Ryan Gloyer seventh graders observe International Holocaust Remembrance Day
About 125 seventh graders at Ryan Gloyer Middle School observed International Holocaust Remembrance Day last week with a presentation from Lynne Ravas, generations speaker from the Holocaust Center of Pittsburgh.
Generations speakers share the stories of their relatives who are Holocaust survivors.
The presentation was a collaborative effort between the school’s history and English departments to teach empathy and tolerance through Holocaust education.
Ravas, the daughter of a Holocaust survivor, spoke to students about the adoption and refugee immigration of her father from a German Jewish orphanage to Bronx, New York.
“While textbooks can be a really beneficial resource for our students, and we certainly use those, sometimes it takes a hands-on approach for students to really grasp lessons, and we thought that this was a really good opportunity for our students to hear from someone who actually has a connection to someone that was in the Holocaust,” English teacher Maggie Mollura said. “And I think that her story was so powerful and so moving. Students really could empathize and take away some meaning from her story.”
History teacher Victoria Hinchee said sixth-grade students focus on the Diary of Anne Frank, and learn about the history behind World War 2 and the Holocaust. By seventh grade, when they learn about ancient civilizations, students are able to trace persecution through several centuries and bridge together different periods in history.
Hinchee noted it wasn’t until the very end that the speaker mentioned the person whose history she was recounting was her father. She said Ravas pulled out the lederhosen worn by her father when he was seven years old and had immigrated to the United States as a refugee.
“In that moment, you could almost feel the gasp from the students,” Hinchee said. “And it kind of gave you chills … seeing the clothing that she held in her hand and knowing that her dad was in that pair of clothing, that outfit when he came over. The kids really made that connection and then saw the pictures that she had on her PowerPoint of her with her father, and what he looked like.”
Ravas’ father is alive today, Hinchee said.
“And that's something that we're unfortunately losing as time passes by,” she said. “We're losing the stories from the survivors themselves because time is passing by. And so unless they were a child or very young, when they experienced what they did in the Holocaust, time has taken its toll and we're losing a lot of the survivors’ firsthand stories. So to be able to see his clothing he wore that day, and then for her to say ‘That was my father,’ — that really made such an emotional impact on our seventh graders that you could see it visibly on their faces. You could feel that shift in an emotion in the room.”
At the end of the day, students painted ceramic butterflies as part of a $210 grant from the Holocaust Center of Pittsburgh. The grant application was approved at a school board meeting Monday, Jan. 22.
Mellora and Hinchee said each painted butterfly is a remembrance.
The Butterfly Project began as an initiative to honor Holocaust survivors and display 1.5 million butterflies around the world, one for every child who died in the Holocaust.
“The butterflies are a symbol of hope,” Hinchee said. “There’s a whole story and a background that goes along with the butterflies — how the children in one of the (concentration camps) would paint butterflies because it helped them remember happier times.”
The painted butterflies will be on permanent display at the library in the middle school.
