Team led by GVSU expert creates website to honor West Michigan Holocaust survivors

A team led by a Grand Valley Holocaust scholar has created a website with a mission to educate the community by telling the comprehensive stories of West Michigan Holocaust survivors.

Rob Franciosi, professor of 英语，一直是。 working with a team 其中包括GVSU的学生和一名毕业生. 该组织被指控犯有 doing research and designing the website, the 西密歇根大屠杀纪念馆.

网站的一部分 大急流城犹太人联合会，一直是。 created as an educational tool to accompany the new Holocaust scuplture, "Ways to Say Goodbye," at the Frederik Meijer 花园 & Scupture公园.

The sculpture by artist Ariel Schlesinger is a gift from the Jewish 大急流城联盟. 这份礼物是由一笔捐款促成的 from the Pestka family in memory of their father, Henry, who was a Holocaust survivor, and the millions of Jews who died in the 大屠杀, 根据弗雷德里克·梅杰花园的说法 & 雕塑 公园. The dedication of the sculpture was slated for June 30.

Franciosi说 he was invited to be part of a group exploring ideas for educational materials to accompany the sculpture, something he 对佩斯卡家族很重要. 他说他建议创造 "story maps" of West Michigan Holocaust survivors that detailed where they came from, their experiences during the Holocaust and their lives in the United States; the group later decided to create a website to present this information.

"We would be tracing their lives in both time and space," Franciosi说. "We always end with life in America and the lives these people built or rebuilt after the war. 我认为这很重要 recognize where they came from but also what they achieved afterward. Most of them came over with almost nothing."

Those involved decided to create a website to present the stories. And then Franciosi and the research team started using specialized software and other tools, such as those that help with translation, along with extensive outreach to round out the stories.

While the Holocaust ended in 1945, Franciosi noted survivors still live among us along with their children and subsequent generations 被幸存者的生活所影响.

The Grand Valley student who created the website, Arad Okanin, said he was mindful of his grandparents and their experiences surviving the 就像他设计的网站一样. 他是计算机科学专业的学生 who works for the 大急流城犹太人联合会 on a variety of projects ranging from social media to information technology, said he wanted the design of the website to reflect the gravity of that time.

"One of the main reasons I wanted to work on the project is because I have that background and heard those stories and have seen the effects of the 大屠杀," Okanin said, adding this project takes on special urgency given the ages of survivors. “这就是为什么 it’s very, very important we do this work now, for future generations 目睹暴行."

For Julianna Schrier, '20, the heartbreaking details discovered while researching this project and filling in the blanks of people's lives 是一个充满感情的过程吗. Schrier，他的工作是 community connector for the 大急流城犹太人联合会, described being struck by the times prisoners even had to give up 他们的名字.

"When you’re looking for the history of somebody, a lot of times you can't find them before they moved to the United States because 他们用了不同的名字. 你必须找到人们的名字 了解他们的全部故事，”施里尔说.

The "profound humanity" of the survivors is what has most moved another researcher, Jeanette Barry, who is pursuing a graduate 在GVSU获得英语学位. 巴里，一位资深的K-12教师 units on the 大屠杀, said a class with Franciosi further deepened her interest in knowing more about the Holocaust and eventually led to 致力于这个项目.

"How these survivors took this experience and were able to not just live beyond it but utilize the experience in a way that is helpful to other people – I just can't even imagine walking around with that kind of trauma and trying to fit into the rest of the world as though you haven't experienced that type of thing," Barry said. 

"Every time we're able to find a way to tell a survivor's story really well, it creates another connection," Barry added. “这是一种你不会忘记的方式. 你继续讲这个故事."