SEBASTIAN, FL, APRIL 27, 2011 — Sebastian Middle School hosted a professional performance and educational service from Living Voices, a nonprofit based in Seattle to 300 eighth graders on Thursday morning.
A young professional actress, Campbell Echols, a teacher herself, will tell the story of Sarah, a composite character based on real friends and eye witness accounts of Anne Frank’s life.
Students will be able to witness the pain, loss and hope of young people during the Holocaust. The program, which combines acting, historical footage and live interaction is called “Through the Eyes of a Friend.”
It was brought to Sebastian Middle School through a grant provided by LEAH, the League for Educational Awareness of the Holocaust, a nonprofit devoted to teaching about the Holocaust and other genocides. This event is in honor of Holocaust Remembrance Day, May 2.
Alex Moskovic, a Holocaust survivor, will be on-hand as part of the interactive session with students following the Living Voices presentation. Moskovic was taken away at the young age of l3, separated from his family and siblings and brought in cattle cars to Auschwitz. In l945 he was liberated while at Buchenwald and soon after came to the United States where he had a family and worked for ABC Sports where he received l0 Emmys for his work.
“‘Tikkun Olam’ is a concept that means ‘repairing the world.’ As we teach our students about the Holocaust, and other examples of genocide such as Darfur, Rwanda and Bosnia we are in a very real way repairing the world,” said Jack Hodge, teacher and coordinator of the event at Sebastian Middle School.
“The story of Anne Frank, a child their own age, can be very effective in helping children identify with the terrible reality of the Holocaust. Nothing touches kids like a live performance, especially one they can identify with. I saw some of our students with tears flowing as they listened to the story last year, thinking about their own families being in Anne’s situation. Living Voices made it very real, very powerful.”
Educational programs such as this are designed to help children learn about time periods and events that may seem unimaginable to today’s youth. While many schools offer only a few paragraphs in their history books about the Holocaust, Sebastian Middle School has had a dedicated program since Jackie Solari started it about l0 years ago.
For more information about Living Voices visit http://www.livingvoices.org/main/main.html or call Jack Hodge at 772-564-5134.