The senior class is going to have the opportunity to take a trip to the National Holocaust Museum and Arlington National Cemetery on February 25. They will also take part in Holocaust Remembrance Day on March 4.
Academics Project Manager Louise Geczy said, “The goal and hope for both events is to provide seniors with an opportunity to experience the consequences and rewards of human rights atrocities and the fight to preserve those human rights.”
Mrs. Geczy added, “The life lessons to be found in exploring the Holocaust provide an opportunity for seniors to expand both their knowledge and understanding of the consequences of hatred and courage.”
On the trip, the seniors will go together to D.C. and go to the Holocaust Museum for self-guided tours. The museum contains several floors which detail the horrors of the time period through artifacts, photos, and video.
They will then take a short break for lunch. At the end of the day, they will visit Arlington National Cemetery where JC has been granted permission to lay a wreath during a ceremony at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.
The Tomb of the Unknown Soldier is a sacred place that holds the graves of the unknown American service members. The tomb is a final resting place for those who were unidentified and who had died in wars beginning in World War I.
Seniors will each be provided with detailed information regarding what they could see and what is recommended to see at both sites.
The trip also has a connection to Holocaust Remembrance Day, a full day of activities for seniors on the JC campus.
Mrs. Geczy said, “Our visit to the USHMM provides a broad overview of the genocide that was the Holocaust. Seniors get to explore what occurred from a variety of perspectives. Holocaust Remembrance Day provides seniors with an opportunity to hear firsthand testimonies from Holocaust survivors or survivors’ children and grandchildren who share their families’ Holocaust stories.”
Holocaust Remembrance Day is an annual event for the senior class.
Mrs. Geczy said, “The senior class trip to D.C. provides each graduating class with a broad overview of the Holocaust and the cost of conflict, and Holocaust Remembrance Day gives seniors an opportunity to hear testimony from Holocaust survivors or the children or grandchildren of survivors that puts individual faces to the mass numbers of people murdered by the Nazi regime during the genocide that was the Holocaust.”
On Holocaust Remembrance Day multiple guests are invited to the school so that they can share their stories in large and small groups to the seniors.
The seniors are then given the opportunity to have one-on-one conversations either during lunch or throughout the day.
JC is the only high school is in the greater Baltimore area that offers a substantial and diverse look at the human rights monstrosity that was the Holocaust.
The seniors are excited to be able to take their turn on the senior trip, a graduation requirement at JC.
Senior Carter Eberle said, “I am most excited to learn more about the Holocaust, as it is a very important event that happened in history.”