Teaching History and Developing Empathy

Oscar Zaretsky, now 90, was only 10 years old when his family was first hunted down by a German aircraft in his small town of Podhajce in present-day Ukraine. “My father grabbed me and threw me into a ditch…so that we would be protected against the bullets.” Many townspeople were killed that day by the German pilot, and only a very small number would survive the Holocaust—less than 0.02 per cent of the town’s pre-war Jewish population. 

Between 1941 and 1944, almost one and a half million Ukrainian Jews were assassinated when Nazi Germany invaded the Soviet Union; the vast majority were killed by firing squads. Zaretsky’s experience in the “Holocaust by bullets” differs from what many know from the Holocaust of concentration camps and gas chambers, although it is equally harrowing. His story was shared at the October 29 Middle and Upper School assembly by his grandson, Samuel Buckstein. The assembly was sponsored by Carrying Testimony, an organization that furthers Holocaust education through stories from those with deep personal connections to Holocaust survivors, most of whom are no longer living or able to share their own stories.

The event was part of Holocaust Education Week programming at Crescent, which helps students develop empathy and understand the history and consequences of unchecked hate and discrimination. 

Programming also included a reading and discussion of Terrible Things by Eve Bunting for Grade 3s led by Lower School social worker Marley Goldenberg, readings for Grades 4 to 6 by author Kathy Kacer (The Secret of Gabi’s Dresser, The Night Spies, The Brushmaker's Daughter and To Hope and Back: The Journey of the St. Louis), and a special display of The Legacy Project, a travelling exhibit from the Friends of Simon Wiesenthal Center, that features photographs of Holocaust survivors together with their grandchildren, celebrating strength, resilience, and family legacies.