THIS SPRING, sixth graders at the International School of the Peninsula participated in a 7-week humanities unit on the holocaust. Students learned about the historical context of Adolph Hitler's rise to power in Germany and the spread of Nazism in Europe during the years 1933 to 1945. More important, members of our class also studied the impact this period had on individuals' lives and the lives of their families. Using as resources a number of autobiographies, memoirs, letters, periodicals, and videos, we learned about attitudes of prejudice and acts of discrimination, as well as the physical and emotional horrors experienced by millions of people.

As a final class project -- and as a way to achieve a personal sense of closure -- students selected children from a partial list of those who died during the holocaust. After reading a brief biography of a particular child, each student constructed a memorial quilt panel as a symbolic remembrance to those whose lives were cut short.

An estimated 11 million people died as a result of the holocaust. Of these, approximately 1.5 million were children. If memorial panels were constructed for each individual and placed end-to-end, the quilt would span from coast to coast across the United States.

Richard Zobel
6th Grade English