Southeastern presents Holocaust Memory Project

Students who have been part of Southeastern Regional’s “Facing History and Ourselves” classes presented a “Historical Memory Project” on May 19, 2016. The event was the culmination of a year-long history course that taught them about human behavior and prejudice and how it relates to the Holocaust and their everyday lives.

Many of the students agreed that the curriculum and presentation provided an insight into history and human nature that they had never been aware of and may never have learned without the experience.

“I learned that people can be the most horrible, and on the other hand the most loving things on earth. It taught me what type of person to be,” said Jasmine Leslie, of Stoughton.

The first presentation included three separate performances in which students conveyed Holocaust experiences and their own challenging experiences that had helped them to grow emotionally. They used a combination of poetry, movement and story-telling to reenact stories about survivors, bystanders and resisters of the Holocaust. The scenes were juxtaposed with their personal stories that focused on the same theme. One students talked about how her mother survived spousal abuse and grew stronger because of it.

“I feel like I will fight forever because of you, mother – you are powerful,” she said.

The second part of the presentation included a documentary that focused on Jewish Holocaust survivors who were moved from their towns, to ghettos, to concentration camps in Poland. It was produced by Bailey Redmond, a Video Production major from Norton, in collaboration with his vocational teacher, Kate Brown, history teachers and students.

“It taught me a deeper process of emotion. I felt that I could emphasize with them immensely,” he said.

Facing History teachers Amy McLaughlin-Hatch and James Fernandes were awarded the Facing History MMS Innovation Grant for teachers last year to fund their projects. Mrs. McLaughlin-Hatch used her portion of the grant to partially fund a trip for teachers to Germany and Poland last summer and visited over 40 Holocaust sites. She documented her trip in photos and video with a camera also purchased with the grant. She also shared her trip experiences with her students, who in turn did their own research about the sites that included survivor stories.

Mr. Fernandes, who has a Theatre Arts background, guided his students with the performances. He used the grant to hire a consultant, Professor Bethany Nelson from Emerson College, who worked with the students for several weeks. She used a technique in which Holocaust photos were projected over the students’ bodies to help them channel the emotions of the victims.

“It helped us to experience history without (actually) experiencing it,” said Jeff Aldrich, of Easton.

Mrs. McLaughlin-Hatch said the most important aspect of the course has been learning about the personal stories from the Holocaust.

“Most of the students who took the course were seniors, and we helped them to get to know themselves as people and what decisions they will make in their lives when faced with issues of inequality such as injustice, discrimination, racism, police brutality and bullying. They learned about the Holocaust in depth and discovered those involved made choices and those choices made history. As seniors are ending their high school careers, we ask them ‘what kind of history do you want to make? Will you be an upstander and help those in need of assistance or will you be a bystander and do nothing?’ It is a powerful lesson and we are so fortunate to have the Facing History curriculum at Southeastern Regional High School,” she said.

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