For those who survived the Holocaust or had family members who suffered, the atrocities are seared into their memories. Ensuring no one ever forgets is at the heart of numerous courses and programs being offered at local school districts.
Last month, the Masconomet Regional School District, in collaboration with Salem State University’s Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies, hosted “Evidence and Artifact: Documenting the Holocaust Through Images,” an exhibit by artist Richard Wiesel. Funded by a state Department of Elementary and Secondary Education grant, the exhibit was an extension of the interdisciplinary Holocaust curriculum incorporated into the district’s English and history classes, said Eva Urban Hughes, Masconomet’s Social Studies department head.
The approach reflects the complexity of genocide, a subject that doesn’t lend itself to reciting the number of lives lost, the many concentration camps, or “showing some horrific images, taking a test, and moving on,” said Hughes, who is of Slovakian descent and whose paternal grandfather was a Slovak resistance fighter and concentration camp survivor. “That’s simply not the way that you cover this kind of a topic. You have to really humanize this and personalize this for kids in order to build empathy.”
The exhibit incorporated workshops led by Christopher Mauriello, director of the Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies, and research associate Regina Kazyulina. The images, each accompanied by a brief description, were stark and distressing. Among them was a threadbare teddy bear, taken from a young Sinti boy who was struck dead by an SS guard at Ravensbrück. There were doctors’ instruments used by prisoner and former electrician Franz Cyranek at the Sachsenhausen infirmary. There was a dreidel uncovered during a 1971 excavation of a mass grave near the Lieberose labor camp.
Masconomet English students were asked to write poems based on the images. It was a compelling exercise, said Massimo Mastromattei, a junior from Middleton.
“When we came back into the room the second time, the air had changed,” said Mastromattei, who, like several classmates, admitted to only a passing knowledge of the Holocaust before seeing the exhibit. “Everyone had a lot of respect for this space.
“Poetry is an art that can convey a different level of emotion,” he said. “Doing this assignment, and then being able to share it, really allowed us to see how this affected us each on a personal level.”
“Cinched around a diminishing frame
Retaining what little heat its owner could muster
The warmth that sustains a life.
New holes poked with the passing days
Advancing closer and closer to death
As the hunger enveloped all.
But death never came.”
— From “The Belt,” Mariko Prazar, junior, Masconomet Regional High School
‘This class is not like other teaching’
Recent genocide studies reveal several troubling national trends, from citizens who can’t recall the severity of the Holocaust to disinformation campaigns distorting or denying the killings. A 2020 survey commissioned by the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany, touted as the first 50-state survey of Holocaust knowledge among millennials and Generation Z, stated 63 percent didn’t realize that 6 million Jews were murdered, and more than half thought the death toll was fewer than 2 million.
Mauriello, a longtime Salem State University history professor, said most of his students are aware of the Holocaust, but added: “There’s a real deficit in understanding the history of the Holocaust in terms of complex causes and how it unfolded under the Nazis in occupied Europe.”
The Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies works with public school districts to decipher those issues. In the past year, it has coordinated an online professional learning community for curriculum directors and teachers, professional development workshops, and an on-campus conference on new genocide teaching methods. Much of that work focuses on finding a balance between presenting an unvarnished, honest depiction of genocide, while recognizing the potential trauma of teaching that material to teenagers.
“As a professor with university students, I’m able to explore some of the more disturbing aspects of the Holocaust in both written and visual form, but am careful not to exploit the shock value of such violent images,” said Mauriello. “I also talk with my students about processing this history personally, checking in on them and making sure they’re OK.
“We spend a good deal of time with our middle and high school teachers specifically on the pedagogy of using violent images or words and carefully selecting books, texts or films and documentaries that are age appropriate,” he said.
At Essex North Shore Agricultural & Technical School in Danvers, English teacher Justin Bilton and history teacher Jason Stark created a Genocide Studies course in 2016. Student awareness and sensitivity were priorities.
“This class is not like other teaching,” said Bilton. “It’s gravely important. It’s deeply depressing. It’s emotionally challenging. Some days I feel like I’ve been kicked in the chest, and I know the kids do, too.
“But ultimately, this is a hopeful course. It feels good to teach it,” he said. “The kids understand the importance implicitly. They leave feeling like the reading they did and the hours of research meant something.”
Stark said the course concentrates on taking “an academic approach to how we analyze the Holocaust as well as other genocides.”
“This is not to lose sight of the humanity or emotionality of the topic, but we believe that a strong academic foundation helps them become scholars who can then safely process the material,” said Stark. “We don’t generally focus on the gore or death of the genocides we study, though that is a part of the work. We focus on those mechanisms that allow genocides to occur.”
“A girl who searches for meaning in her life
Puts hopes into a present from her grandfather
Believing she will discover her purpose
Through faith based upon the miniature religious texts”
— From “The Tanakh,” Alessio Polito, junior, Masconomet
Creating a baseline for educators
The state’s Genocide Education Act of 2021 established teaching requirements regarding the Holocaust and other genocides, and created a Genocide Education Trust Fund to help establish coursework and promote professional development. The legislation’s intent, said Stephen Waisgerber, Marshfield High School’s history and social studies department head, “seems to be obvious — a continued and developing understanding of man’s inhumanity toward man.”
