History in their hands

At just 11 years old, Agnes Schwartz was forced to hide her identity to survive the Holocaust. Born in Budapest, she escaped Nazi persecution by posing as a Christian. Now, a Chicago-based volunteer at the Illinois Holocaust Museum and Education Center, she recently shared her powerful story with eighth graders and their families at Bernard Zell Anshe Emet Day School.

The event signified the launching point of an annual year-long interdisciplinary Holocaust studies project at Bernard Zell. This year’s project aims to empower students to become the next generation of storytellers. Students were given the special opportunity to handle and study a large number of Holocaust-era postal artifacts from the extensive Spungen Collection. The event featured eighth graders acting as docents for the artifacts.

“There’s always a value with historical events and teaching it in an interdisciplinary way,” said Bernard Zell Middle School Humanities Teacher Jeff “Doc” Ellison, who leads the project. “The Holocaust almost requires an interdisciplinary approach because it touches on so many different areas like psychology, anthropology, history, and economics.”

Each student will select one artifact to study in-depth. Then, they will write and illustrate a historical fiction story based on their chosen artifact, which will be compiled into a volume for the Class of 2026 to serve.

While this year’s project centers on artifacts, it has taken on a variety of forms since its inception. In past years, students collaborated with Graphic Novelist Ken Krimstein to create a graphic novel about the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising and designed a Torah mantle for a rescued scroll from Czechoslovakia.

“The project provides our students with a Jewish lens on the Holocaust as well as modern antisemitism that they can carry with them when they leave Jewish day school,” Ellison said. “That’s important especially now as the temperature continues to heat up.”