St. John students meet Holocaust survivor
by Peter Jakey-Managing Editor
Reading a book about the World War II Holocaust was not as impactful to St. John Lutheran School students as hearing a survivor’s story in person.
Students from Tonya Langlois’ class went to the Holocaust Memorial Center Zekelman Family Campus in Farmington Hills and met Rene Litchman, who as a child, hid from the Nazi’s in rural France.
The students saw a boxcar that transported Jews to concentration camps, but it seems the wall that lists the number of people who were executed and the county they were from had the greatest impact.
“I didn’t realize how many people died in some of the places,” said eighth-grader Sarah Brege. “Poland had the most deaths with 3,001,000 people. Seeing those numbers made me realize that life is a wonderful gift that I should be thankful for even if I am going through a rough time.”
This is the second time Langlois was given the opportunity to take students.
“During college I waited on a man and his wife when the Water’s Edge was The Buoy,” said Langlois. “He was a docent at the Center, at its first location. He talked to me about his involvement. I took his information and held on to it. When I taught at St. John’s several years ago, I took a group of students and knew I wanted to do the same with our current Holocaust unit.”
This year’s group included 13 students, who had a choice to read the books “I Have Lived a Thousand Years” by Livia-Bitton Jackson and/or Lois Lowry’s “Number the Stars.”
“Although I read the book ‘I Have Lived a Thousand Years,’ the experience of the Holocaust Memorial Center was amazing and something I will never forget,” said Tansie Schleben, seventh-grade. “The book had a lot in it, but the Center gave you a better look at things and it was explained more to us…I had a great time there and will never forget about the lives that were lost.”
Sixth-grader Madeline Hardies said she learned a lot about what the Jews went through. She commented that they worked themselves to death or were put to death. “They did whatever they could to stay alive,” said Hardies.
“It was a sad but great experience to have the chance of getting to learn about the Holocaust,” said Ma Kayla Centala, eighth-grade.
Langlois appreciated her supportive board of education as well as the volunteer drivers and chaperones.“Our students will hold this culminating event not only as a school-year highlight, but as a lifelong invaluable blessing,” said Langlois. “I hoped for them to feel compassion for those who suffered and a sense of responsibility to tell others thus helping prevent future genocides. I felt that was
The Holocaust Memorial Center honors as survivors any persons, Jewish or non-Jewish, who were displaced, persecuted, or discriminated against due to the racial, religious, ethnic, social, and political policies of the Nazis and their collaborators between 1933 and 1945. In addition to former inmates of concentration camps, ghettos, and prisons, this definition includes, among others, people who were refugees or were in hiding.