“There was a room with five screens showing footage of bodies and stuff,” freshman Elizabeth Pothier said.  “I felt disturbed, sick to my stomach… it’s so sad to see what they had to go through.”

Pothier is describing the field trip freshwomen took with some staff on Nov. 14 to Farmington Hills’s Holocaust Museum.  The class of 2017 made the trip in conjunction with reading Night, a memoir by Elie Weisel about his experience during the Holocaust.  Students said the museum experience enhanced their reading

“It made more sense, the things in the museum,” Pothier said.  “You could really connect to the book.”

“The best part was when Mr. Jerry was talking,” her classmate, Shannon Gibbons, added.  “He’s a survivor; his story was so powerful.”

Mr. Jerry, a speaker at the museum, told the girls the story of his experience with his family during the Holocaust.  His father survived a concentration camp, the girls said, and his family miraculously got visas to go to America. Those visas were jeopardized when his father was unable to pass  the health exam necessary to emigrate because he was so emaciated from his brief time in the camp. Severely depressed, his father was about to jump from a bathroom window to his death when Jerry, who was 12 at the time, found him.  Jerry and his family made the trip to the United States safely.

Students unanimously reported that the trip should be repeated next year.

“It was interesting. We learned a lot,” Pothier said.

“I wish we’d had more time,” Gibbons said.  “They should go back next year, but for the whole day and with smaller groups.”