A key part of the10th grade English curriculum is reading Night by Elie Wiesel.
Elie Wiesel was a Holocaust survivor, college professor, and world renowned writer, just recently passing away in 2016.
One of his most famous works, “Night,” recounts Wiesel’s late childhood and teen years, where he spent most of his time in a Nazi concentration camp.
Sophomores read this memoir and spend a lot of time assessing its importance and heavy message in their English classes. Therefore, this year, sophomores, along with select freshmen, juniors, seniors, and even some 8th graders, got to spend a day at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.
Sophomores Vincent Muscarella, Kenna Woodling, and Amelia Twigg were students that got to be a part of that group.
Twigg noted that it was helpful and gave her “a better understanding” to have read “Night” recently, and have some prior knowledge about this time period and “what actually happened in the camps,” before walking into the museum.
Similar to Twigg, Woodling said that reading “Night” not so long before embarking on this trip was helpful due to the fact that “It revealed the childrens’ side of the Holocaust which I haven’t read much about because I read more books regarding the adults’ side.”
The students, along with sophomore English teachers Mrs. Sandra Trick, Mrs. Alissa Martin, and Miss Rebekah Lundy, all departed for Washington D.C. at 5 a.m. on April 17.
“I woke up around 4:15, and ate breakfast while getting my stuff around,” said Twigg. “Even though I’d gone to bed earlier the night before, I was still super tired.”
Despite the early wakeup call, all of the students in attendance were eager to be able to go to such a historical museum.
“It was early but I was really excited about the trip and to learn more,” said Woodling.
After the long bus ride, students had the chance to also visit the World War II. memorial.
Arriving and getting safely checked into the museum was a process that required strict security and then a long wait. But upon officially entering the building, students were provided with an identification card that had a real person’s life described inside.
As the students made their way through the rooms, they could follow along on their cards and see what their person was experiencing in that time period. Then finally at the end, it was revealed if their person was one of the 11 million who lost their lives, or if they were lucky enough to live and grow old.
“I had a woman from Poland who lived in a small area near one of the camps. She lived in a small village with just her and her family and other families. In the end she lived, which made me really happy to hear,” said Muscarella. “I think the cards were a great addition to the museum.”
Twigg also stated how the ID cards helped to “understand more deeply.”
“Coenraad Rood was the person I got, he was a Dutch tailor,” Twigg said. “Both he and his wife survived the Holocaust.”
The Holocaust Museum is a self-paced, walk-through building of rooms full of various exhibits. There was artwork, videos, real shoes and clothing, a model of the infamous “Arbeit Macht Frei” gate (replica of the one still standing at Auschwitz), and a beautiful, candle-filled, memorial room.
“What really stuck with me was the cattle car you had to walk through,” said Muscarella. “When I walked in the whole room went silent for me knowing this car sent a lot of people to their deaths.”
After a much needed bathroom break, Twigg’s group spent a good chunk of their time reading through excerpts and watching videos in a room absolutely full to the brim with information.
“My favorite display was about the White Rose, a resistance group because they were fighting against Hitler in the heart of his territory. This proved that not all of the Germans agreed with him and were brave enough to fight back,” said Twigg.
Some of my personal favorites were the room of paintings that went from floor to ceiling and the Arbeit Macht Frei entrance sign, just given the infamous reputation they had and knowing I was seeing things most people only saw pictures of.
Twigg also was intrigued when it came to, “the Auschwitz entrance sign which in English said ‘Work sets you free.’”
“This sign was very interesting because it was mentioned in the book, [when] Elie walked through it,” said Twigg.
The Holocaust is an extremely heavy subject, and seeing real videos of the cruelty is tough for everyone.
“There was a very graphic video of Jewish people basically sawed in half for research purposes that stuck out to me because of how brutal and inhumane the Nazis were,” said Muscarella.
Despite traveling through the museum in different groups, Woodling was also touched by heartbreaking video proof of this catastrophic event.
“There was this one video that went through and showed what the Allies found when they liberated the camps,” said Woodling. “It showed all the dead bodies piled up and it was just skin and bone, it didn’t look like a human being.”
“Night” is just one of many novels, biographies, and memoirs that have been written by Holocaust survivors. The memorial museum displays many of these quotes, along the walls, that are equally as moving as the photos and videos.
Twigg’s group spent quite some time, honoring those who tragically lost their lives, in the candlelight remembrance room.
Upon entering the gorgeous, glass space, visitors were asked to please be as quiet as possible to pay their respects.
Wooden sticks were provided and hundreds of candles surrounded the outskirts of the room.
Most were strongly glowing, but every now and then one would flicker out and a student would get to relight it.
“I visited this room and it was very sad, but it was a nice experience where you could light a candle to memorialize the people who died at these different camps,” said Woodling.
It’s safe to say that every student that got to attend this trip, learned new facts about the Holocaust that they didn’t know before.
“I learned that gas chambers were underground which I never realized and also made me sad because they couldn’t even let them die on level ground,” said Muscarella.
Woodling shared that one of the many facts she learned was, “How many kids died from the Holocaust, which was 1,500,000.” When asked to describe learning this fact, and possibly hundreds of others, the one word she gave was, “Haunting.”
All in all, it was a very successful and informative trip. Students learned a lot and made tons of memories throughout the day they spent together.
“I handled [such a heavy subject] by being near friends that bring me joy and tried my best to find the good in so much evil,” said Muscarella. “The bus ride was really fun because I got to annoy Lindsay [Garber] and Brenna [Rosenbaum] the whole time.”
“This trip was really eye opening,” said Woodling. “[To] actually get to see some of the things they saw walking into the camps was shocking.”
Feautured photo (at top): A group of Montoursville students walk through the Arbeit Macht Frei entrance sign. The infamous structure was an accurate look alike of the one still standing at Auschwitz in Oświęcim, Poland. Photo taken by Lindsay Garber
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