The Holocaust Speaker
Recently about 50 Vernon seniors in both the literature of the Holocaust and Issues of Conscience classes used Google Hangout to meet and hear the story of Jacqueline Mendels Birn, a Holocaust survivor. Birn told her firsthand account of luck and survival in France during World War II. She used PowerPoint to provide images of her family, some heirlooms, and the small basement where her father hid from the Germans.
The session was made possible by the hard work of Violet Reed, a senior service volunteers and member of the National Honor Society. Miss Reed functioned as the liaison between the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum and Vernon Township High School, working through snow days, scheduling issues and coordinating technical needs. This is the fourth time this year that students have used technology to meet face to face with speakers from around the world and the first time that this media has been used for Holocaust testimony. Students in Issues of Conscience and Literature of the Holocaust classes will use this experience as part of their on-going research for this year’s Tolerance Fair in June.
