Clarksburg Students Host Holocaust Exhibit Thursday
CLARKSBURG, Mass. — Clarksburg Elementary School's eighth grade is inviting the community to the annual Holocaust Exhibit on Thursday evening from 6 to 9.
Teacher Michael Little said this year's exhibit will mark 11 years for the Grade 8 Holocaust study program and, although the exhibit has shifted and grown from its roots, the message still remains the same.
"It is an outreach project about the Holocaust, but at its basic level it teaches kids that prejudice and discrimination lead to things like genocide," Little said. "We look at how we treat each other through a historical lens, but then boil it down to how we consider each other day to day."
This year, Leo Goldberger will share personal testimony about surviving the Nazi takeover of Denmark and escaping to Sweden during the Holocaust. Goldberger is a writer and professor emeritus of psychology at New York University, where he had been director of its Research Center for Mental Health.
Goldberger was awarded The Order of Dannebrog by Queen Margrethe II of Denmark in 1993, has served as a consultant to several Holocaust resource centers, and edited the book "The Rescue of the Danish Jews: Moral Courage Under Stress."
Williams College professor Jim Shepard will also speak and read from his award winning holocaust novel "The Book of Aron" that tells the story of a Jewish boy who is driven from the Poland countryside during World War II to the Warsaw Ghetto and the tribulations he faces.
Students will set up their exhibits that display photos, images, and information gathered from research. This year students researched rescuers such as Oskar Schindler, Irena Sendler, Varian Fry, and Carl Lutz who saved many Jews from the horrors of the concentration camps.
"We dug out a lot of information and we have some very interesting information for each rescuer," Little said. "Some of these rescuers people may never have heard of. It's pretty comprehensive."
People can take whatever they want from the exhibit. The 15 rescuer exhibits will be surrounded by other exhibits from years prior that provide "broad brush strokes" of the history of the Holocaust.
"People can go around and read about the holocaust and then they will encounter rescuers," he said. "They can read more about what happens ... it really goes as deep as they want. There is a lot."
Although students were all responsible for their own boards, Little said they were not afraid to share their talents with their classmates.
"We have some kids who are terrific at drawing so they work on other kid's boards. Some kids have a great sense of design and could just look at a board and tell if something was wrong," he said. "It really is a big collaborative effort and I always equate it to if you walk into my classroom at that time it's like walking on to a movie set."
Little said the project is made possible by donations from Robert and Elaine Baum that fund the students trip to the U.S. Holocaust Museum. He added that other local businesses support the program and will provide Goldberger with lodging and food.
Little said urged all those interested to come to the exhibit to learn something new, support the students, and to see living history.
"I think it is important to see living history and living literature because there will be a time when we don't have a survivor," Little said. "So it's good to celebrate and really reflect and carry one beautiful thought out into the world and let it spread. I think it is important for the school, the community, and I think everyone that comes to see it will be touched."
Tags: Clarksburg School, Holocaust,
