Child Victims of the Holocaust Memorialized at Illing Middle School

When 8th grade Illing Middle School language arts teacher Ryan Parker first began a study unit on the Holocaust, he had no idea it would end up emboldening the efforts of the whole school.

Parker said  he tried to zone in on what his students already knew about the Holocaust and what they wanted to know. In doing so, they studied not just the expected diary of Anne Frank, but also several other literary pieces, including the graphic novel "Maus," about a Polish Jew's retelling of surviving the Holocaust, and the article, "Walking With Living Feet" about a fifteen year old's impression after visiting a concentration camp years after the war ended.

"We looked at the causes of the Holocaust, the history behind the Holocaust, the history during the Holocaust, and its implications," said Ryan. "The kids also studied propaganda, the history of Hitler's life, the details of living in concentation camps, and the details around being raised as a Nazi child," he said. "I really tried to put [the students] in someone else's shoes."

It was a presentation by Phil Axler, however, that raised the study of the unit to a completely different level.

"It started when I came in to talk about Judaism," said Axler.  A paraprofessional at the school, Axler talked about Kaballahs, the Jewish mystics and their practice of honoring people in death by reciting their names. "It is supposed to raise the person to a higher level," said Axler.

Parker said Axler told him about the Butterfly Project started by the Holocaust Museum in Houston Texas, which is an effort to memorialize the 1.5 million children that died during the Holocaust.The project is collecting 1.5 million handmade arts and crafts butterflies for a display to be unveiled in the spring of 2013.  The Butterfly Project was inspired by the poem, "The Butterfly," by Pavel Friedman, a young Jew who died in the Auschwitz camp in 1944.

Participating in the project and creating a memorial garden for the children turned into a schoolwide event, Axler said, and culminated in a memorial remembrance at the school on Friday, June 19.  

"We were very fortunate that [Parker] could extend things beyond a reading of Anne Frank," Axler said. "The students cut out and made butterflies and wrote their own poems, using a theme of hope."

"I hosted the event and spoke a little about what we focussed on in our studies," said Ryan, adding that the project got many of the different educational departments involved.

Choral and chamber orchestra students performed Jewish songs and pieces from the movie "Schindler's List." Technical education students made handles for the butterfly nets. Family Consumer Science students made the netting for the butterfly nets.  The ceremony  included a candle lighting and a placing of stones and reading of children's names in their memory. In addition, everyone that attended received a handcrafted butterfly with the name of a child, his or her date of death, and where they perished, be it Auschwitz, Bergen-Belsen, or another concentration camp.

Several dignitaries attended the ceremony, including Lt. Gov. Nancy Wyman, State Rep. Geoff Luxenberg,  Mayor Louis Spadaccini, and Jay Moran, a member of the town's Board of Directors.

In her remarks at the remembrance ceremony, Lt. Gov. Nancy Wyman said the event had an effect on her on multiple levels – as a mother, as a grandmother, and as someone of Jewish faith.

"I have heard many stories and attended many events about the Holocaust, but I'm sure I am not alone in saying that it is still an almost unimaginable horror," she said. "For these students, and for all of us who live in the freest country on Earth, it is almost impossible to imagine having to hide for days, for weeks, for years because of your religion. It is almost impossible to imagine seeing your family be taken away to be killed, or to face the same fate yourself," she said.

But, as Wyman went on to say, the unimaginable really did happen and even though she wished that students there that day would never have to learn about that nightmare, it is important that they do so.

"It is important for them to know not only what happened to the children of the Holocaust, but for them to know what the Holocaust means in the context of their own lives," Wyman said. "Today should also be a time to remember that in many areas of the world, including right here at home, terror and violence based on prejudice are still very real. Today reminds us that the fight for peace and freedom never stops, and that we are all in this fight together. All nationalities, all races, all religions - and yes, all ages," she said.

"I was simply a teacher in a classroom who got excited about making our study unit bigger," said Ryan, who hopes the memorial ceremony can become an annual event. "The heart of this is to honor and memorialize those who have perished and to get as many people involved and informed from as many disciplines as possible," he said. "It was a very unifying experience."