What if someone told you that they were taking all your belongings – you could just have what would fit into one small backpack. And then they took your backpack.
Renee Bonner Pessin used student-facing inquiries like this to bring her mother’s story—and enormity of the Holocaust—down to middle school size. The daughter of two Holocaust survivors, Helen and Sam Bonner, spoke to John Jay Middle School’s seventh and eighth graders on January 10.
“It is hard not to be incredibly moved by Renee's family's story,” said Julia Drake, EdD, assistant superintendent for curriculum and instruction. “I am very grateful that she reached out to offer us the opportunity to share this story with students.”
“Germany invaded Poland when my mother was 12 years old. Your age,” Pessin said to the students. “School stopped for Jewish children. Her family was forced into the ghetto; they lost everything.”
“Can you picture yourself and your family in this situation?” she said.
In some ways, it felt as if Pessin’s mother was in the room with the students. Helen Bonner, who will be 98 years old this month, had recorded her story with the SHOAH Foundation; portions of the video were shown on the theater’s large screen. Pain showed in the elegant older woman’s eyes as she recalled being separated from her parents and the rest of her family. “I never saw them again.”
She was sent to a forced labor camp in Germany; they were sent to their death.
Social studies teachers had prepared their students for the Pessin’s presentation. They used the earlier part of the week to set the historical context, and talk about the rise of antisemitism and pogroms, the Nazis’ extermination camps, and Allies victory in the Second World War.
“Six million Jews died in the Holocaust,” Pessin said to the students. “That number is hard to imagine. That’s why I am here to tell you about just one story.”
Pessin’s mother and father met in a forced labor camp in Germany. Sam Bonner risked his life to smuggle food to Helen when she was deathly ill with pneumonia. They were separated when she was sent to another concentration camp but reunited in a Displaced Persons camp after the war. The couple married and immigrated to the USA to start a new life.
Their hope and resilience may be what stay with the students.
The only two survivors in each of their families now have 31 children and grandchildren.