Holocaust Survivor Coming To Speak March 25
July 28, 2016 at 4:25 p.m.
By David [email protected]
Her visit grew from a Holocaust Memorial Garden created by Leesburg Elementary School students two years ago.
The presentation to Warsaw and Wawasee sixth- through eighth-graders will be given at noon March 25 at the Manahan Orthopedic Capital Center, Grace College, Winona Lake. The presentation open to the public will be at 6 p.m. March 25 at the MOCC.
During the 2011-12 school year, Leesburg sixth-graders watched the documentary “Paper Clips” about a school in Tennessee that collected paper clips, one for each victim of the Holocaust. A lot of people got involved and sent the school paper clips, including celebrities. The Leesburg kids saw that and wanted to do something.
In May 2012, students in Teresa Jordan’s sixth-grade class at Leesburg created the Holocaust Memorial Garden at the school. After a story about it was published in the Times-Union, Jordan said she received many wonderful responses.
One woman sent Jordan a note about Kor and the CANDLES Holocaust Museum she operates in Terre Haute. Jordan wanted to take her students down there so Kor could speak to them, but the trip is four hours one way so that wasn’t going to work.
Jordan approached Warsaw Community Schools Assistant Superintendent David Hoffert and asked if there was any extra money for a guest speaker. Unfortunately, Hoffert told her, there was not, but Hoffert was curious who Jordan had in mind. When Hoffert was the principal at Northfield, the school had Kor as a guest speaker, so after Jordan told him it was Kor, he encouraged Jordan to raise the money to bring Kor here.
After about 1-1/2 years of Jordan’s fundraising efforts, she was able to get enough donations so Kor could come to Kosciusko and give two presentations on the Holocaust and how she came to forgive the Nazis for their crimes. Jordan said she got donations from Maple Leaf, Bowen Center and a private donor. The Kosciusko County Community Foundation also jumped on board, with Executive Director Suzie Light telling Jordan it was exactly something the Foundation was looking to do.
“This was two years in the making,” Jordan said.
Hoffert said the event ballooned from the initial plan. It was going to just be a presentation to the Leesburg sixth-graders. Then the plan grew to include the community. They wanted to then make sure the middle school students got to hear Kor speak because she brings with her messages of anti-bullying, standing up for one’s self and forgiveness.
Jordan said she ran into her students from two years ago who were still excited about the Holocaust unit and they wanted to hear Kor speak.
Hoffert said as the plans grew, they had to move it from Leesburg to Lakeview Middle School to the high school’s Performing Arts Center to the Tiger Den. Finally, they determined the best place for it was the MOCC. He said the noon presentation to students, teachers and administrators will be at 100 percent capacity. The afternoon public presentation is first-come, first-serve and seating capacity will be 2,500.
Through the Community Foundation, Hoffert said an incredible group of volunteers has been put together for the event.
After Kor’s presentation and a question-and-answer period, she will sign copies of her book “Surviving the Angel of Death: The True Story of a Mengele Twin in Auschwitz.”
Kor’s book details how she survived the Auschwitz concentration camp and the medical experiments of Nazi doctor Josef Mengele on her and her twin sister, Miriam. Their two older sisters and parents died in the concentration camps. Miriam died later from complications of the experiments conducted on her. Kor later forgave the Germans because carrying around hatred was a burden in itself.
A few hundred copies of her book are being passed around in the community, Hoffert said. Jordan had a classroom set of the books, which she started sharing with other teachers. She and retired teacher Christine Foster also have been sharing resources on Kor and the Holocaust with other teachers and the community.
Hoffert said all Warsaw Community Schools sixth-grade classrooms have at least one copy of Kor’s book. The two middle schools have lots of copies of the book, thanks to the schools’ PTOs stepping in to provide more. Every teacher at the middle school has at least one copy of the book.
“We want to make sure everyone has heard about it or read the book,” Hoffert said.
One of the things WCS talks about is pursuing dreams and enriching the lives of others, Hoffert said. Jordan’s efforts to bring Kor in is a perfect example of a teacher doing both of those things.
“Teresa had an interest in this and she expanded her dream to enrich the lives of others with this powerful story," he said. “We can’t say enough of how privileged we feel to ride along with Teresa because she’s really gone out of her way to make this happen.”
Jordan said the whole idea of the Holocaust and World War II has been a passion for her. She shows her students how if they just sit back and let someone tell them what to do, they will end up in a terrible place. They need to stand up for themselves.
She said billboards will go up to advertise the March 25 event. Hoffert said the Community Foundation also has a website at http://kcfoundation.org/evakor/ with a lot of details.
In the future, Jordan hopes to write and receive a Lilly Endowment grant to travel with Kor to Auschwitz. Every year Kor takes a group of people to the concentration camp to explain what happened to her and others. If she gets the grant, the earliest Jordan could travel would be in summer 2015.
“That’s my next personal endeavor,” she said.
Leesburg Principal Randy Dahms said Jordan, the Holocaust unit and Kor’s book have really impacted the school culture. “At Leesburg we just try to incorporate Project Based Learning. This has been a model of creating something and moving forward,” he said.
The students, he said, develop a love for studying WWII and the Holocaust and find ways to relate other things to what happened then. Through it they can see how things like bullying are bad.
“My kids already read the book in December. I have kids in my class not at the reading level of the book, but they pushed themselves to read this one,” Jordan said. “It proves what interest can lead a child to do. They amazed me and they can’t wait to meet her.”
She said the book is kid-friendly but gets the message across. Hoffert said “Surviving the Angel of Death” is part of the Young Hoosiers Reading List.
