FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Contact: Chris Starr, Director of Marketing and Community Outreach The Peck School | 247 South Street | Morristown, NJ 07960 (973) 539-8660 | cstarr@peckschool.org www.peckschool.org
STUDENTS AT THE PECK SCHOOL BECOME WITNESSES OF WITNESSES Morristown, NJ. – November 16, 2017 – The Peck School emphasizes character education and experiential learning, so Holocaust survivor Edith Farben joined a special assembly of 6 th through 8th grade students to give them a lesson no textbook, oral history, video, website, or news story could provide. She gave them the lesson of an eyewitness account. For 45 minutes, as her heart-rending story unfolded, their education was elevated beyond academics. In 2012, experts estimated that there were less than 500,000 Holocaust survivors still living. As their population rapidly dwindles, and that genocide recedes in time, we face the inevitability that our firsthand witnesses to the atrocity, as well as the veterans who liberated them, will soon be gone forever. Sally Levine, the executive director of the Georgia Commission on the Holocaust, quotes one survivor who embraced her after sharing a personal story and poignantly remarked, “When I can no longer speak, you will have to be my voice.” Though students at The Peck School wish many more healthy years for Mrs. Farben, they would no doubt agree that when she can no longer speak, they will be her voice. Ms. Farben’s clear memory, her palpable recollection of detail, and her communication not only of the hopelessness of her internment, but also of the small gestures of kindness she encountered, will no doubt remain in Peck students’ memories for a lifetime. A visitor like Ms. Farben requires significant preparation, from obtaining the guidance of Peck’s Upper and Lower School Psychologists to frame the assembly, to enlisting the resources of Peck’s English and history departments to prepare students for her visit. Each grade level spent considerable time learning the history of the Holocaust; viewing documentaries, writing in journals, and asking essential questions, such as, “Who was responsible?” Edith Farben was born in Velkaá Polana, Czechoslovakia (Slovakia) on April 9, 1925. Her family was moved into the ghetto in Munkaá s in 1944 and was later deported by train to Auschwitz, where she was separated from her brother and father (who she would never see again.) Her belief that she survived is due to the fact that she was nimble-fingered, and able to work quickly sorting clothes. Her amazing account of this period is captured in oral histories available online. Remarkably, she was reunited with her mother, brother, and two sisters after the war, then married in 1945, and emigrated to the US in 1947. A recent study by the Anti-Defamation League provides a frightening testimony to the importance of Holocaust education. In interviews with 53,100 adults in 101 countries and the Palestinian territories, slightly more than one-third said they had never heard of the Holocaust. Fewer than half of those under age 35 were aware of its occurrence. When asked by a Peck student during the assembly why she shares such a painful story, Mrs. Farben replied, “I want you kids to remember this because it happened to us. But look how many other people are suffering. It doesn’t make any difference what religion, what color, what country, we are all human. We should al be allowed to live in freedom. So just remember
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Contact: Chris Starr, Director of Marketing and Community Outreach The Peck School | 247 South Street | Morristown, NJ 07960 (973) 539-8660 | cstarr@peckschool.org www.peckschool.org
this as you grow up and go into adulthood. Don’t say it’s not going to happen here. It’s not going to happen to me. Because you never know. Listen. Act. Speak up. So just don’t forget this.” In an article in the Atlanta Jewish Times, Norbert Friedman, author of the book, Sun Rays at Midnight: One Man’s Quest for the Meaning of Life, Before, During and After the Holocaust,” implores, “The narrators are disappearing. The narrative changes. Those who have known survivors or heard them speak become the witnesses of witnesses. There is much for the world to learn. The lessons of the Holocaust are eternal.” Thanks to Edith Farben, perhaps students at The Peck School can now become the witnesses of witnesses. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -- - - - - - - - - - -- - - - - - - - - - -- - - - - - - - - - -- - - - - - - - - - The Peck School is the northern New Jersey Kindergarten through eighth grade independent school where timeless traditions meet timely transformation. Peck’s carefully crafted nineyear continuum creates a nurturing environment enriched by enduring values and shaped by the customs of a gentler and more gracious age. Within this small-scaled close-knit community students feel known and valued, embrace kindness, explore ethical inquiry, develop dynamic empathy, and grow prodigiously as learners and leaders – all without growing up too soon. Learn more at www.peckschool.org, or call our Admissions office at 973-539-8660 x 108.