“The War Within These Walls” Reading and Community Discussion
recipients: Christina Cote- Reinhart, Gardiner Public School, Gardiner, Montana
date: 2019

Christina Cote-Reinhart teaches in a small town of less than 1,000 people outside the North Entrance to Yellowstone National Park. “It can seem like another world here, and that the lessons of history do not apply inside this beautiful ridge of mountains,” she says. “I want my students to graduate and go to the ends of their dreams knowing the lessons of the Holocaust.” 

The TOLI mini-grant was used to buy a class set of books The War Within These Walls by Aline Sax and Caryl Strzeleck to enhance instruction about the creation and use of ghettos during the Holocaust. As a part of their unit, students read diary accounts of children in ghettos from Alexandra Zapruder’s Salvaged Pages: Young Writers’ Diaries of the Holocaust. Additionally, students shared their knowledge with parents and community members by hosting a community book discussion. Cote-Reinhart had 25 students and community members at the community book discussion, which received much positive feedback. Having an easy to read yet powerful graphic novel to highlight the discussion and learning renewed remembrance of the Holocaust and made a large impact in the small community of Gardiner.