The evening of May 27 was a time for Manhattan Day School’s eighth grade students to honor the victims of the Holocaust and to maintain the promise to never forget. The culmination of a year spent documenting the oral histories of seven Holocaust survivors—Sonja Geismar, Rose Kaszirer, Dr. Moshe Labi, Sir Frank Lowy, Asher Matathias, Sally Muschel, and Helen Rubin—the students presented a film screening of Names, Not Numbers®: A Movie in the Making. The students themselves conducted oral history interviews, filmed, and edited personal testimonies, transforming the testimonials into a powerful documentary project under the guidance of their teacher Morah Shoshana Rapps. Working together with the survivors helped the students to form intergenerational connections and become the “witnesses to the witnesses.”
The evening included a beautiful dinner, speeches, and the screening, followed by a dessert reception. For eighth grader Eliana Silberman the event was a chance to see the whole project come together, “it was a wonderful experience. The editing was gorgeous and beautiful and I really enjoyed learning about the other survivors’ experiences.”
Created 21 years ago by Tova Rosenberg, Names, Not Numbers® is a Holocaust Oral History Film Documentary program that transforms the traditional study of the events of the Holocaust in Europe into an experiential project involving the actual eyewitnesses to those events.
The Names, Not Numbers® program is a meaningful and memorable project and is a highlight of the eighth grade Holocaust curriculum. MDS teacher Frieda Shulman noted that the students are “going to take this with them” as they continue to grow and learn throughout their lives. As it is essential to both remember the past and invest in the future, the documentary will be archived for future generations in Holocaust Museums and Centers and University libraries.
“Names, Not Numbers®” INC: an interactive, multimedia Holocaust film documentary project created by educator, Tova Fish-Rosenberg. www.namesnotnumbers.org. “Names, Not Numbers®” Program is generously supported by a prominent national foundation and the Claims Conference.
