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Harriet Cohen, associate professor of social work, traveled to
Poland in December as one of six faculty fellows selected for the
first year of the Southern Methodist University Texas Project for
Human Rights Education. The faculty fellows joined the annual
“Poland: Remember the Past…Build the Future” trip led by the
Embrey Human Rights program at SMU.
The group visited 11 death camps, walking the same ground that
almost 3.5 million Holocaust victims walked. They paid tribute to
those who perished, remembered the names of the camps where
they died, and honored the few who survived.
A practicing social worker for more than 25 years, Cohen’s
passion for human rights roots goes back to her childhood. “I can
remember going with my father to remove the “Colored” signs from
the sidewalk, ending the segregated waiting rooms in his dental
practice,” Cohen said.
She became upset when she recognized the connection between
the Jim Crow laws and the Nuremburg laws, both of which
mandated segregation. Cohen’s vivid memories of growing up
Jewish in Jackson, Miss., during the civil rights movement, which
included frequent anti-Semitic comments and the bombing of her
synagogue and rabbi’s home, continue to drive her fervent work to
bring recognition to Holocaust survivors.
Cohen’s passion for justice allowed her to add a new dimension
to the Harris College when she joined the Horned Frog family in
2005 in the Department of Social Work. The decision to narrow her
social justice focus to Holocaust survivors occurred early in her
career, manifested in a number of published articles, interviews, a
documentary and, most recently, the trip to Poland.
In Poland, Cohen took part in an experience that she and other
university faculty in attendance won’t soon forget. Visiting the
actual death and concentration camps, Cohen’s desire to defend
human rights was reignited as she paid tribute to those who
perished and spent time with those who lived to tell the story.
For Cohen, the trip was a reminder of our lives as inextricably linked
to the past, present and future. “We must reclaim the right and the
responsibility to remember what happened and why it happened
to prevent it from happening again,” she said.
Treblinka opened as a death camp in 1942
and closed in October 1943. There were 13 gas
chambers, and 870,000 died there. Within two
hours after arrival at Treblinka, peoplewere gassed
and removed. (Photo by Sherry Austin Aikman)
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