Heights High French students with guest speaker Edna T. Akrish (center) and French teacher Madame Woods (R, second row).
Nov. 28, 2016 -- French language students in Melha Hadjabed-Woods and Carolyn Pavel’s classes watched the movie Once in a Lifetime and discussed the Holocaust and Nazi occupation of France with an educator and youth representative from the organization The International March of the Living.
The movie is about students in a history class at a school in Creteil, is a large city in the north of France. The film was inspired by a history teacher who encouraged her unruly students to participate in a writing contest. The class submits a creative project on the theme of Children and Teenagers under the Nazi Regime. The group of mixed students – many of Islamic faith – overcome their prejudices and work together, while learning about the history of their country.
The movie included English subtitles but the actors all spoke in French. “The students were interested to learn about a French high school and were surprised at the number of people who were killed in the holocaust,” said Madame Woods. “They were also surprised to learn that so many French children were killed and that so many groups were targeted.”
“The students were also surprised at the indifference of citizens to what the Nazi’s were doing,” she continued.
Edna T. Akrish, an educator with the International March for the Living, and Orel Regev, an Israeli student, talked to the students about their experiences and the experiences of Jewish and other people during the Holocaust.
The International March of the Living is an educational program, which brings individuals from all over the world to Poland and Israel to study the history of the Holocaust and to examine the roots of prejudice, intolerance and hate.
The project was funded by the Holocaust Education Fund of the Cleveland Heights High School Alumni Foundation. For information about the fund, contact Lessons of the Holocaust teacher Mark Sack.