Copies of the book can be purchased online at barnesandnoble.com, amazon.com and the CANDLES Holocaust Museum website.[[In-content Ad]]
Her visit grew from a Holocaust Memorial Garden created by Leesburg Elementary School students two years ago.
The presentation to Warsaw and Wawasee sixth- through eighth-graders will be given at noon March 25 at the Manahan Orthopedic Capital Center, Grace College, Winona Lake. The presentation open to the public will be at 6 p.m. March 25 at the MOCC.
During the 2011-12 school year, Leesburg sixth-graders watched the documentary “Paper Clips” about a school in Tennessee that collected paper clips, one for each victim of the Holocaust. A lot of people got involved and sent the school paper clips, including celebrities. The Leesburg kids saw that and wanted to do something.
In May 2012, students in Teresa Jordan’s sixth-grade class at Leesburg created the Holocaust Memorial Garden at the school. After a story about it was published in the Times-Union, Jordan said she received many wonderful responses.
One woman sent Jordan a note about Kor and the CANDLES Holocaust Museum she operates in Terre Haute. Jordan wanted to take her students down there so Kor could speak to them, but the trip is four hours one way so that wasn’t going to work.
Jordan approached Warsaw Community Schools Assistant Superintendent David Hoffert and asked if there was any extra money for a guest speaker. Unfortunately, Hoffert told her, there was not, but Hoffert was curious who Jordan had in mind. When Hoffert was the principal at Northfield, the school had Kor as a guest speaker, so after Jordan told him it was Kor, he encouraged Jordan to raise the money to bring Kor here.
After about 1-1/2 years of Jordan’s fundraising efforts, she was able to get enough donations so Kor could come to Kosciusko and give two presentations on the Holocaust and how she came to forgive the Nazis for their crimes. Jordan said she got donations from Maple Leaf, Bowen Center and a private donor. The Kosciusko County Community Foundation also jumped on board, with Executive Director Suzie Light telling Jordan it was exactly something the Foundation was looking to do.
“This was two years in the making,” Jordan said.
Hoffert said the event ballooned from the initial plan. It was going to just be a presentation to the Leesburg sixth-graders. Then the plan grew to include the community. They wanted to then make sure the middle school students got to hear Kor speak because she brings with her messages of anti-bullying, standing up for one’s self and forgiveness.
Jordan said she ran into her students from two years ago who were still excited about the Holocaust unit and they wanted to hear Kor speak.
Hoffert said as the plans grew, they had to move it from Leesburg to Lakeview Middle School to the high school’s Performing Arts Center to the Tiger Den. Finally, they determined the best place for it was the MOCC. He said the noon presentation to students, teachers and administrators will be at 100 percent capacity. The afternoon public presentation is first-come, first-serve and seating capacity will be 2,500.
Through the Community Foundation, Hoffert said an incredible group of volunteers has been put together for the event.
After Kor’s presentation and a question-and-answer period, she will sign copies of her book “Surviving the Angel of Death: The True Story of a Mengele Twin in Auschwitz.”
Kor’s book details how she survived the Auschwitz concentration camp and the medical experiments of Nazi doctor Josef Mengele on her and her twin sister, Miriam. Their two older sisters and parents died in the concentration camps. Miriam died later from complications of the experiments conducted on her. Kor later forgave the Germans because carrying around hatred was a burden in itself.
A few hundred copies of her book are being passed around in the community, Hoffert said. Jordan had a classroom set of the books, which she started sharing with other teachers. She and retired teacher Christine Foster also have been sharing resources on Kor and the Holocaust with other teachers and the community.
Hoffert said all Warsaw Community Schools sixth-grade classrooms have at least one copy of Kor’s book. The two middle schools have lots of copies of the book, thanks to the schools’ PTOs stepping in to provide more. Every teacher at the middle school has at least one copy of the book.
“We want to make sure everyone has heard about it or read the book,” Hoffert said.
One of the things WCS talks about is pursuing dreams and enriching the lives of others, Hoffert said. Jordan’s efforts to bring Kor in is a perfect example of a teacher doing both of those things.
“Teresa had an interest in this and she expanded her dream to enrich the lives of others with this powerful story," he said. “We can’t say enough of how privileged we feel to ride along with Teresa because she’s really gone out of her way to make this happen.”
Jordan said the whole idea of the Holocaust and World War II has been a passion for her. She shows her students how if they just sit back and let someone tell them what to do, they will end up in a terrible place. They need to stand up for themselves.
She said billboards will go up to advertise the March 25 event. Hoffert said the Community Foundation also has a website at http://kcfoundation.org/evakor/ with a lot of details.
In the future, Jordan hopes to write and receive a Lilly Endowment grant to travel with Kor to Auschwitz. Every year Kor takes a group of people to the concentration camp to explain what happened to her and others. If she gets the grant, the earliest Jordan could travel would be in summer 2015.
“That’s my next personal endeavor,” she said.
Leesburg Principal Randy Dahms said Jordan, the Holocaust unit and Kor’s book have really impacted the school culture. “At Leesburg we just try to incorporate Project Based Learning. This has been a model of creating something and moving forward,” he said.
The students, he said, develop a love for studying WWII and the Holocaust and find ways to relate other things to what happened then. Through it they can see how things like bullying are bad.
“My kids already read the book in December. I have kids in my class not at the reading level of the book, but they pushed themselves to read this one,” Jordan said. “It proves what interest can lead a child to do. They amazed me and they can’t wait to meet her.”
She said the book is kid-friendly but gets the message across. Hoffert said “Surviving the Angel of Death” is part of the Young Hoosiers Reading List.
Copies of the book can be purchased online at barnesandnoble.com, amazon.com and the CANDLES Holocaust Museum website.[[In-content Ad]]
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