Retired Prof. Leo Gruenfeld, industrial and labor relations and a Holocaust survivor, was 11 years old and living in Berlin on Nov. 9, 1938 when Kristallnacht, known as the Night of Broken Glass, began.

“Nazi porn?”

That’s a term writer Ron Rosenbaum used in his Slate critique of this year’s film The Reader — “Don’t give an Oscar to The Reader.” Guess Rosenbaum was less than pleased to see a glowing Kate Winslet carry away a gold statue last Sunday for her starring role in the film.

In his scathing column, Rosenbaum summarized the film. While in prison for participating in the murder of 300 Jews, the protagonist, Hanna, taught herself to read. “What a heartwarming fable about the wonders of literacy and its ability to improve the life of an Auschwitz mass murderer!” he pronounced. “Get a load of those pages turning! Reading is fun!”

As someone who hasn’t even gotten around to seeing Slumdog Millionaire, Milk or The Curious Case of it Benjamin Button — no, not even one of its 165 minutes — I can say that I was very wary of taking time to watch the 80th Academy Award nominees for Best Live Action Short Film (you probably know them as the part of the ceremony during which you flip through the channels).

However, after viewing the nominated shorts, I can now say that these films are phenomenal — not perfect, but definitely worth anyone’s time (plus all five of them take up 65 less minutes of your time than Benjamin Button does, not to mention one of them is not even half the time of an episode of Gossip Girl!).

An anonymous band of students and faculty began to read a list of names yesterday morning at 11 a.m. Although the names were read to the pace of a ticking clock, 24 hours is simply not enough time to name all 6 million on the list.

“Lova Rozenberg, Country of residence: Czechoslovakia. Place of Death: Auschwitz. Year of Death: 1944. Age: 40.”

This was just one of the many names that a young woman read aloud on Ho Plaza yesterday as she went through part of a long list of Holocaust victims. As a way to commemorate and remember those who died, Cornell Hillel organized a Holocaust vigil, in which the names of thousands of Jews killed in the Holocaust are being read for 24 hours straight. The vigil comes just four days before Yom HaShoah, the international Holocaust Remembrance Day.