Holocaust Survivor Addresses Honors 8 English Class

Students in the 8th grade Honors English class were treated to a compassionate presentation by Nazi Holocaust survivor Max Goldberger. He enthralled students with stories of his experiences as a young Jewish boy interned at a Romanian labor camp during WWII.

Mr. Goldberger grew up in the small Transylvanian village of Bistrita. In 1941 Jews were being rounded up and sent to labor camps all over Europe. At 18, Mr. Goldberger was sent to a camp in the Danube delta, where he would spend the next four years coping with the primitive and harsh living conditions of a Nazi labor camp.

The Honors English class recently completed their multi-genre research project on Hiroshima and the Holocaust. One of their reading requirements was Night by Elie Wiesel. The story is about a young man surviving the daily brutality of life at the Auschwitz death camp in 1944. Coincidentally, Mr. Goldberger's father and sister were transported to Auschwitz on the same train as Elie Wiesel.
Listening to Mr. Goldberger's anecdotes recounting the struggles of surviving the daily ravages of racism, anti-Semitism, hunger, and cruelty clearly resonated with the students. As difficult as it is for young people today to grasp the horrors of the Holocaust, Mr. Goldberger was able to personalize it in a way that students could make some important text-to-world and text-to-self connections.
I would like to extend a big mahalo to Julia Shropshire and her father for arranging Mr. Goldberger's visit.

John Mounts
Honors English 8

Posted on March 6, 2008 1:06 PM | Permalink