SCHOOL PROJECT Saving the story of a true survivor

The book's author grew up next to a Holocaust survivor without knowing it.
By STEPHEN SIFF
VINDICATOR TRUMBULL STAFF
HOWLAND -- A Howland High School teacher has collaborated with colleagues and about 20 student artists to tell the story of local Holocaust survivor Bill Vegh.
The booklet they produced -- part novel, part poem -- is in its second printing and expected to be used as part of the curriculum in Howland schools.
"It was very nice, very nicely done," said Vegh, of Liberty, who has been telling his story in area schools for 18 years.
Latin teacher Joanne Scarvell grew up next to Vegh on Rosemont Avenue in Austintown -- and baby-sat his children when she was in high school -- without having any idea of what he had been through.
She said she ran into Vegh again four years ago, when he was speaking to a group of Youngstown State University students.
Scarvell, 67, decided she wanted to tell Vegh's story. She redoubled her efforts on the project last year, as a way to cope with the grief of 14-year-old granddaughter Kyrsten Studer's death. The girl was killed when a car ran into her and a group of seven friends as they walked along state Route 304 in Hubbard.
'A humble man'
She said Vegh's story demonstrates how normal people, through their reaction to circumstances imposed upon them, can be heroes.
"He is such a humble man," she said about Vegh, 75, who worked for years in a factory manufacturing aluminum doors and windows. "He is amazing."
Teachers and students at the high school formatted and did the layout for Scarvell's 27-page text. Art students contributed collages and drawings to illustrate the pages.
Christina Morrell, a junior, said she found making a picture based on Vegh's life more moving than only listening to him speak. Vegh addressed Howland students earlier this year.
"To have to put creativity in it, that is more emotional for you," she said.
Vegh was 6 years old in 1943 when his family was deported from its home in Czechoslovakia to Auschwitz, a Nazi prison camp. His mother, sister and younger brothers died in the camp.
Vegh was freed when American troops closed in on the camp near the end of the war. He came to the United States in 1948.
Scarvell said she would like find a publisher to make the book available to the public.
siff@vindy.com