P. Ross Berry 8th-graders create Holocaust Museum

By HAROLD GWIN

VINDICATOR EDUCATION WRITER

YOUNGSTOWN — In the center of the Projects Room at P. Ross Berry Middle School rests a table, set as though awaiting the arrival of a small group of diners.

But no one will ever eat at that table.

It was set up a solemn reminder of the effort of a World War II-era Jewish family trying to retain some of its religious traditions in a world seemingly gone mad.

The table replicates one used to celebrate Hanukkah by the family of Anne Frank, which spent nearly three years in hiding in an unsuccessful effort to avoid capture and incarceration by German Nazis.

It’s part of a temporary Holocaust Museum created by about 90 eighth-graders at P. Ross Berry, said teacher Lisa Perry.

Above the room’s doorway hangs a sign written in German — “Arbeit Macht Frei” — which in English means “work makes one free.” That’s also a replica of the sign that hung over the entrance to the concentration camp at Auschwitz.

Hanging from the ceiling are dozens of handmade butterflies, a representation of the artwork created by Jewish children in the Terezin concentration camp.

When the temporary museum closes, the butterflies will be sent to the Houston Holocaust Museum in Texas, which seeks to collect 1.5 million of them, one for each child killed in the Holocaust.

Perry said it was student teacher Abby Aebischer who suggested the eighth-graders spend time studying the Holocaust, which claimed the lives of an estimated 6 million European Jews.

The Youngstown State University secondary education major said the teaching staff was looking for a unit to study, and when the Holocaust was brought up, she learned that many of the pupils knew nothing about it.

For complete story, see Monday’s Vindicator or www.vindy.com.