who did not? Yes, I'm doing it, but my voice is feeble,” he said.,

He also spoke about forgiveness, and the lessons he’s learned through a lifetime of reflection on the horrors he faced as a child.

“It's possible to have conflict, and that society can go in a certain direction, but individuals don't necessarily follow that,” he said. “One must not condemn people. As long as there is a single good German, there are others.”

Lauren Goldberg, executive director of Hillel at Ithaca, shared the lessons that she hopes the audience took away from hearing Hoffmann speak.

“He told everyone present that we each have a responsibility now,” she said. “What Dr. Hoffmann gave us was much more than just the honor of hearing his story. He deputized the 250 of us who were present to transmit his story to future generations, and to identify and disrupt the systems and climates that allow such atrocities to occur.”

Goldberg also spoke to the impact that Hillel at Ithaca is having on campus.

“Hillel serves as a facilitator of that transmission and deputization, because we recognize the moment that we are in-- not just with fewer living survivors, but with Holocaust education being written out of public education curricula,” she said. “When 60 percent of our audience identified as not being Jewish, what you actually have is an overwhelming groundswell of allyship. It tells a beautiful story about our community and that Dr. Hoffmann's critical message will be amplified and acted upon by us all.”

Students in attendance said it was especially meaningful that Hoffmann was able to attend in person.

“It’s a really beautiful thing that we're able to have a speaker like Dr. Hoffmann,” said Noah Rosenzweig ’24, vice president of Hillel at IC. “Especially nowadays, it's so rare to be able to hear from a Holocaust survivor over Zoom, no less in person.”

Rosenzweig shared the lessons he took away from the event, as well as his personal connection to the stories that Dr. Hoffmann shared.

“It was a reminder to never forget. It's so easy to get lost in day-to-day life,” he said. “My grandfather and his family fled, and had to escape persecution, and he has a similar story. It's incredibly important to never forget our roots, and for the world to remember that this happened.”