One could hear a pin drop in Diller Hall during the recent Holocaust Memorial assembly, where Upper School students were riveted by the story of the “13 Drivers’ Licenses.” In the decaying brown envelope, the driving licenses of 13 Jews had been buried and forgotten for 80 years. “They had been in the bathroom cupboard and likely found numerous times before they were reported. People didn’t know what to do with them, so they continued to hide them away,” said Lisa Salko.
Ms. Salko is a part of the project 13 Drivers’ Licenses, where a group of Jewish relatives were contacted to partner with students living in the town Lichtenfels, Germany. Juniors and seniors experienced the project for the first half of the morning, which included Ms. Salko’s presentation, followed by a walkthrough of the posters detailing the lives of the 13 Jewish members of the small town.
“I liked how she was a descendant of someone from the Holocaust and someone who wasn’t entirely in touch with their heritage until they were reached out to,” said junior Ben Nadorf.
Upper school students walked around the CCAT to explore the lives of the 13 Driver’s License holders. Posters were found spaced out on each of the levels so the area wasn’t overcrowded. This poster is of Josef Kraus, one of the licenses of a person in Nazi Germany.
Ben believed this made the presentation more interesting because the listeners could walk through the exploration with her. In addition, hearing about the 13 different licenses and the lives those people lived was something Ben found to be engaging.
This experience was followed by individual stories from Holocaust survivors or their family members. Students were split into homerooms to hear the retelling of the lives of Holocaust survivors.“The woman in my room talked about her grandfather and about his experience as a Holocaust survivor. He didn’t know where his family had gone, and he had lost his father and had navigated through many camps,” said junior Jiya Dhakad.
Many of the personal stories came from the grandchildren of Holocaust survivors because we are entering a time when many of the holocaust survivors have passed away. The grandchildren and relatives retelling the stories stayed accurate to the details that they had learned from the original Holocaust survivor, though.
“It resonated with me because she had notes from him about his story that she was reading from, and so it was definitely a first-person perspective of the experience he had because it was like actual words that he had written down.”
The freshmen and sophomores experienced the same presentations but in the opposite order. The first part of the morning was spent in homerooms hearing the stories of various Holocaust survivors or their family members, and they got to experience the same presentation and walkthrough that the Juniors and Seniors participated in.
Speakers came to each homeroom to speak about their grandparents experience in the Holocaust. This speaker brought a Nazi helmet and an article to enhance her presentation to students. She also brought articles to educate students, and specific stories told by her grandparents.
Overall, many students thought the International Holocaust Remembrance Day programming was well done and was an improvement over last year’s programming.
“Last Year, we just had signs and the TikTok video, so anything felt like an improvement from that. I think last year’s felt very out of touch, but this one I actually liked because it was in presentation format and included people’s specific stories,” said Ben.
Students enjoyed the inclusion of personal stories and the overall organization. Last year, there were signs, a TikTok video, and similar homeroom stories, but they didn’t compare to the plans for this year. These details made the Holocaust Remembrance Day a great improvement to last year’s.
