metro
Taking It Easier
Professor Sidney Bolkosky retires
as a teacher, continues his work
with Holocaust survivors.
..
esenting
Pr
Nyhouse. T eqt r
Bill Carroll
Contributing Writer
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they founded the Michigan chapter after Israel's
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achievements on behalf of AFMDA, Mrs. Mames
and her incredible dedication to the cause will be
greatly missed by everyone in the organization.
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8
December 15 • 2011
then I served on a Holocaust-related
committee of the Jewish Community
Relations Council here," he explains.
(1111) nce you're in, there's no way
A native of Rochester, N.Y.,
out," is how Professor Sidney
Bolkosky came to Detroit in 1965 to
Bolkosky describes his work
get a master's degree in European
with Holocaust survivors. But now he's history at Wayne State University,
gradually going out.
after obtaining
Bolkosky, who has
a B.A. degree at
spent practically a
the University of
lifetime preserving
Rochester. He later
the memory of the
achieved a Ph.D. in
Holocaust in hopes
European intellectual
that the world will
history from the State
never forget, is retir-
University of New
ing at the end of
York in Binghampton.
2011 after nearly 40
He returned in
years as a professor
1972 to take the
in the social sciences
UM-Dearborn job,
at the University of
and he and two teach-
Michigan-Dearborn.
ers in Oakland County
While there,
developed a curricu-
Sidney Bolko sky
Bolkosky, 67, of Oak
lum that continues
Park launched the
today for schools,
Voice and Vision
titled "Holocaust: Life
Holocaust Survivor Oral History
Unworthy of Life a common Nazi
Archive, a compilation of testimonies
description of a Jewish person.
from survivors around the world. The
archive, which now has more than
Famous Wiesel Meeting
300 such testimonies, has won inter-
"That rekindled my interest in the
national recognition and acclaim.
Holocaust, and I started contacting
He'll continue to be director of the
survivors in the area to get the archive
archive, which is based in the school's going," he said. "Many of them were
library and has four employees. But
reluctant to discuss their experiences
he won't be teaching four classes,
at first, but the famous international
including his popular History 387
meeting of survivors in Israel in 1981,
Class, Aspects of the Holocaust, much led by Elie Wiesel, changed all that.
to the dismay of many students.
He urged survivors to 'talk' — tell the
There was always a waiting list for the world what the Nazis did to them."
course, which has a capacity of 40 — Wiesel, an activist and philosopher, is
"and, believe it or not, most of them
probably the best-known Holocaust
are non-Jews!' says the soft-spoken
survivor.
Bolkosky.
Bolkosky says he trained the
first class of docents at the original
Faces Holocaust Deniers
Holocaust Memorial Center in West
"Some of them are even non-believ-
Bloomfield and tried to establish
ers; Holocaust deniers who want to
the archive there. But "differences
hear what I have to say. One time, a
over educational access to interview
student came in wearing a camou-
materials" with Holocaust center
flage outfit and boots. He thought it
officials caused him to place the
was a military course!'
archive in Dearborn. "The irony of it
Bolkosky can't pinpoint exactly
all is that Dearborn was the home of
what piqued his interest in the
old Henry Ford, the notorious anti-
Holocaust. As far as he knows, he
Semite," Bolkosky points out. "Some
had no relatives who were among the
UM-Dearborn classes even are held in
6 million Jews wiped out in Europe
the Ford Fairlane Estate on the cam-
by the Germans before and during
pus, which was Henry Ford's home for
World War II.
many years.
"I sort of got interested when I
"I remember when I first moved to
read a book about German Jews,
this area, my mother asked me: 'Are