April 18, 2023
By Vielka Castillo
Staff Writer
Eleventh and twelfth graders looking to learn more about the Holocaust and other genocides will have an opportunity to do so through a new half-year elective that will be offered through the English Department.
The course, which is titled Exploring the Holocaust, will be taught by Dr. DiMaggio. It will be a dual enrollment course, so pending Board of Education approval, students enrolled in the elective will have the option of paying $300 to earn three credits from Fairleigh Dickinson University. The grade they earn will be weighted like an honors class.
“There is a new initiative through the state to increase education on diversity and genocides, the Holocaust in particular,” DiMaggio said. “In the past several years, there has also been a push to get more classes in the high school that can offer college credits for students.”
DiMaggio said Supervisor of Curriculum, Instruction, Assessment and Technology Ms. Klein approached her to teach this course because of her interest in the subject matter.
“Anything where students become more aware about the world around them and more aware of how people throughout history have been oppressed is good because it helps to protect us from making the same mistakes.”
“She thought it might be a good fit for me because I do have a lot of knowledge about the Holocaust and with higher level English classes,” DiMaggio said.
She said students in the class can expect to watch a documentary film, analyze primary sources and read poems, articles and two memoirs. She said films she is considering for the curriculum are “Night and Fog” about the rise of Nazi ideology and Auschwitz concentration camp and “No Place on Earth” about a cave exploration in Ukraine that leads to the stories of World War II survivors. She is also looking into teaching the texts “All But My Life” by Gerda Weissmann Klein, “Five Chimneys” by Olga Lengyel and “Salvaged Pages: Young Writers’ Diaries of the Holocaust” by Alexandra Zapruder.
“There might be papers involved, but there might also be some poetry and creative writing in addition to essays, projects and presentations,” DiMaggio said.
DiMaggio said she encourages students to take this course because of the knowledge they will gain.
“Anything where students become more aware about the world around them and more aware of how people throughout history have been oppressed is good because it helps to protect us from making the same mistakes,” DiMaggio said. “It will make them better global citizens and more empathetic towards other people.”
Sophomore Elona Megally said she is interested in taking DiMaggio’s course because she had positive experiences in Ms. Biber’s half-year The Holocaust in Literature elective last year.
“[The class] was really moving. I want to learn more about why people let something so grotesque happen,” Megally said.
She said one challenge she anticipates is watching videos from the Holocaust.
“The images can be the hardest to see because it’s just really graphic and emotional. Either way, it will give me more understanding of this tragedy and will help me understand other events around the world as well,” Megally said.
Sophomore Alexia Marmorato, who is also interested in taking the elective, said the greatest challenge she anticipates in the course is the continuous focus on a serious subject.
“It is a tragic event, which is not always easy to talk or learn about,” Marmorato said.
Marmorato said she was drawn to this course because it offers college credit, and she wants to learn more about how Jewish inmates survived and maintained hope in the face of tragedy.
“This class will benefit me in the future so that I am educated on the past and can help shape the future,” Marmorato said. “Prejudice and discrimination [are] still a problem in our society. Therefore, having knowledge about the Holocaust can help keep the world from [letting] something so tragic as that happening again.”
