By John Sheridan
On Thursday, April 3, a group of SAMS students joined kids from three local middle schools for a LIGHT-sponsored Holocaust literature summit at Chatham University.
Shaler Area’s students stood out at the event thanks to the hard work and preparation they put in during lunch periods leading up to the summit. They were joined by students from Jeannette, Mt. Lebanon, and Hampton, which brought high school students to moderate the discussions.
The summit began with a Q & A that Shaler’s students largely dominated. A Hampton sophomore led the conversation about Courage to Dream, a short-story anthology that combines fictional stories of hope and resistance with factual dates, events, and themes from the Holocaust. The particular story discussed was “Exodus,” where a Jewish character saves his friends from the Nazis by using the Staff of Moses. During the talk, Shaler’s group demonstrated knowledge, critical thinking, and curiosity, which prompted the moderator to congratulate the group on its preparation.
The next assignment involved splitting into two groups. One group made positive bookmarks, while the other designed patches for a peace quilt. The bookmarks were created to help people have better days. They were colorful and included kind, uplifting quotes. The inspirational quilt features messages of hope, peace, and love. The quilt will be displayed somewhere in SAMS.
After that, the group visited the Holocaust Center of Pittsburgh, which is located on Chatham’s campus. Many different artifacts from the Holocaust were on display, including the names of people who survived and came to Pittsburgh. A Nazi emblem from the front of a train that transported victims to a death camp was displayed upside down— a symbolic gesture of defiance and courage. A large Torah was prominently featured in the middle of the room, its case made by a Shaler graduate. Perhaps the most moving artifact was the wooden tree— an exhibit that honors the victims of the Tree of Life Disaster. The tree’s 11 branches represent each of the victims from the 2018 massacre. It was built by the daughter of the police officer who was first to arrive. The man, an avid wood whittler, lost his ability to create art when he was shot in the hand, but his daughter picked up the passion.
Later, the renowned author Lee Goldman Kikel came to read a book that she wrote. It is called Perseverance: One Holocaust Survivor’s Journey, From Poland to America. Her father, Mechoslaw Goldman, lived in Poland with his parents and six siblings, a family of nine. When he was 16, the Nazis came to his town of Lodz. He spent years working for the Nazis as his family was slowly killed. He was moved through five or six work camps, including Auschwitz, and was eventually rescued by the 82nd Airborne Division and the Soviet Union. He was rushed to a hospital, missing teeth and suffering from a collapsed lung. His injuries were considered severe.
He later moved to America by boat and changed his name to Melvin. In Pittsburgh, he found his brother and lived in an apartment he could manage. He worked a difficult job, eventually found love, and had a daughter. In the 1970s, he recorded cassette tapes to tell his story. He died in 1996. Years later, his daughter decided to share his incredible story. From 2015 to 2019, she wrote the book that tells it.
The SAMS Salmon 