On Wednesday, March 30, Masuk had a Holocaust speaker visit via zoom and speak about her experiences and her story during the Holocaust. 91 year old Ruth Weiner had joined the Masuk Contemporary World Issue classes during period seven. She introduced the topic of her visit along with some background information about the time period. Her entire presentation was truly breathtaking and truly inspiring to all students present. Weiner left a significant impact on her audience by stating: “the only thing worse than talking about bad things is not talking about them.”
She expanded upon many related topics such as what it was like as a child during that time and demonstrated how different learning about the Holocaust is when comparing it from hearing a true story from a person during that time versus just learning from a textbook. To start off the presentation, two Masuk students introduced Weiner to the audience, Virginia Grabovsky and Alexander Malecki.
Grabovsky stated,“The story just kinda needs to be kept alive and it was an honor to speak with someone who went through those things and kind of get a deeper look into it.” Grabovsky also recognized the importance of having these guests, saying, “I think that just the details she said can give us a better idea of what happened and the extent because I mean we read the stuff that happened and just kind of brief overviews but this was kind of like an almost inside view of what happened and her experiences, like with kindertransport because we don’t talk about that alot and the children who like were transported to England and kind of their experiences and their perspectives.”
Bringing in a speaker was a phenomenal idea and having the students hear a story that is more than just written but genuinely hearing her speak and having a face to the name and story creates a stronger perspective for the audience. Weiner was a perfect speaker and was able to tell her entire story, speaking to the hearts of the audience. Weiner concluded her speech stressing the importance of a person having empathy and just being knowledgeable in the past.
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