A Day of Remembrance

Concept

The “Day of Remembrance” is about forgotten histories and belated memory regarding three historic narratives unfolding in Waltham, Massachusetts. The three narratives will include the Jungfernhof concentration camp, Native American history on the land of Brandeis University previously known as Pequusett, and a nearby abandoned cemetery belonging to the Fernald State School for intellectually disabled students.

Introduction

Land holds memory. I grew up in Waltham, as the daughter of a Holocaust survivor. I learned about my family’s Holocaust history while living in a neighborhood populated with first generation immigrants, situated in the immediate vicinity of four large state hospitals for psychiatric care.

The Day of Remembrance program was initially conceived as an isolated memory project about a forgotten concentration camp in Riga, Latvia where my grandparents were killed. As plans for a permanent memorial at the camp paused, I pursued presenting my ideas as an independent artist in conjunction with Brandeis University’s Leonard Bernstein Festival of the Creative Arts.

During the planning phase of creating this important project about memory and issues of responsibility concerning Holocaust history, a media frenzy erupted in Boston newspapers about the Metfern cemetery containing 296 anonymous graves belonging to intellectually disabled students institutionalized at the Fernald State School. A research project dedicated to recovering the names and stories of those buried at the Metfern cemetery was spearheaded by a Brandeis graduate in cooperation with Gann Academy. My mother worked at the Fernald School at the time the cemetery was in use. The historic landmark of the Fernald State School was now being slated for development as a recreation park. Rooted in my childhood years, with so many parallels to my work in Riga, I felt the need to include this story about forgotten memory in Waltham into the Day of Remembrance project.

As a memory artist my work is also attuned to the land. In presenting a mourning shroud about a grave in Latvia to an audience in Waltham, I considered the relationship between the mourning shroud as a cover for the earth and the earth it would cover. I wondered, what is the history of the earth at Brandeis? Might there be traces of human history embedded in the earth? I learned about a new website, sponsored by Native American faculty at Brandeis University, detailing Native American history on campus lands. The mourning shroud took on new meaning. Connected to the land in Waltham as an artifact of healing, the mourning shroud for group burials would now encompass additional stories.

The Mourning Shroud for group burials is a new idea. While the original impetus was directly connected to the Jungfernhof concentration camp, I was also presenting an idea that had many applications in a world that continued to produce new mass graves.  One could argue that I should develop a mourning shroud for the world. While there may be a basis for this kind of thinking, in my mind, the concept of a mourning shroud is to restore dignity to an unremembered group of victims. The size of the shroud and the specificity of the shroud needs to be linked to established histories, lacking precedence for commemoration.  The separation of the crimes and the timeline of remembrance must also be a consideration.

The Program

The Day of Remembrance program is about memory. It is also about education, how and why we remember. The program centers on three histories of neglect, coupled with belated issues of responsibility. The project leads with Holocaust memory concerning close to 4,000 victims imprisoned at the Jungfernhof concentration camp in Riga Latvia. Native America history on the Brandeis campus and the legacy of an abandoned cemetery belonging to the Fernald State School will be integrated into a ceremony of remembrance, bringing these three disparate histories together in a shared presentation of commemoration.

The program will unfold in three, two-hour sequences over a two-day period.  

Tuesday 7:00-8:30.   Sherman Hall in Hassenfeld Conference Center

The program will begin with welcoming remarks and a short introduction to the larger program by Karen Frostig and Sabine von Mering. 

Danielle Legros Georges is a poet, literary translator, and editor. The former Poet Laureate of Boston, and Professor Emeritus of Creative Writing at Lesley University, she will read poems that explore the tensions between statelessness and belonging.

Video projections of deportation photos combined with close to 4,000 victims’ names, will be projected onto the outer walls of the three chapels. Pathways will be lined with battery lit votive candles.

Inside the three chapels, faculty,, scholar, and descendant facilitators will lead small group community conversations about memory with students, faculty, descendants, Waltham graduates class of 66, members of the Jewish community, artists, and guests. Emphasis will be on family stories concerning ancestral histories of exile and emigration, and contemporary memories about migration, integration, and the process of building inclusive communities. Group participants will learn about cultural diversity within the community. The reciprocal relationship between memory and identity will be noted. A general tone of affirmation and interest in each other’s stories will form the basis for dialogue.  Pre-registration is required.

Brandeis faculty and student facilitators.

Documentation: Mike E. Dunne, Photographer. Videographer (tbc). Drone videos, Makerlab

Wednesday 10:00-12:00.   Rapaporte Treasure Hall in the Goldfarb/Farb Libraries.

Greetings, Karen Frostig and Sabine von Mering

Welcoming Remarks: President Ronald Liebowitz and Jessica Liebowitz

Survivor: Pete Stern, Survivor of Jungfernhof concentration camp, the Riga Ghetto, Ravensbruck, and Bergen-Belsen camps.

