As they sat inside a second-floor classroom, a group of Houston High School students who were tasked with helping host a one-of-a-kind Holocaust exhibit on campus said the process made a huge impact on their lives.
“You know it happened but if you don’t get into the details and gain that emotional connection. It doesn’t matter to you,” HHS junior Ty Bratt said. “Going through this project, it has helped all of us to really understand how deep these events really were.”
History came to life for the eight students – and a handful of others who helped along the way – as they created complementary pieces for the Lest We Forget exhibit, which features portraits of Holocaust survivors. It was installed late Wednesday morning and will be open to the public April 23 through May 4. Houston is one of two pilot schools in the nation hosting the exhibit.
“Looking into the faces of the portraits of 19 survivors – it’s going to impact you. We are honoring the survivors by telling their story.”
HHS junior Ty Bratt
HHS English teacher Jason Pounds, who is a Missouri Holocaust Education and Awareness Commissioner, tasked students in his Holocaust and Genocide Studies class with creating a plan to host the exhibit. Each student reviewed stories of survivors and chose one to research and write about. Their writings were converted into displays as well as audio stories that viewers can listen to while viewing the portraits.
“Just looking into the eyes of the survivors, there’s a story,” Pounds said. “But what I’m proud of is what this group has done to help share the story and message in a way that I’d like the public to see.”
Students said the project made an impact on them in a personal way through the lives they studied.
“Most of the survivors we wrote about were 15, 16, 17 – our age,” junior Carter Allen said.
“It gave us such a personal connection,” senior Kayla Wagner said. “It was heartbreaking knowing that some of the people were way younger than me.”
Junior Oliver Greiner said the project gave him a new understanding of a historic event – from 1933 to 1945 as approximately 6 million Jews were murdered by German Nazis – that previous classes had covered but not in depth.
“I had no idea it was that bad – all the details and how many people it impacted,” he said. “It’s such a huge part of history that not enough people know about. They know of the Holocaust, but they don’t know the details. It’s something that has shaped the world.”
The exhibit was installed on campus – on the grass outside the middle school building – by its creator, UNESCO Artist for Peace Luigi Toscano. It will officially open Thursday morning with tours for Houston middle and high school students.
Public self-guided tours are available from about 4 p.m. to dark on school days. A pamphlet is available with QR codes of HHS students telling the stories of the men and women featured in the portraits. Pounds said guided tours are available by emailing him at jpounds@houston.k12.mo.us.
A community assembly featuring Toscano will be held at 5 p.m. April 30 inside Tiger Fieldhouse. Earlier that day, there will be an assembly for middle and high school students.
The exhibit is the first school-based exhibition of its kind in the United States. It is funded by Bayer, spearheaded by Conversation Builds Character and supported by the Missouri Holocaust Education and Awareness Commission.
“This is not a political exhibit,” Pounds said. “This is about what happens when hate moves from speech to action. That’s the lesson of the Holocaust.”