This text was produced as a part of the New York Jewish Week’s Teen Journalism Fellowship, a program that works with Jewish teenagers round New York Metropolis to report on points that have an effect on their lives.
On a freezing December day in Chicago, an aged lady sat in a chair in a small downtown auditorium, talking in measured tones about her household’s liberation from a Nazi detention camp in Vittel, France, on the finish of the Second World Conflict. Highschool college students leaned in, listening intently and asking her to clarify what her day-to-day life within the camp was like, what was probably the most distressing factor she witnessed and the way she coped with shedding so many relations.
She patiently answered each query intimately, telling the scholars that after she and her household moved to Skokie, Illinois, they not often spoke exterior the house about their experiences in the course of the battle. As soon as, her mom talked about the camps, and a neighbor responded, “It was onerous for us too, we couldn’t get nylon stockings.” After that, they solely mentioned it with different survivors, she mentioned. The lady urged the scholars to recollect her story and the teachings of the Holocaust, in order that they will use them to rework the longer term.
The speaker, Rodi Glass, was really in Florida on the time, however the college students have been interacting with an interactive hologram on the Illinois Holocaust Museum & Training Middle’s non permanent location in downtown Chicago. The hologram, one among 12 survivor testimonies created in collaboration with Steven Spielberg’s USC Shoah Basis, is a pre-recorded program designed to reply to college students’ prompts.
The interplay is a part of the museum’s Scholar Management Day, a program in its seventeenth yr that emphasizes the teachings of the Holocaust as a framework for younger folks to change into “upstanders” and leaders of their communities. One-hundred and thirty college students from 15 Chicago public and unbiased faculties — this yr none of them Jewish day faculties — attended the occasion in early December. College students are nominated to attend the occasion by their lecturers.
This yr’s management day had a brand new component. In response to the rise of Holocaust denial and distortion, particularly through on-line platforms, college students mirrored on the constitutional rights they worth most and created posters for social media. “Our rights are constant irrespective of the space,” ran one slogan created by a scholar group, whereas one other urged, “Let’s have motivation for training.”
College students collaborating in Scholar Management Day mirrored on the constitutional rights they worth most and created posters for social media. (Kathleen Hinkel)
Amanda Friedeman, the museum’s affiliate director of training, has led the occasion for the previous 15 years. This system is meant to introduce college students to the problem of human rights and the way they will tackle challenges in their very own communities, she mentioned.
“We convey collectively actually numerous teams of scholars from a wide selection of backgrounds — totally different geographical areas, several types of faculties and communities,” Friedeman mentioned. “We give them alternatives not simply to take a seat in a room collectively, however to really collaborate and get to know one another, to interact and discover widespread floor with individuals who at first could seem very totally different.”
Amongst Holocaust educators and Jewish students, debate continues over the targets of Holocaust training. Some educators and Jewish leaders argue it should stay centered squarely on antisemitism and the systematic genocide of Europe’s Jews, whereas others insist that curricula and museums ought to sounda common warning in regards to the risks of dehumanization, injustice and the ethical price of being a bystander.
The Illinois Holocaust Middle insists it could actually do each. In line with its web site, it gives packages on “the variety of Jewish identities and the number of kinds antisemitism has taken,” in addition to packages like Scholar Management Days, which goals to supply teenagers with the “instruments to face up in opposition to injustice and bigotry.”
On the finish of the current SLD, individuals provide you with an motion plan to hold out of their faculty. The museum supplies a small startup grant for these initiatives, and helps in-school follow-up programming. Whereas the exercise didn’t relate on to the Holocaust, its themes of social justice and making a constructive influence on their communities have been in keeping with the museum’s targets, mentioned Friedeman.
“Holocaust distortion is a significant issue,” mentioned Friedeman. “It has been growing over the previous a number of years. This exercise helps college students see the ways in which they will use social-media accounts as a software for good — a car for spreading consciousness and constructive messages.”
Within the museum’s major exhibit, the scholars discovered in regards to the Holocaust by way of the holograms and installations.
“It was a extremely good alternative to study some stuff that possibly wasn’t taught in class as a result of this can be a big subject and college solely carries a lot data,” mentioned Wesley Sternowski, 15, a sophomore at Saint Charles East Excessive College within the western Chicago suburbs. “Studying all of the tales round right here actually made me emotional. Once I examine folks’s households, it makes me take into consideration my household – and I simply can’t think about that taking place.”