Hughes accessed that fund to enhance Masconomet’s Holocaust curriculum and host the Wiesel exhibit. “My first goal was creating a baseline for educators,” she said. “How are we going to approach this material thoughtfully and in an appropriate way, from middle to high school students?
“Then, the bigger purpose is the student piece,” Hughes said. “How are students learning about, and thinking about, and processing genocide studies? I’ve found, and I think that many of my fellow teachers would agree, that the more you personalize this, and think about how this individual, this human being, experienced it, that really brings it home.”
Other schools have taken similar action, though many programs predate the Genocide Education Act. Haverhill teacher Theodore Kempinski developed a “Holocaust and Humanity” course 12 years ago. Meghan DeLong, social studies and history coach for Haverhill Public Schools, said the district is the first in the United States to partner “with the Auschwitz-Birkenau Memorial and Museum to provide live, virtual tours of Auschwitz I and Auschwitz II — Birkenau — led by a museum educator on site.”
In Hingham, eighth-graders read Anne Frank’s “The Diary of A Young Girl,” and last summer middle schoolers read “Linked,” about antisemitism at a present-day middle school. “This was followed up with a ‘One Book, One School’ day of related lessons across the curriculum, and a school-wide Zoom with a Holocaust survivor,” said Andy Hoey, Hingham’s director of social studies.
In 10th grade, Hingham students are introduced to Holocaust studies through a Modern World History course and texts such as Elie Wiesel’s “Night” and Art Spiegelman’s “Maus” in their world literature course. Since 2017, Hingham High School has offered an elective — Holocaust and Human Behavior — based on curriculum from global nonprofit Facing History & Ourselves.
“Students have met with Holocaust survivors and embarked on a virtual tour of Auschwitz-Birkenau,” Hoey said.
Though Marshfield doesn’t offer specific genocide courses, Waisgerber said the topic is covered in grades 9 through 12. The Genocide Studies program at Essex Tech, said Bilton, spans the 20th century — Armenia, the Holocaust, Holodomor, Cambodia, Bosnia, and Rwanda — as well as current events and international justice. The class, said Stark, “is a humanities course,” with materials based on guidelines from the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.
“We use more scholarly sources, like [Christopher] Browning’s ‘Ordinary Men’ and [Father Patrick] Desbois’s ‘Holocaust by Bullets,’ as they’re more focused,” said Stark. “We have grown our Armenia unit substantially in the past few years. We plan on bringing in more about the atrocities against Native Americans in the coming years.”
“Here I lay,
Worn and rotting, once loved,
Captured as a relic of time past;
Just a glimpse into other lives,
Lives that were ended too soon,
Lives taken from this world.
Here I lay as a last reminder,
Never to be played again.”
— From “The Dreidel,” Alice Beringer, junior, Masconomet
Nurturing empathy
Moving forward, educators acknowledged they don’t want to confine the Holocaust, or any genocide, to the annals of history, and instead aim to apply lessons learned to current and future situations.
During the fall and winter, Essex Tech students evaluated daily updates regarding the hostilities in Gaza and the Middle East, “checking sources, debunking misinformation on social media, and gauging the situation in terms of international law,” said Bilton. “We have done a lesson on antisemitism and Islamophobia since Oct. 7.”
“Throughout all of this, we have had no complaints from students or parents. I believe this is because our approach is based on sound information, the letter of the law, and the ability to disagree with civility about very controversial issues,” he said. “I’m proud of these kids for engaging in a dialogue about this horrific war that is often more nuanced and more mature than most of the so-called adult discourse I’ve heard.”
Stark, like Hughes, said the overarching goal is to nurture empathy among students.
“For many of them, that’s the best entry point,” he said. “From there, their investment in the academic pursuits of the course grows exponentially, while not losing sight of the fact that all these genocides are about individuals, families, and groups — the human factor.
“Long term, we’d love to see the students become advocates for human rights locally, and globally,” said Stark. “They don’t have to become human rights lawyers … but being involved in helping their community be more inclusive and safe is certainly noble.”
Alessio Polito, a Masconomet junior from Topsfield, said Wiesel’s Holocaust exhibit did just that.
“It’s really important to keep these stories alive, to continue teaching other generations, and having that exposure, because when I stepped into the room, I didn’t know that much about the Holocaust,” said Polito. “But after the exhibit, after learning the stories in a general context, it gave me a more complete understanding, and understanding just how important it is. So I definitely feel like we should keep these memories alive, and pass them on.”
“Forged in a factory a long time in the past,
Each part was created with a vision for it to last —
Throughout the tests of time and the consequences of strife,
Maybe someday these tools could save somebody’s life.”
— From “Tools of Resistance,” Massimo Mastromattei, junior, Masconomet
Brion O’Connor can be reached at brionoc@verizon.net.
