Monmouth County Students Learn About Hate at Immersive Holocaust Program

Rosalia Gerardo learning about the devastating losses of the Jewish community during the Holocaust has taught the eighth grade Marlboro Middle school student one thing: that her generation has a lot of work to do to ensure it is never repeated.
    Rosalia was one of the of the more than 660 eight graders at Marlboro Middle school who participated in an immersive Holocaust education exhibit April 1-4 along with 250 Freehold Regional High School students at the Colts Neck Law and Public Service magnet program.

    The traveling exhibit from Hate Ends NOW, which featured artifacts and an exact replica of a cattle car used to transport Jews and other targeted groups to concentration and death camps, was sponsored by CARMA, (Center to Combat Antisemitism and Reinforce Multicultural Acceptance), an initiative of Jewish Federation in the Heart of New Jersey.  It was arranged through the cooperation of superintendents Michael Ballone of Marlboro Township Public Schools and Nicole Hazel of Freehold Regional High School District.
    At a time when antisemitism is spiking to record levels across the country, Monmouth and Middlesex counties are no exception with the number of swastikas found last year on buildings, at parks and other public spaces  having increased by 233 percent since 2021.
    As part of the program, data collected before and after the immersive program will be used to assess attitude changes about the role Holocaust education plays in combating antisemitism and other hate to be used by the New Jersey Commission on Holocaust Education and Marlboro Township Public Schools to jointly develop statewide curriculum.
 

  The participating students got to see ways Nazism had become accepted into so many facets of society—on youth sports shirts emblazoned with a swastika, a swastika clock, a children’s book extolling Hitler and Nazism and the shoes and uniforms of victims. They got to pack into the  cattle car outside the school 20-something at a time learning that despite their own cramped conditions up to 100 were jammed into them as they were transported  to concentration camps and often their deaths. 
    Speaking at an April 3 program attended by community members, community leaders and federation members, Rosalia found herself deeply moved and “shocked” over what she learned over the course of the program, including that 49 percent of millennials couldn’t name a single concentration camp although there were 44,000 of them.

    “The Holocaust did not happen overnight,” she said. “It was part of a systemic plan.”
    That is just the message the organization tries to transmit, said Hate Ends Now Education Director Jori Reiken.
        “We teach about hate and try to inspire people to stand up to hatred in their communities whether that be homophobia, antisemitism or racism,” she said.
    Rosalia sat in the cattle car and watched as on its walls filmed scenes of Jewish families wearing yellow Stars of David were forced to board the same cattle cars. She and her classmates listened to the stories of actual child survivors Nate Leipciger and Hedy Bohm, now in their nineties, whose current images were projected onto the walls and reflected about her own situation. As she listened to them speak about being separated and never seeing their families again Rosalia couldn’t help but think about how she would have reacted and how their tragic fate could have been prevented.

    CARMA director Dr. Stacy Gallin and Wendy Tepper, an educator and speaker from 3GNY, had taught students lessons before and after they went through the cattle car experience and helped train teachers how to present lessons on the Holocaust.
    What struck Rosalia was something Gallin had said to students: “That if each of you go home tonight and think about what you’ve learned maybe we can have a better future.”
    The student noted the experience impressed upon her that if she does one thing for the community, “Maybe my children will grow in a different world.”
    Federation Executive Director Susan Antman, the daughter of Holocaust survivors, told those gathered the program was necessary because “despite our best efforts there is still evil in the world,” but “there is hope together we can make a difference.”
    Ballone said he hoped the program would serve as a call to action to remind students of the dangers of hatred, “and remind us all to stand up to hatred in all forms.”
    Hazel said she was especially struck when entering the darkened space of the cattle car and heard the stories of the survivors.
    “It brought the Holocaust and history to life in a way that was truly moving,” she explained, adding that she “absolutely knew our students took the message to heart.”   

Debra Rubin has had a long career in journalism writing for secular weekly & daily newspapers and Jewish publications. She most recently served as Middlesex/Monmouth bureau chief for the New Jersey Jewish News. She also worked with the media at several nonprofits, including serving as assistant public relations director of HIAS and assistant director of media relations at Yeshiva University.