Remembering the Holocaust

So much comes to mind when teaching the next generation about the Holocaust. When do you start the conversation with your children, and how much detail should you give? How do you explain the reasons why the horrific events occurred? Considering that the witnesses are beginning to die and that genocide still takes place today, it’s more important than ever to teach our children about the Holocaust. Ensuring that our society never forgets the Holocaust legacy is the very reason education is at the heart of the matter.

Only five states in our country mandate Holocaust education in school, and R.I. is not one of them. Jews can tell personal stories to their children at home, and youngsters can learn about Jewish oppression in religious schools. However, as a community, how do we ensure that children are really learning the details of the Holocaust? What lessons, programs and curricula can the R.I. Jewish community impart on future generations?

Providence is fortunate to have the Holocaust Education Resource Center of R.I. (HERCRI), housed at the Dwares JCC. The mission of HERCRI is “to teach the history of the Holocaust in order to promote human dignity and justice, and to serve as a memorial to its victims.” More than 6,000 local students, ranging in age from middle school to college level, visit HERCRI every year. This valuable resource helps schools start the conversation and learning in the classroom.

In a recent Boston Globe travel article, correspondent Paul E. Kandarian noted, “Of the many holders of history on the East Side, one of the most compelling is The Holocaust Education and Resource Center of R.I., housing a library, some artifacts from the era, an audio-visual collection and memorial garden, and which arranges for Holocaust survivors to speak to local students or groups.

On January 14, eighth graders from La Salle Academy’s PEGASUS (Program to Enhance the Gifts, Aptitudes and Skills of Unique Students) visited HERCRI to learn more about the Holocaust and listen to Al Silverstein, a speaker who was part of the kindertransport. As a follow up, a class was taught at La Salle about children’s poetry from the ghetto of Terezín. Using the poem “The Butterfly” by Pavel Friedmann as inspiration, the students were asked to create their own six-word poems on brightly colored paper butterflies. It’s worth noting that, in 2012, Bob Lisi, PEGASUS principal, was recognized by HERCRI for his outstanding work on Holocaust education and received the Starr Teacher Award, sponsored by Bob and Joyce Starr.

Maryann Ragno, of Scituate High School, is another local teacher who takes on the responsibility of teaching Holocaust education in the classroom to ensure that future generations continue to remember. Ragno said, “I began teaching a unit on the Holocaust because I was in very inspired by my own children’s [learning] experience. … I was surprised at how little many of my students knew about the Holocaust, and wanted to do something about that.”

Maryann has been teaching the history of the Holocaust to her ninth grade honors English classes for the past six years. Throughout the four-week curriculum, students learn the history through books, videos, discussion, personal essays and reflections and testimony from Holocaust survivors. They even plan to visit the Museum of Jewish Heritage in New York City on Feb. 28.

As a culminating project, students are assigned the “suitcase biography,” which asks them to read the story of a Holocaust victim and choose at least ten objects that will depict the essence of their experience. The collection will be displayed in a suitcase accompanied by a written description of why each object was included and its significance. This project will be on display in gallery (401) March 3 - 10. Students will be presenting their projects on Monday, March 3, and all are welcome to attend.

Local teens are also given an opportunity to participate in the March of the Living (MOL) program, and lead the New England delegation under the direction of Jana Brenman, Director of Teen Engagement. MOL is a two-week educational mission conducted every year for high school juniors and seniors. This experience attracts between 9,000 and 10,000 Jewish youth from around the world. They unite to spend a week in Poland, where they visit places that were once filled with Jewish life and learning.

They also visit historical sites, including numerous concentration camps. On Yom Ha’Shoah, Holocaust Memorial Day, all participants of MOL bear witness to the past by walking the three kilometers (1.8 miles) from Auschwitz to Birkenau, the largest concentration camp complex built by the Nazis during World War II. They spend the second week of the trip in Israel, celebrating Yom Ha’atzmaut, Independence Day, as well as visiting a variety of exciting and ancient places. Leading up to the trip, students are required to take a weekly class in preparation for this extraordinary experience.

The trip is made possible by the Jewish Alliance of Greater R.I. in partnership with the Touro Fraternal Association, HERCRI, local synagogues and private donors. Brenman states, “This trip is life-changing for the participants, as they develop a strong Jewish identity, enabling them to become change agents for the future by standing up as leaders to injustice.”

Rhode Island is not unique in its quest to educate future generations through many avenues. One such way to further educate, inform and inspire is the construction of a Holocaust Memorial. In The Times of Israel, Gil Shefler reports that, even “though precise numbers are difficult to come by, Holocaust studies experts say museums and monuments dedicated to the genocide have proliferated across the United States over the past two decades.”

As the September 27, 2013 issue of The Jewish Voice reported, Rhode Island endeavors to create a memorial dedicated to the Holocaust. The anticipated memorial will give the community and future generations a permanent place on Providence’s River Walk to reflect and learn. The memorial committee (led by Herb Stern, Committee Chair and past federation president; Jeffrey Savit, President and CEO of the Jewish Alliance of Greater Rhode Island; and HERCRI) has also continued collaborating with Johnson & Wales University to create a technological component of the R.I. Holocaust Memorial.

Through a Directed Work Experience class, led by Jeffrey Teagen, Coordinator of Academic Innovation for the School of Technology, a group of four students has taken on all the research, development and, ultimately, implantation of an innovative way to give life to the memorial. Eric Beltram, Hayward Gatch, Wil Hall and Brandon Sciancalepore are developing a smart phone application that will provide visitors with information about the memorial and the history of the Holocaust. The addition of this innovative feature with the memorial design, created by artist Jonathan Boner, will be among the first of its kind.

Teaching our children is our only hope to ensure that history does not repeat itself. And, in our community, through these many different avenues, there does seem to be hope.

FOR MORE INFORMATION, contact May-Ronny Zeidman, Executive Director, at mzeidman@hercri.org or 401-453-7860. For information about MOL, contact Jana Brenman at jbrenman@jewishallianceri.org or 401-421-4111, ext. 181. For information about the R.I. Holocaust Memorial, contact Michelle Cicchitelli at mcicchitelli@jewishallianceri.org or 401-421-4111, ext. 178.

Michelle Cicchitelli is the Director of Jewish Life at the Alliance.