Mark Auslander discusses family history, antisemitism and racism

Dan Pagis’ poem entitled “Written in pencil in the sealed freight car,” which he wrote when he was 11 years old, is displayed in English, Hebrew, and Polish at the Belzec Victims Memorial. Photo courtesy of Mark Auslander.

By Emma Quirk ’26 

Staff Writer

Content warning: This article discusses the Holocaust.

Dr. Mark Auslander gave a lecture entitled “Here in this Train Car: Holocaust Family Memory, Art-Making and Struggles for Justice” on Feb. 15, 2023. During the event — held virtually — he discussed his family’s history and the connectivity between marginalized communities. He also explored the impact and importance of the arts when it comes to culture and tragedy.

Auslander is a sociocultural and historical anthropologist, award-winning author of “The Accidental Slaveowner: Revisiting a Myth of Race and Finding an American Family” and visiting lecturer in anthropology at Mount Holyoke College. 

This event is one of MHC’s antisemitism teach-ins that were launched in January of 2021. In her introduction to Dr. Auslander’s event, Vice President for Equity and Inclusion Kijua Sanders-McMurtry said that the College community has been “engaged in deep dialogues and interrogation of our own everyday work to disrupt and resist antisemitism,” for several years. 

Auslander’s talk, held during Black History Month, touched on the similarities and linkages between antisemitism and anti-Black racism. Auslander also discussed the way white supremacist ideology harms both of these communities as well as the intersections between them. 

The lecture began with Auslander speaking about his own family, particularly their experiences in the Holocaust. “Here in this Train Car” is a reference to “a terrifying moment in my family’s history,” where thousands of Romanian Jewish people, including his relatives, were forced onto cattle cars during a mass deportation to Transnistria concentration camps in the 1940s, Auslander explained. His father’s first cousin, Dan Pagis, was 11 years old at the time. 

Pagis wrote a now famous poem about the car, called “Written in Pencil in the Sealed Freightcar.” The poem goes as follows: “Here in this carload / I, Eve / with my son Abel. / If you see my older boy, / Cain, the son of man, / tell him that I” — Auslander explained that it can provide different messages for readers. 

“The text I’d like to suggest can be read in part as a powerful testimony of what it means to be Jewish in a post-Holocaust world. … Even in places of relative sanctuary, the possibilities of mass violence never seen entirely removed or off the table. … But at the same time, the poem … emphasizes the universality of the story of brothers,” Auslander said. 

Auslander explained that neither Pagis nor his grandparents “[ever] discussed with anyone what transpired on board those terrible unheated trains … the poem is the only trace we have whatsoever.”

He is inspired by the way his cousin has fought for peace and justice and wishes to do the same. Art is a way to share, connect people and remember historical moments, both benevolent and malevolent. Auslander explained that it is vital in both “helping us reflect on unspeakable acts and struggles for tolerance and justice even or especially with the darkest walls of the sealed railway car,” but it can also remind us of “this world before the Holocaust.” The people, places and things that existed before are still important memories and aspects of culture. 

Another notion that Auslander emphasized was the close tie between the fight against antisemitism and anti-Black racism, and that one of the ways to combat this struggle is through partnership. He shared an anecdote of his connection to Black poet, storyteller and essayist André Le Mont Wilson who gave his own book talk to MHC on Feb. 20, 2023. Auslander explained that the two found connections between their own family histories, and have since been “working together collaboratively, documenting [their] respective family narratives to a writing project that [they] hope to be a book.”

While there is a lot of tragedy in the history of the Jewish people, there is good that can be pulled out of it in the ability to empathize with and support others who are fighting for their own liberation, especially those who have experienced a similar nature of historical oppression. 

“The very essence of our beings is not entirely grim or hopeless, which may seem paradoxical, but it’s the paradox that is life-sustaining. Because this experience can yield the most remarkable gifts, as is the case, for example, with my new friendship with André Wilson,” Auslander said.

Throughout his talk, Auslander spoke with candor about his privilege as a white man, and how he is working to better understand communities of color, particularly Black communities. 

