Co-sponsored by the Baltimore Jewish Council, The Associated and the Ralph & Shirley Klein Foundation, Lessons of the Shoah is an inter-faith, inter-school program promotes tolerance, understanding and respect among high school students of diverse backgrounds and motivates participants to make a personal commitment to combat prejudice and hatred. This year, nearly 350 students joined us at The John Carroll School from schools in Harford County, Baltimore County and Baltimore City.

The theme for the 2024 event was “How Children Experienced the Holocaust.” Participants heard from keynote speaker Dr. Lauren Granite, U.S. Program Director for Centropa, an historical institute based in Vienna on life for children in pre-Holocaust Europe. They then heard testimony from second- and third-generation Holocaust survivors about the effects of long-term trauma, as well as testimony from Richard Grilli whose mother was rescued in the Holocaust. Students interacted and shared thoughts on the causes and effects of the Holocaust on children.

John Carroll Human Rights Instructor & External Holocaust Program Coordinator Louise Géczy says the program has a powerful impact on the students who participate each year. “The growing loss of in-person, first-hand testimony means it is important for us to engage students in a program such as Lessons of the Shoah. We are fortunate that the children and grandchildren of people who experienced the Holocaust are now willing to share testimony. I am also fortunate to work at an institution that has long understood the impact that human rights studies have on young adults. Exploration of human rights provides students with insight and empathy, greater understanding; teaches them to question, not just accept hatred as inevitable; all of which hopefully makes them more informed and willing to act rather than just accept hatred and its consequences as the norm,” she says.