Students study Holocaust
SAMOHI The choices made today can shape tomorrow.
It’s a lesson that students in a freshman seminar at Santa Monica High School have learned over the past four months and one that will be relayed to the public tonight through an exhibit that features a series of poems, essays and art work that ties in the Holocaust with the power of choice.
Titled “Saving Memories: History as a Witness to the Future,” the exhibit showcases the work of more than 100 freshmen that spent several months studying a survivor from the 1939 Club, one of the largest organizations of Holocaust survivors that is based in Los Angeles. Each student in the mandatory freshman seminar was charged with the task of examining a survivor’s testimony and transcribing the power of that experience into the form of a written or art piece. Part of the assignment included connecting the survivor’s experience to themselves, said Tisha Reichle, who teaches one of the sections.
“The class is about choices and the factors that influence the choices we make, ” the Samohi teacher said on Monday. “It looks at what influences the choices we make and looks at how we can make a more positive contribution to our community, whether it’s our geographical neighborhood, school community, racial community or religious community.”
The seminar is sponsored in conjunction with Facing History and Ourselves, an international organization that aims to educate students about issues of racism and prejudice in society. The non-profit organization provides the framework and resources for the freshman seminar, a program they run in various high schools and grade levels across the country.
The exhibit, which is an aspect of the year-long course, is part of the Ninth Annual Holocaust Art and Writing Contest, which is sponsored by Chapman University. The students responsible for the top three pieces, which will be announced at the high school tonight, will be sent to Chapman University next week where they will compete with hundreds of students from Southern California. The student that earns the top prize will win $500.
“The students were asked to reflect on the memories that spoke to them and what the importance is of having memories,” said Mary Hendra, the program associate with Facing History and Ourselves.
The exhibit tomorrow night will feature Alfred Benjamin, a Santa Monica resident and Holocaust survivor.
Benjamin, who has lived in Santa Monica for 36 years, was born in Hamburg, Germany in 1936 and was the only member of his family to survive the Holocaust. The career photographer and artist has traveled the country on speaking engagements, teaching the history of the Holocaust through his own personal experience.
“I want to give (my memories) to the next generation so that the memory will be kept alive,” Benjamin said on Monday.
Facing History and Ourselves’ involvement with Samohi’s freshman seminar began about three years ago to provide a place where students could explore the issue of identity, said Hendra, who taught the course in 2005.
Aside from the Holocaust, the students have studied other genocides that have taken place throughout history, including the Armenian and Rwandan genocides.
“We look at the Holocaust and the (factors) that influence the choices people make — the choice to be a bystander and do nothing, to be upstanders and to rescue people,” Reichle said. “To in some way do something or to be a witness.”
The exhibit and reception will be held at the Mortensen Library on the Santa Monica High School Campus, 601 Pico Blvd., from 5:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m.
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on January 29, 2008. Read the original PDF.