“I’m not joking when I’m speaking [of] myself as a recovering white guy, because I mean, I grew up in Washington, D.C., but I grew up in white Washington, D.C., and I knew very little of the Black majority city, even though my parents [and] grandparents and so forth, had been actively involved in the civil rights movement,” Auslander said. “I didn’t think of the centrality of race or anything like structural racism in other words, and so that was a process.” 

In living in Central Africa for some years, connecting with his Black family members and with people like Wilson, he is working to combat his personal biases. He stressed that he believes this type of work is “a continuous process of learning.”

Toward the end of the talk, Sanders-McMurtry highlighted the work that the Jewish Student Union, the Association of Pan-African Unity and the Office of Community and Belonging have been doing to foster dialogue on campus. They then asked Auslander to discuss a bit more about the “importance of these ongoing efforts to bring groups together.” 

He replied that interpersonal work is vital, but it is only the start. “It has to be sustainable, there really has to be groups working together, and everybody knowing that there’s gonna be a space when these groups come together for frank disagreements and discovery,” Auslander continued. “It’s very hard work to do this type of collaborative work because we are all exposing our most fundamental vulnerabilities. And it doesn’t seem fair to each party that we’re being asked to account for things that we don’t feel personally held [responsible] for. But we can’t make progress if all we do is go into a defensive crouch.” 

One student who attended the talk appreciated this appeal for intergroup collaboration and the candor about inevitable obstacles. “I am a prospective history major so I think it is so important to, as Dr. Auslander discussed, push through the friction that arises when two very different groups work together and have conversations that deepen compassion and spark change,” Caroline Lamb ’26 said. “It is vital to future generations, and current ones, to work together and learn from our past mistakes so that we can all better understand that we share one world and can make it a better place.” 

Auslander believes that students, faculty and staff must all put in consistent effort to do their parts to make change. “We’re extremely lucky that at a place like Mount Holyoke, there are so many people committed to making this happen, but that doesn’t mean it’s easy here, it just means that we have the freedom and the space to do some of the really hard work,” Auslander said.

Students attend the College's annual PossePlus Retreat

Students, faculty, and staff at the PossePlus Retreat explored the theme ‘Truth or Consequences?’ and got the change to meet and talk to new people. Photo by Emma Quirk ‘26.

By Emma Quirk ’26 

Staff Writer

On Feb. 3, 2023, Mount Holyoke students and staff braved the cold weather to board buses for the first in-person PossePlus Retreat in three years. The one-night trip was held at the Hotel UMass at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, consisting of Posse Miami Scholars, faculty and staff, as well as other invited students from the College. The theme of the retreat was “Truth or Consequences?”

The Posse Foundation, according to their website, “identifies, recruits and trains individuals with extraordinary leadership potential,” and a PPR is meant to be a place to “explore an important social issue identified by Scholars.” For Scholars and mentors at the College, this program is far more than that. 

Posse provides its Scholars with full-tuition scholarships to attend partner colleges and universities. The College works with Posse Miami, and about eight to ten Scholars who live in Miami, Florida, are welcomed to the College each year. 

“Posse means everything to me, it’s what allowed me to go to college, it’s an organization that believed in me and saw my potential and gave me such a huge encouragement to follow that potential to the fullest,” Manuela Ribas ’26 said. 

Gabriella Cordero ’26 stated that Posse is “life-changing” for Scholars. “I never thought I would be able to attend school outside of the state I live in, however, Posse gave me that opportunity.” 

Students and mentors agreed that the PPR experience is not only a place to build community, but a place to be bold. PossePlus means that, in addition to Scholars and mentors being present, students and staff who are not directly connected to Posse are invited to join. These added voices are referred to as “plussers.” 

“This retreat means an opportunity to come together and to have our voices, as students, be heard. It is also a chance for the wider Mount Holyoke College community to experience some of the benefits of Posse and get to know each other better,” Catherine Di Mare ’24 said. 

While on campus, Scholars meet regularly with their mentor, a faculty or staff member who helps the students adjust and manage campus life. Each Posse cohort has their own assigned mentor. Mentors are trusted advisors who work to support their Posse. 

Some of the faculty and staff who make up the PPR attendees are current Posse mentors. “This retreat is something magical, it reminds the scholars that they are part of [something. They are] one piece of a larger puzzle. They have a greater community not only within Mount Holyoke, but also through the network that is built by other Posse scholars around the country,” Jonencia Wood, a Posse mentor and assistant vice president for diversity, equity and inclusion  said. “Additionally, this retreat gives the community a space to have difficult conversations in a brave space, without fear or hesitation.”

