Harding students earn
praise for Holocaust project

By Diane Prokop
Times Staff Writer

It couldn’t be more powerful.
No pictures, just voices tell the story of the Holocaust — voices of Warren G. Harding Middle School students entwined with the haunting, heart-wrenching voices of the survivors themselves in an award-winning podcast.
Eighth-graders Adriel Carrasco, Edward Foley, Lee Martin, Sarina McDuffy and Bria Waters volunteered to work on the podcast (a digital audio broadcast file played back on a computer or MP3 player) when reading teacher Victoria Monacelli told them about the Mordechai Anielewicz Creative Arts Competition.
The competition is named for the man who at 19 led the Jewish revolt against the Nazis in the Warsaw ghetto.
The competition also offers an opportunity for students of diverse ethnic and religious backgrounds to respond to the Holocaust through creative expression.
The Harding podcast was the first entry of its kind in the competition’s history. The students and their teacher were to be honored on Monday at the Mordechai Anielewicz Creative Arts Competition and Exhibition ceremony at the Moore College of Art and Design. They are receiving the Sam Pelta Holocaust Endowment Award, an honor named for the competition founder and Holocaust survivor who died in 1998.
The Harding group also been recognized for the Best Documentary in the 2007 Kidcast Podcasting in the Classroom Awards (www.intelligenic.com/blog), earned a posting on Two Minute Soapbox (www.intelligenic.com/soapbox), and a featured spot on the home page of the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany (www.claimscon.org)
Monacelli and the students have been invited to speak at the claims conference in New York next month. They’ve also been invited to be the guests of honor at the 25th anniversary of the University of Michigan’s Voice Vision Holocaust Survivor Oral History Archive.
McDuffy found the archived voices of the survivors online at its Web site during her research, and received permission to use the moving firsthand accounts as part of the students’ entry.
"It was heartbreaking," she said.
The voice of survivor Lily Fenster recalled the day that her little sister died of starvation. In all, four of her sisters died that way in the Warsaw ghetto before Fenster could escape.
Henry Dorfman told of his brother and sister returning to the ghetto in Kozienice (a small town in central Poland) with food they had stolen for the family. The pair were made an example of for the theft and shot to death.
"They were murdered for getting bread," he said, as if still disbelieving that such a thing were possible.
Another survivor, Ruth Kent, described arriving at the Auschwitz death camp and watching as her mother and younger brothers were marched to the crematorium.
"It gives you a new perspective. Everyone knows the political part but no one knows the survivors’ point of view," said Carrasco, one of the Harding students.
The youngsters worked backward, first finding the voices they wanted to use and then supporting them with narratives. Carrasco and McDuffy also electronically composed the accompanying music by using GarageBand computer software.
Monacelli’s students create podcasts monthly as part of her class. But for this particular one, the students worked after school as well, whenever they could find the time. Overall, the group worked tirelessly on the project for 120 hours over six weeks.
"This is what it’s all about. To hear our kids using technology academically, it will only help our kids grow," said school principal Terry Pearsall-Hargett. A Holocaust survivor visited the Frankford school and was overwhelmed by the students’ words in their project, according to Monacelli.
"They’re very honest. It’s what their voices bring to it," Monacelli said.
The teacher too has been overwhelmed by the impact of the students’ work, which has attracted e-mails from Germany, Israel and Austria, as well as phone calls from authors.
"It’s the emotion that’s in it that made it what it is," said student Lee Martin. ••
To listen to the podcast, visit http://www.phila.k12.pa.us/schools/harding/hardingpodcastpage.html