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