Throughout the weeks of March 6 and March 13, sophomore students in English II classes took field trips to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. These trips were taken in preparation for an English unit on the events of the Holocaust, giving the students context for their readings.
Students left during first period and took buses to the museum, located on the mall. From there, they went on small group guided tours. Tours were roughly two hours, although some complications made some trips shorter. Afterwards, students returned to Jackson-Reed during lunch to finish their school day. This was the first year sophomores have gone to the museum.
This trip correlated with the reading of Night by Elie Weisel in the English II curriculum, and for some classes, the reading of Maus by Art Spiegelman. Night is an autobiography following a Holocaust survivor, and Maus is a retelling of the events that occurred in WWII and the Holocaust through graphic novel form. These books were originally supposed to be read earlier in the year, but were pushed back to the spring after the English department’s decision to postpone the reading until tensions decreased in the aftermath of the events of October 7. The field trips’ goal was to aid students in grasping the severity and reality of the Holocaust and other horrible events from the war, making sure the weight of the books are understood.
Students visited the museum’s permanent exhibition, “The Holocaust” which has three main sections, all of which students walked through. The first is titled “Nazi Assault” documenting the years 1933-1939 and the rise of the Nazi party in Germany. Second is “Final Solution” spanning from 1940-1945 and examining the course of the Nazi’s genocide of Jews. The final section is “Last Chapter” which displays liberation and the aftermath of the Holocaust.
Although there were a few timing and transportation issues, students still learned from the trip and gained valuable information about the Holocaust. Sophomore Sienna Gala noted that, “It was definitely a little rushed and there were a lot of people so it was hard to get the full experience.” This was made up for though, as Gala continued by saying, “My tour guide did a really good job, and I definitely learned a lot.”
Sophomore Meredith Page said the museum, “was very interesting and powerful to look at specific people and see their experiences on a more humane level, like the room full of photos of [a] town that was massacred.” This room is called “The Tower of Faces”, which displays hundreds of photos portraying the everyday lives of people from Eisiskes, Lithuania before the Holocaust. The creator of the exhibit, Yaffa Eliach, stated the purpose was to document victims’ lives and give them back their humanity. It’s one of many moving installations students were able to see on their tour of the museum.
The field trip was educational and engaging, making a strong case for its return next year. As the sophomores begin their dive into these texts, this field trip gave them more information and background, while also strengthening their understanding of a dark history.
