GREENE: North Greene Junior High students exhibit Holocaust Museum

By Editor | January 26, 2022 |

Kaydence Ford showing off her Holocaust project. (Carmen Ensinger/Greene Prairie Press)

By Carmen Ensinger

It is one thing to read about a subject, but periods in history take on a whole new meaning when they are recreated through various art forms.
The North Greene Junior High eighth grade language arts class displayed around 65 different pieces of art work centered around the Holocaust after a six week study of the genocide of European Jews during World War II.
Between 1941 and 1945, Nazi Germany and its collaborators systematically murdered around six million Jews across German-occupied Europe, around two-thirds of Europe’s Jewish population at the time.
The class began the study of the Holocaust before the Christmas break.
“During the second quarter, through November and December, we read one of four different novels to learn more about the Holocaust as part of our reading unit,” English Language Arts Teacher Gina Edwards said. “Two of them were non-fiction and two of them were fictional texts and we did a lot of comparing and contradicting and learning about the Holocaust through those novels.”
They also watched videos of actual survivors of the holocaust.
“We had a guest speaker via Zoom from the St. Louis Holocaust Museum,” Edwards said. “Normally, I would have taken the kids to the Museum on a field trip where they could have heard her in person, but the Museum is currently under construction. But we were able to get a trunk from the Museum with books, posters and videos which the kids could go through and gather information from so that was kind of neat for the kids to experience.”
All in all, they spent about six weeks on the project and Edwards thinks the kids learned a lot.
“They not only learned about the history of the Holocaust but they also learned a lot from the survivors whose stories they heard,” she said. “They learned that life can be pretty hard and you can fight through that and still come out with a positive attitude. Some of these survivors were able to become public speakers and also become positive role models for those around them.”
But more important, they were able to see that discrimination extended beyond just color and sexual orientation.
“They were able to see hatred for no reason,” Edwards said. “The discriminations against not only the Jews but other groups as well that weren’t considered Hitler’s perfect society. We talked about paralles in our own society and some of the prejudices and hatred as well. I think it was an eye-opening experience.”
The students’ exhibits ranged from paintings and dioramas to poetry.
“There was a wide variety of different exhibits ranging from the rise of Hitler’s power to information from World War II to the medical experimentation done during the Holocaust,” Edwards said. “A few of them even did computer based videos and slide show presentations.”
Because the students worked so hard, the items were on display for the parents to see on Tuesday evening from 4:30 to 6:30 p.m. in the Junior High section of the high school.
“We had a nice crowd come out to see the work of our kids,” Edwards said. “The following day, we left it up for the rest of the kids in the school to come and take a look at. I’m very proud of the work these kids have done.”