LI students paired with Holocaust survivors to learn, retell stories through video and art
Long Island high school students are leading a mission to preserve the stories of Holocaust survivors.
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In an effort to ensure that the horrors of the Holocaust are never forgotten, dozens of Long Island High School students are taking part in the UJA-Federation of New York Witness Project.
"We will have to be the survivors to tell their stories," said Ryan Rosenbaum, a student at Roslyn High School.
"Their stories are carried on through the new generations, so that history's not repeated in the future." said Tyler Levine, a student at Wheatley.
News 12 was there as hundreds of people packed into the Tilles Center for the Performing Arts at LIU Post for the UJA-Federation of New York Witness Project.
For one year, high school students are paired with Holocaust survivors to hear their story.
The students then retell the story through video and art.
"The idea is to create new witnesses, because the survivors from the Holocaust are aging and dying, and then there'll be nobody left to retell their stories, so we are intentionally creating more witnesses to the Holocaust, so we don't forget what happened." said Sandra Weingarten, co-chair of the Witness Project.
"It was actually very emotional, because just how much they went through and learning from a first-hand perspective." said Rosenbaum.
Levine made a mosaic of a picture of a survivor and her brother, when they first came to America.
"When I thought of how scary that must have been for them, I wanted to make something that represents their journey coming here, so it's not forgotten." said Levine.
Devin Lane, a student at Friends Academy, said he will never forget the survivor's stories.
"He was on a train, it was going to Auschwitz and then you know, they turned the train around and you know just that call, it saved, it saved his life," said Lane.
Weingarten told News 12 that this is the eighth year for the Witness Project and added that it used to only be about the stories of Holocaust survivors, but now they include the events of Oct. 7 and Hamas' attack on Israel.
