Creighton University Presidential Medallion

Creighton University Presidential Medallion

Omaha Area Survivors of the Holocaust

May 14, 2011

For more than six decades, historians, political scientists and religious scholars have struggled to recount, document and explain the details of one of the most horrendous chapters in the history of the world — the Holocaust. That the passing of the years could ever dull the memories of World War II or render the Holocaust forgotten, prompts many survivors to share their stories in compelling ways.

Beatrice Karp was only eight years old when she was taken by Nazis. Seventy-five years later, she can still recount in vivid detail how she threw rocks at soldiers in the street and crushed the face of her porcelain doll rather than to hand it over to her captors.

Through Bea's presentations, others come to understand the escalation of hate: how at first, religious observances were banned and then later, how victims of prejudice were taunted; how families were made to feel like outcasts in their own county and how they grew increasingly frightened and insucure, struggling with decisions such as whether to flee or remain in their homes; and finally, how Jewish citizens were brutalized, imprisioned and extinguished.

Through Bea's presentations, audiences begin to comprehend what it meant to endure an existence in which ideals, morals, laws and lives were shattered and reason eclipsed by atrocities both large and small, carried out with disregard for human decency.

Bea Karp is among roughly 200 Holocaust survivors who settled in Omaha, Nebraska. Bea, and others like her, are dedicated to honest examination of the past for the preservation of the future and the ultimate benefit of future generations. Survivors' lives provide heartening evidence that the human spirit can survive unfathomable circumstances and persevere.

Creighton University, aspiring not only to educate, but to be a crafter of society, continually seeks to create a more just and peaceful world. In recognition of the resiliency of the human spirit, it honors Omaha area survivors of the Holocaust with the Creighton University Presidential Medallion, this 14th day of May, two thousand and eleven.