Press Herald, ME
May 3 2004
Genocide survivors’ descendants share grief
By BETH QUIMBY, Portland Press Herald Writer
Lorry Stillman, raised in an Orthodox Jewish home, said she never
learned about the Holocaust until she was out of high school.
Gerard Kiladjian said his Armenian parents never spoke of the Armenian
genocide when he was growing up in Syria.
Michael Messerschmidt, founder of the Second Generation in Maine, a
group for children of Holocaust survivors, said it took his German
Jewish parents three decades to begin to talk about their experiences.
But all three said they have spent a good part of their lives learning
about genocide.
They spoke about its ongoing impact Sunday at the University of
Southern Maine at a program where Jews, Armenians and a Burundian
shared their experiences.
Abraham Peck, director of USM’s Academic Council for Post-Holocaust
Christian, Jewish and Islamic Studies, called the program the first
time Armenians and Jews in Maine gathered to compare their genocide
experiences. More than 1 million Armenians died at the hands of the
Turks 89 years ago and more than 6 million Jews were murdered by the
Nazis.
“The Jews and Armenians share a lot,” Peck said.
While genocide survivors who emigrated to the United States appear to
have done well, Peck said, they suffer from post-traumatic disorders
because of wounds to their souls.
“When the crime is over, the wound heals but the mind does not,” he
said.
Vigen Guroian, a professor of theology and ethics at Loyola College,
said genocide survivors respond in two ways: with anger at God, or by
clinging to religious faith.
Renee Goodwin, an Armenian-American and aide to U.S. Sen. Olympia
Snowe, said she now understands why her grandparents, who lived
upstairs from her when she was growing up, were silent on the subject
of genocide.
“It was too new, too raw,” she said.
Goodwin said it was her daughter, who never met her great-grandparents,
who started asking questions about the Armenian genocide and finally
sparked her own interest.
The Rev. Joseph Bizimana, a Tutsi from Burundi, spoke about the deaths
of more than 1 million of his people in Burundi, Rwanda and the Congo.
On April 29, 1972, when he was a boy, he watched as his parents,
brothers and sisters were slaughtered.
“All gone in front of my eyes. I was just a small boy. I could not save
them,” he said.
Then on Nov. 2, 1993, his wife and child were killed while he was away
in Kenya.
“I am a living witness. I still have scars on my body, scars on my
mind,” said Bizimana.
Messerschmidt said that when he was younger, he found it strange that
his parents never spoke of their Holocaust experiences, but he
understands now that he has children of his own.
“I don’t want to frighten them,” he said.
Staff Writer Beth Quimby can be contacted at 324-4888 or at:
[email protected]