Children of the Holocaust – Point of View Project
recipients: Sherry Chapman, Daniel J. Savage Middle School, Modesto, California
date: 2018

The Children of the Holocaust – Point of View Project was created to increase empathy among 8th graders at Daniel J. Savage Middle School in Modesto, California. During the 2017/18 school year, Sherry Chapman and three other 8th grade teachers led the project, striving to expand Holocaust education beyond the core curriculum by having students engage with individual texts and subsequently share those stories with their classmates.

The Olga Lengyel Institute for Holocaust Studies and Human Rights grant supported this project and helped Sherry purchase two class sets of books to enhance the school library’s Holocaust literature section. The books are available to over 250 8th grade students, allowing students to individually read different fiction and non-fiction accounts of child experiences in the Holocaust. These diverse accounts helped students make deeper connections to the world around them and empathize with those who lived through the Holocaust.

Students then created Flipgrids and symbolism projects about their books, which have been displayed in the school’s library, and will later be showcased at an open-house event in the school’s gym. By the end of the school year, the project will have reached an audience of 800 students, staff and community members. A web page created by Sherry gives their work, including ekphrastic poems written in response to children’s art from the Holocaust, an even wider platform, with the aim of generating interest and anticipation for the 10-week-long Holocaust unit that 8th grade students take.