20 | AUGUST 25 • 2022

F

or the last 17 years, Jennifer Sepetys
taught about the Holocaust in
schools throughout Metro Detroit,
relying upon historical documentation, lit-
erature, written accounts and, on occasion,
firsthand testimonies from survivors who
spoke in her classes. But as she returns to
her students this year at West Bloomfield
High School, Sepetys will approach the
topic with the perspective of a firsthand
witness to the atrocities of the Holocaust
after touring Poland this past July as an
Auschwitz Legacy Fellow in the first-ever
trip of its kind geared at Holocaust educa-
tion professionals.
Responding to the disturbing trend
that fewer teens and young adults are
aware of the Holocaust, the Auschwitz-

Birkenau Memorial Foundation (ABMF),
the Auschwitz-Birkenau Memorial and
partnering American institutions such as
the Zekelman Holocaust Center (The HC)
in Farmington Hills sponsored the trip for
32 teaching fellows from Colorado, Kansas,
Missouri, Michigan and Utah. ABMF
launched its first educational initiative
in the United States: Auschwitz Legacy
Fellowship.
Over the next five years, the organiza-
tion intends to bring 500 teachers across
the country to an intensive week-long tour
of Poland that includes stops in Warsaw,
Krakow and the Auschwitz Memorial.
“The trip was both a professional and
personal journey,
” said Sepetys, who will
begin her eighth year instructing Global

Studies of Genocide at WBHS. “
After
teaching the topic for so long, I have read so
much material on the Holocaust, but noth-
ing could have prepared me for this type
of journey of visiting the places where the
atrocities occurred.
”
Sepetys’ application process for the trip
began last year when serving at The HC as
a member of the teacher advisory group
charged with creating educational lessons
and programs for the center. It was at that
point that she learned about the trip and
applied. Before departing, preparations
included monthly Zoom meetings with
other teachers and the trip’s main benefac-
tor, philanthropist and Estee Lauder heir
Ronald S. Lauder.

ON THE GROUND IN POLAND
One of the most powerful days for Sepetys
was a six-hour tour of Auschwitz. It was
the sight of one small white button on
the ground in the rubble that moved her
to tears. The teachers had just entered
the footprint of a warehouse that pris-
oners called “Kanada.
” As Allied forces
approached the concentration camp at the
end of WWII, the SS burned down the
warehouse, among other buildings, to hide
evidence of their crimes. But this button
remained.
“Seeing that white button just stunned
me,
” Sepetys reflected. “I have read and
viewed so much information on Auschwitz-
Birkenau but seeing that one button just
floored me.
“There are archaeologists on the site, and
they continue to uncover more evidence
and objects like that button,
” she added. “
As
I viewed the fields and the trees and walked
through the barracks, my mind was flood-
ed with the voices of the people who went
through this, retelling their stories of what
the selection process was like or what it was
like to eat the soup they received or what it

OUR COMMUNITY

West Bloomfield High
teacher tours Poland as an
Auschwitz Legacy Fellow.
A Teacher’s
Journey
STACY GITTLEMAN CONTRIBUTING WRITER

COURTESY OF JENNIFER SEPETYS

Jennifer
Sepetys in
Saxon Garden
in Warsaw