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TOWARDS THE CENTENNIAL
Shining a Light
on the Shadow of
By Chris Bohjalian
One night in November 2009,
I recalled that exchange often this past
I heard Gerda Weissmann
year. The Sandcastle Girls, my novel of the
Klein speak in Austin,
Armenian Genocide, was published in
Texas, at the Hillel chapter
North America last summer, and the reality
at the University of Texas.
is that outside of the diaspora community,
Gerda is not only one of the
most of the United States and Canada
most charismatic women I’ve ever met, she
knows next to nothing of this part of our
is also an immensely gifted writer and
story. If you trawl through the thousands of
speaker. She is also a Holocaust survivor.
posts on my Facebook page or on Twitter,
Her 1957 memoir, All but My Life, chronicles
her harrowing ordeal in labor camps
ers of the novel remarking that:
for example, you will see hundreds of read-
and death marches during World War II.
1) They knew nothing of the Armenian
Cecile Fournier, the concentration camp
Genocide; and
survivor in my 2008 novel, Skeletons at the
2) They could not understand how they
Feast, owes much to her and to her story.
could have grown to adulthood in places
Gerda is, pure and simple, one of the wisest
such as Indianapolis or Seattle or Jackson -
and most inspirational people I know.
ville and not heard a single word about the
During the question and answer period
death of 1.5 million people.
of her speech that night three and a half Chris Bohjalian (Photo by Tom Vartabedian) Sometimes these readers told me they
years ago, someone asked Gerda, “What do
were aghast. Sometimes they told me they
you say to Holocaust deniers?”
were ashamed. And very often they asked me why: Why did no
She shrugged and said, “I really don’t have to say much. I simply
tell them to ask Germany. Germany doesn’t deny it.”
ers skip over the 20th century’s first
one teach them this part of world history? Why did their teach-
genocide?
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APRIL 2013 | THE ARMENIAN WEEKLY |
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