Symposia: “Memory and the Ethics of Memorialization” will feature three distinguished panelists representing Austria, Latvia, and Germany, each holding a historic relationship to the Jungfernhof concentration camp in Riga, Latvia. A broader conversation will frame the question, how do historians, living in countries with different records of remembrance, come together to create a joint statement about shared issues of accountability concerning the genocide of Jews at this camp.

Panelists: Dr. Thomas Lutz, em. Head of Memorial Museums Department, Topographie of
Terror Foundation, Berlin
Prof in Mag. a Hannah M. Lessing, General Secretary National Fund of the Republic
of Austria, Vienna.
Ilya Lensky, Director, Museum “Jews in Latvia,” Riga.

Chair/Facilitator:   
Prof. Karen Frostig, Scholar, Holocaust Studies and Public Art, WSRC, Brandeis
University

Moderator: Laurel Leff, Professor of Journalism and Associate Director of Jewish Studies at
Northeastern University

Pre-registration required.

Wednesday  2:00-3:00.   Ceremony Sherman Hall and adjacent outdoor space

An inclusive, outdoor ceremony will take place on the lawn next to the Berlin chapel. Karen will introduce a large-scale, hand-crafted Mourning Shroud for victims of mass murder, developed as the focal point of the public ceremony. Originally conceived for the Jungfernhof concentration camp in Riga, the shroud is presented in Waltham as a symbolic object of commemoration.

Made from cloth and stitched with care, 3836 victims’ names taken from four deportation lists to Jungfernhof, will be printed on a large piece of white linen. A central panel will be embroidered with text “May their memory be a blessing” in four languages. Guests will be invited to participate in a water ritual surrounding the shroud, referencing the Jewish practice of washing the body before burial. Three descendants of survivors from the camp will speak about memory following genocide, naming family members deported to Jungfernhof and killed in Riga.

The ceremonial presentation of the shroud will underscore the transformative power of art, using the language of ritual to move histories of neglect into conversations about loss and care. Unfurled over an area of land, the shroud containing names of the dead and symbols of the living, will make a direct connection to the earth as the keeper of our history.

Taking place in Waltham, the project represents my voice as an artist growing up in Waltham. The question “what histories belong to this land?” will frame the Day of Remembrance event, combining history with artistic production. Presentation will discuss history of the land in relation to Native American history in the area. Lacking signage, the presence of Native American history remains forgotten.

The ceremony will also address the Metfern cemetery, a forgotten graveyard of anonymously buried students, institutionalized at the Fernald State School. Today the abandoned structure of the school retains a haunting presence about absence on the land.  Text extracted from non-identifying scraps of discarded medical charts detailing confidential histories belonging to intellectually disabled students, will be incorporated into text read by the great-great-grandson of the Walter E. Fernald State School’s third superintendent.

A service of prayer and music will be integrated into the ceremony.

Leaders: Karen Frostig, descendant and lead artist, and Cantor Alicia Stillman, Temple Israel of Boston, Brandeis ‘89

Participants:

Anabel Gil Diaz, “Anima Terrae” (Earth’s Soul) played on a fife (black flute). Original composition.
Artists: Ed Malouf, Jennifer Varekamp, Emily Moughan, unfurl the shroud
Rabbi Ben Chaidell, Temple Beth Israel, Waltham
Descendants: Patricia Anastos, Fred Zimmak, and Steven Frankel
Descendant: Oliver Egger, great-great-grandson of Walter E. Fernald, the third superintendent of
           the Fernald School and later, its namesake.
Birthday card by Egon Levy. Audience participation.
Documentation: Mike E. Dunne, Photographer. Videographer (tbc). Drone videos, Ian Roy,
Makerlab

Wednesday  3:10-4:30.   Sherman Hall

Attendees will watch rare footage of five survivors from the Jungfernhof concentration camp.  Meeting for the first time after 80 years of separation, the survivors recall memories about the camp. This was the first and only encounter between members of this group, following 80 years of separation from the camp. Developed and recorded by Karen Frostig, the video will be introduced by Dr. Alan Stern, son and nephew of two of the five survivors, who survived the war as brothers.

Dean Philip Reeder, Geographer and Cartographer “Using Science to Uncover the History of the Jungfernhof Concentration Camp” uses ERT technologies in a multi-year effort to recover the lost mass grave at the Jungfernhof concentration camp, He will discuss recent findings about the mass grave, containing up to 800 bodies.  

The afternoon program will conclude with “Songs of Remembrance” performed by 23 soprano, alto, tenor, and bass singers of the Brandeis University Chorus. Robert Duff, conductor and Eion Clarke, pianist.

Closing remarks: Karen Frostig

4:45-5:15 Light refreshments and conversation

Sponsors

Partner and cosponsor: Center for German and European Studies (CGES) at Brandeis University

Co-sponsors, Brandeis University: Leonard Bernstein Festival of the Creative Arts, Women’s Studies Research Center (WSRC), Hadassah-Brandeis Institute (HBI), Center for Community Partnerships and Civic Transformation (COMPACT), Department of Near Eastern and Judaic Studies (NEJS), Makerlab, Alumni Relations