Fellow Saint Charles East sophomore Emerson Garcia, 15, mentioned the exhibit made the horrors of the Holocaust extra actual. “In eighth grade, my class learn ‘Night time’ by Elie Wiesel,” she mentioned. “When you concentrate on the Holocaust, you don’t have a tendency to consider it on a private stage. The individuals who went by way of it didn’t assume that they have been going to lose their relations or their houses. It makes you cherish your life slightly extra.”
Within the museum’s major exhibit, the scholars discovered in regards to the Holocaust by way of holograms and installations. (Kathleen Hinkel)
Lyka Mulit, 14, a freshman at Lakeview Excessive College in Chicago, mentioned the museum had enriched her understanding of the Holocaust, which she had beforehand discovered about by way of quick items in her historical past courses, in addition to from data on-line. “One thing that struck me whereas I used to be on the museum was seeing everybody’s private belongings, particularly the infant garments and the small garments from the youngsters,” she mentioned. “It confirmed me how tragic and in addition private the Holocaust was.”
The management day is often held on the Illinois Holocaust Museum’s major web site in Skokie, in Chicago’s northwest suburbs. Nonetheless, in August 2025 the museum opened Experience360, its downtown presence, whereas the Skokie constructing is being renovated to incorporate a brand new customer welcome heart, a redesigned auditorium, and a mirrored image area.
The downtown location allows the museum to stage Holocaust programming for teams which may not make it to Skokie, mentioned Amanda Berman, the museum’s communications supervisor. Berman mentioned the non permanent web site had exceeded expectations, pushing the museum to rethink its unique plan of closing it within the second half of 2026, when the Skokie web site is because of reopen. “We had meant to function the Chicago museum just for one yr,” she mentioned. “Nonetheless, we’re seeing extraordinary demand for classes from historical past as advised by our museum. We’ll know what which means for our long-term plans someday within the spring.”
Allie Niese, an AP authorities and politics trainer at William Howard Taft Excessive College in Chicago, has introduced her college students to this system for a number of years. She mentioned she significantly appreciates the way it not solely goals to teach them in regards to the Holocaust, but in addition to direct them to motion.
“To be leaders of their communities isn’t just the one who stands on the soapbox for everyone to see,” she mentioned. “That’s what’s necessary a couple of day like this: experiencing and understanding the tales of the Holocaust. Management can are available in small moments. You don’t need to be the particular person with a megaphone to make a distinction, however you will be the one who stands as much as any person subsequent to you and encourages conversations which are welcome, sincere and inclusive. Management isn’t just the particular person main the road, however the one who is amongst everybody else too.”
Together with a number of different college students, Lyka adopted the occasion by placing into place the motion plan she designed on the day, geared toward combating homelessness. “We selected this challenge as a result of we seen numerous folks which are unable to afford housing, and that quantity is simply rising,” she mentioned. “We discovered methods to donate to homeless shelters, equivalent to creating fundraisers and beginning up class competitions for donating garments. We hope it will have an effect on our neighborhood, even when it’s a small one.”
Lyka famous the significance of Scholar Management Day in inspiring her to interrupt down a big challenge by way of small actions.
“I really feel extra assured in taking initiative in my neighborhood,” she mentioned. “Scholar Management Day confirmed me that I’ve a voice that issues. Figuring out that others are additionally taking initiative and making a distinction makes the work simpler and fewer scary.”
For her half, Emerson’s venture was to convey into her faculty folks affected by alcohol or drug habit, to share their private tales with college students. She famous that substance abuse impacts over 1,000,000 folks in Illinois alone and mentioned she hopes her initiative will educate her friends about it.
Since Hamas’s assault on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, Israel’s response has been a contentious challenge at some Chicago public faculties, prompting scholar demonstrations and walk-outs. The management program doesn’t talk about Israel, and Friedeman says the museum has not thought of altering that due to the battle. “The mannequin of this system is simply as efficient post-Oct. 7 because it was earlier than,” she mentioned.
Natalie Rodriguez, 16, a junior at Curie Metro Excessive College in Chicago, mentioned that this system bolstered the significance of standing as much as injustice: “Lots of people once they see issues taking place, don’t say something. They maintain to themselves,” she mentioned. “Rodi Glass mentioned herself that she would by no means talk about her expertise exterior of her home as a result of folks would brush her off. So converse up, converse out and use your voice to assist others.”