PPR is a place to gather to have honest conversations about what is occurring on the College’s campus as well as in the broader community. “It feels like one big family reunion where several extended families and family friends come together to have courageous conversations … What’s more, it is a space where students, staff and faculty can be their authentic selves without shame or judgment,” Roshonda Degraffenreid, a Posse mentor and senior associate director of external relations, explained.  

An overarching theme of bravery and little moments of connection are what made this weekend special. “These students are powerful and on more than one occasion, I felt that if we all just listened to what was being said that they could change the world, starting at Mount Holyoke,” Wood said. 

Cheryl Flynn, Medical Director of the College’s Health Services, said that she was “both touched and honored” to listen to “the authenticity of the experiences, stories and perspectives students shared.” She was invited as a “plus” to PPR and felt the retreat allowed her to connect with students in a different way than she normally does. 

The space invited a unique blend of people that would not necessarily interact with each other on a regular basis to converse and share their ideas. On both Friday night and all day Saturday, the activities and discussions prompted attendees to seek out those who they did not previously know. 

“I really enjoyed seeing so many staff, students and faculty, who may not have interacted if it were not for the retreat, conversing with each other. I love seeing people step outside of their comfort zone to volunteer and engage in the space. … And most of all, I loved building memorable moments with my Posse,” Degraffenreid, who is the mentor for Posse 12, said. 

As students were given the opportunity to share their on-campus experiences, they brought up issues regarding the treatment of students with marginalized identities. In particular, the treatment of students living in the Shirley Chisholm and Mi Gente LLCs in the North Rockies was discussed. “Hearing the perspectives of students who live in the Black LLC in the Rockies really opened my eyes to some of the discrimination and mistreatment that students are actively experiencing,” Di Mare stated. 

“[I learned that] the POC floors are getting unfair treatment and I think Mount Holyoke needs to address this problem at hand,” Cordero said. Now that this particular problem is on the radar of more students and staff, there could be a change in the action taken to fix any future issues. 

Another topic that was discussed was healthcare and access to healthcare. “Many students, especially those with various marginalized identities … have had negative, sometimes traumatizing experiences with the U.S. healthcare system. Those truths result in many negative consequences … to individuals and community wellness. I want us to build a better system, to foster trust and build relationships that help heal past trauma and support health and well-being. What I’m bringing back to [the] MHC campus is renewed energy for this goal, inspired by students’ stories, fruitful dialogue and awesome voice of advocacy,” Flynn said. 

Despite the deep and serious topics discussed at the retreat, attendees felt revitalized and motivated, and want to bring this energy back to campus. Participants felt that the goal of connectivity was certainly achieved. 

Throughout the retreat, participants could write each other “Warm and Fuzzies,” which are small sticky notes that participants could leave anonymously, or sign, praising their peer’s ideas, applauding their bravery or even complimenting their outfit. Cordero said that she appreciates them because “in today’s society we are so caught up in the future that we never appreciate the present.” Warm and Fuzzies are a way to reach out and connect in a stress-free way. 

The retreat concluded with a fan favorite, the “no-talent-talent show.” It was the last event before the buses returned attendees to the College, and the audience was largely PPR students. Everyone was encouraged to sign up, whether they had a specific talent or not. Performers sang, danced, shared their multilingual talents and more. 

“We had so many incredible discussions throughout the weekend that I am so grateful for, but being able to laugh together at the end and just be happy with my fellow classmates was really sweet,” Di Mare said.  

On reflection, this retreat was a reminder of the importance of coming together as a campus. “After this retreat, I feel like my energies have been recharged. Connecting with other Scholars and the MHC community at large helped me see that no matter what I’m going through, I have a whole network of people wanting to support me,” Ribas said. 

For faculty and staff, it was also a reminder about the power and intellect of students. “It’s an indescribable experience that connects us with students in a way that you can’t through day-to-day interactions or passing through the halls. I would encourage everyone to come learn about Posse, but more so [to] listen to and really hear what the students are saying,” Wood said.