On Feb.  3,  John Carroll hosted “Lessons of the Shoah: The Long-Term Legacy of the Holocaust,” a program focused on informing high school students on the Holocaust and the effects on society. The program was run by senior project coordinator Louise Geczy.

“The life lessons students can learn from the Holocaust are vital to everyone,”Geczy said .

Just under 300 students and teachers from 16 schools were in attendance. Among them were social studies teacher Jake Hollin’s Honors U.S. History classes.

“As a teacher, anytime you can show your students firsthand accounts of an event, the lesson becomes more real. The truth is [that] we are losing that generation, so it is important to learn about the Holocaust,” Hollin said.

“My favorite part of the whole day was listening to the personal stories that the two survivors told,” junior Wilfred Ikejiofor said.

The event started at 8 a.m. with a breakfast in the hallways in front of the chorus hall. After the breakfast, students went to the auditorium to watch a video on a survivor of the Holocaust.

Next the students advanced on to their workshops. They did two rotations of workshops and had seven options to choose from, including “Genocide: Warning Signs & Prevention,” “Holocaust Experiences,” “Psychology of Hatred,” “Lives Lost, Lives Found,” “Shades of Grey – Collaborators & Bystanders,” and “Anti-Semitism.”

The presentation “Lives Lost, Lives Found” was given by Deborah Cardin, a worker at the Jewish Museum of Baltimore.

“I have always had a personal interest in the Holocaust and have been fortunate enough to hear their stories and honor them. I feel as though victims of the Holocaust will never be honored enough, but I want to try,” Cardin said.

Students then moved on to the Upper Gym where they would stay for the rest of the event. The students had lunch and then listened to the survivor testimony of Esther and Howard Kadianow.

“I love to come share my story because as time passes on, those who witness it can’t share their story, and unfortunately the Holocaust has to be shared because some people doubt that it happened. The more it is shared the more people can learn from it. There are a lot of good people who didn’t want the Holocaust to happen. I want to thank all those who listened to my story,” Esther Kadianow said.

To close out the event the students had small group discussion, and individual reflections and evaluations.

This is the second year that JC has hosted this program.

“We were honored to have the program at [JC] again,”said principal Madelyn Ball. “This year it is ten times as big, so we are thrilled.”

Kristen Isoldi is an A&E Editor for The Patriot and jcpatriot.com.