News Story

In the years since the Holocaust, people around the world vowed to never allow human atrocities. But hatred, violence and antisemitism, particularly in Europe, have caused many to question if another genocide is a possibility.

This was the driving force behind the making of the documentary Never Again is Now, a documentary by alumnus Ryan Cost, BAJ’06, that was shown at Franklin Hall Thursday.

The event featured a panel discussion with Cost; Evelyn Markus, daughter of Holocaust survivors who appears in the film and who fled antisemitism in Europe; and Gunther Jikeli, of the IU Institute for the Study of Contemporary Antisemitism and Robert A. and Sandra S. Borns Jewish Studies Program.

More than 20 people watched the film on the big screen in the commons, as images from Markus’ stories, the Holocaust and rising antisemitism in Europe.

“This story is one that stands the test of time as lessons are learned as our nation moves forward,” Cost said as he introduced the film.

In the film, Markus speaks of letters, photos and interviews of her parents she found after they died, which fueled her pursuit to tell their stories and use them to bring attention to the antisemitism in Europe.

Markus’ mother and father were engaged just as antisemitism spread in Germany.  Her father and his family hid, while her mother and her family tried to flee, but were caught and taken to a Dutch concentration camp in 1942.

On April 13, 1945, as her mother and her family were aboard a train to another camp, where they were sure to be killed, American soldiers stopped the train and liberated the prisoners.  documentary. The soldiers saved 2,500 Jews that day.

Three months after liberation, Markus’ parents were married and soon began their family.  April 13 was a celebrated day all through Markus’ life, she told the audience.

As scenes from the Holocaust flashed onto the screen, people in the audience flinched. So did the scenes of Islamic radicals. “Hamas! Hamas! Jews to the gas!” the voices of Islamic radical riots yelled in Holland streets. The film documents physical attacks on Jews, including rabbis and Holocaust survivors.

These are the actions that pushed Markus and her partner, Rosa, to move to the U.S.

“As a Jew and as a gay, I believe we have become an endangered species,” Rosa said in the documentary. “My Amsterdam is not my Amsterdam anymore.”

Markus said she hopes this film will help Americans see what is happening in Europe and motivate them to try to make a difference. She hopes to put a stop to verbal and physical threats that have historically been the beginning of genocide and civil war.

“You have to put light onto darkness to stop it,” Cost said while answering a student’s question about how students at an Indiana university can do to help stop the antisemitism acts in Europe.

Today, police stand outside elementary schools in Europe in an attempt to keep children safe, and graffiti of the Star of David has been painted on Jewish-owned buildings and homes, the documentary showed.  This is how hatred is expressed at first, but is sure to be followed by serious violence and harm, according to Markus.

“What will you do to show the world that never again is now?” Markus said in the last line of the documentary before the screen went black.