Learning and teaching the history of the Holocaust

Eleven high students from Jersey City, New Milford, and Overland Park, Kan., are getting to see up close what they have learned about the Holocaust.

The trip, from April 19 to 29, was to include Berlin, Prague, and parts of Poland.

In Poland, the students were planning to visit the concentration camps of Auschwitz and Birkenau.

The trip is being led by June Chang, language and arts supervisor at the Jersey City school district, and Colleen Tambuscio, a teacher at New Milford High School.

Michael Kontomanolis, a senior at New Milford High School and his teacher, Colleen Tambuscio, a leader in Holocaust education, will speak at the annual Holocaust commemoration of UJA Federation of Northern New Jersey.

Tambuscio will be the community speaker at the UJA Federation of Northern New Jersey’s Holocaust commemoration at Temple Sholom, in River Edge, on Thursday, May 1. Michael Kontomanolis, a senior at New Milford High and a student in Tambuscio’s class, will also speak.

The event will start at 7:30 p.m.

The keynote speaker will be Julius Berman, chairman of the Conference on Jewish Material Claims against Germany.

According to Chang and Tambuscio, the students — juniors and seniors, nine from New Milford High School and three from Jersey City high schools — had to apply for the trip, demonstrate an understanding of history, write an essay, be interviewed, and commit themselves to do outreach upon their return from the trip.

In an interview before the trip, Tambuscio said the money for the New Milford students came from donations from individuals and foundations.

A fund-raiser was held for the Jersey City students, said Chang.

"The trip is a unique experiential opportunity for selected students to learn about Jewish history, World War II, and the Nazi era," said Tambuscio.

Six years ago, Tambuscio implemented a Holocaust studies program at New Milford High School that offers a one-semester course and a two-day seminar at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C.

This will be Tambuscio’s fourth trip with New Milford High students.

The founder of the Council of Holocaust Educators, a national organization for educators interested in teaching the Holocaust and genocide, Tambuscio said that the students’ group was expecting to meet with three of the children of the villagers who helped Otto Wolf and his family.

The Wolfs, who hailed from Trsice, a small town in Poland, hid for three years in underground bunkers in a forest until they were caught by the Nazis and killed.

Otto Wolf, 15 years old at the time, kept a diary of the experience.

For her class, Tambuscio has used a book of first-person accounts of the Holocaust, "Salvaged Pages," which includes the diary.

Milos Dobry, a Holocaust survivor from Olomuc, near Trsice, arranged a meeting in Trsice between the children of the villagers and the Americans.

Tambuscio found Dobry after approaching the Jewish community of Olomuc and researching names through Yad Vashem. She sent the names to Dobry, who asked the mayor of Trsice to help him locate the individuals.

Dobry and the villagers were planning to take the Americans to the bunkers.

"We are looking forward to that," she said. "A story like this is so far beyond what you can read."

Otto Wolf’s life has "a great connection" with the students because he was a young boy, she said, adding that they are curious to find out how the story has been passed down to the children of the villagers and how they feel about the past.

It was "a complex story of rescue because it was difficult for the villagers to hide the family for three years," Tambuscio said.

A brief account of the trip will be part of Tambuscio’s talk at Temple Sholom, she said.

Chang, who has a master’s degree in school administration, said the trip is intended to raise awareness of the Holocaust and genocide and to make sure that its history "remains with us after the survivors are gone."

Chang said that Tambuscio asked him to come on the trip last year after she learned about the leadership seminars that he organizes.

The Closter Public Library will mark Holocaust Remembrance Week from April 28 to May 3 with an exhibit for children from fifth to eighth grade.

It will include photographs of Auschwitz by Allen Fleisig, a former Teaneck resident; a Louis Malle film, "Au Revoir les Infants"; a story and art program called "A Hidden Child"; a book discussion; and an activity with children called "Identity Project: Holocaust Victims and Heroes." (The library advises parents to use their own judgment about whether a particular program is appropriate for their children.)

The library held its first Holocaust exhibit last year — about women who survived the Holocaust — on loan from the Center for Holocaust and Humanity Education at Hebrew Union College in Cincinnati, said librarian Julia Nock.

"It wasn’t as big as this year’s but we got a good response," she added. "This year we said, ‘Let’s build on that.’"

Nock, who selected the books and film for the exhibit, said that the library is not aiming just at a Jewish audience but also at those who don’t know about the Holocaust.

The Identity Project will be conducted by a teacher of Judaic studies at Temple Beth El of Closter, Lisa Friedman. Each participating child will received an identity card with a person’s name and will find out about him or her.

"Some were Jews, some were not, some survived, some did not," said Nock. "It is not faceless people, but actual ones."

Nock expects "some 15 to 20" children to register, but they don’t have to be from Closter.

The Jewish Community Council of Teaneck has invited survivor Henry Fenichel to its annual Holocaust commemoration, this year on May 1.

Born in the Netherlands in 1938, Fenichel was deported with his family to Auschwitz, from which he and his mother escaped. They were caught by the Nazis and sent to Bergen-Belsen.

According to a brochure provided by Mashy Oppenheimer, co-chair of the event, the Fenichels were given the opportunity to be part of a prisoner exchange with German prisoners in Turkey called Transport 222.

Fenichel taught physics at Cincinnati University, from which he retired in 2003.

"What will make this year’s commemoration different is that we never heard of Transport 222," Oppenheimer said.

The event will be held at the Teaneck High School at 7:30 p.m.