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Organizing the week falls largely on the shoulders of the students guided by two teachers dedicated to creating awareness about the Holocaust. The biggest challenge is for the students to give their peers context. They are not exposed to much history prior to middle school, never mind the Holocaust. But the students do wonderfully putting together information and videos displayed on our school's morning news broadcast.
As part of the week-long reflection, there is a day long reading of names of children who were victims of the Holocaust. An adult is paired with a student on either side of the main hallway. They alternate reading the names, country of origin, birth year, death year, and age of death of individual victims.Students are hushed as they walk by. Many show some sign of respect beyond the silence as they move from class to class throughout the day.
This part of the week is very powerful and can evoke strong feelings and thoughts. As I stood reading names, I kept glancing over at my student reader. She is the same age as many of the victims...older than many, too. "What is going through her mind," I wonder, as I also think, "How fortunate she is due to time and circumstance."
Here and there, I almost choke on the words as I'm reading the names and ages of the victims. But I keep my composure as I know I want to afford each of the victims the respect they were denied during the Holocaust by recalling their names today.
Too often, in school, we are focused on the standards and testing. But we are really in the business of humanity. We need to take opportunities, like the Holocaust Remembrance Week, to touch students' hearts and bring out their emotions and empathy so they can better see their own significance in our world. They'll probably learn better, too.
If you have a lesson or event that touches students' hearts, or if this post has generated some thoughts of your own, please share in the comments. I would appreciate hearing from you.
