JKHA middle school students gathered over Zoom for a morning assembly to commemorate Yom HaShoah. The program began with words from Principal Mrs. Levenson, followed by a video produced by the Middle School Student Council. The video featured Student Council representatives and Morah Hertzberg sharing words about the day, poetry and readings. They lit candles in memory of all those killed in the Holocaust, and focused on the children who lost their lives as well as the righteous gentiles who helped save the lives of many Jews. The video was followed by a viewing of “The Numbers on Great Grandpa’s Arm,” a video produced by HBO that focused on a 10 year old’s account of his great grandfather’s story of survival in the Holocaust.

In the afternoon, JKHA middle school students had the privilege to hear from survivor Helen Herman. Herman discussed life leading up to the Holocaust and being forced into a ghetto. She detailed her harrowing experience being transported to and being in Auschwitz. She emotionally recounted her experiences there, including the treatment, conditions and constant fearing for her life. She described being transferred to Bergen Belsen and her miraculous liberation with her sisters. Herman spoke about life after liberation, being reunited with two of her brothers, meeting her husband and the joy and nachat she receives from seeing her family grow to children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren. Herman emphasized that she shared her difficult story so that others can never forget, and be able to tell the future generations so that such atrocities should never happen again.