Cannon Falls teacher travels to Holocaust history sites to bear witness for her students
CANNON FALLS, Minn. — Thursday marks the 85th anniversary of "Kristallnacht," or "The Night of the Broken Glass."
Many historians regard this day as a major turning point towards the Holocaust.
A new state law now mandates Holocaust and genocide education, but a group of Minnesota teachers have gone above and beyond to bolster their lesson plans.
They took a trip this summer to Germany and Poland. The experiences are already making a difference in the classroom.
Holocaust survivors and World War II veterans were able to defeat Hitler, but they cannot defeat time.
Heather Loeschke, a civics and history teacher at Cannon Falls High School, traveled this summer to Europe so she can be a witness for the next generation.
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"I was intrigued by the theme, Power of Place, and I really wrapped my head around that," Loeschke said.
She says, to her knowledge, there are no Jewish students in the Cannon Falls Area School District. So why did she make it a priority to go to Europe?
"You are walking in a place, you are standing in a place where so much horrific agony, turmoil, torture happened to people. And you have to try to internalize all of that and figure out why. Why did that happen, and what can we do about that now?" Loeschke said.
The places included Auschwitz and Birkenau, the concentration camps where more than 1.5 million people, mainly Jews, were systematically killed. The itinerary also included tours of Nuremberg, Dachau and the Krakow Ghetto.
Loeschke took her notes, pictures and experiences and put them into a presentation, which she says the students can't get enough of.
"And at lunch, I had an entire table of ninth-grade girls that said to me, 'Are we really done with all of your slides?' And I said, 'No, we're not … Do you want to see more of them?' They were like, 'Yes, they're so interesting … We're just learning so much,'" she said. "I travel so that I can bring it back to them so that they get a better sense of history. It becomes more tangible to them than just, you know, sitting behind a textbook."
That sentiment was the motivation behind a law passed this year by state lawmakers in St. Paul, mandating Holocaust and genocide education for middle and high school students. It's also why the Jewish Community Relations Council of Minnesota and the Dakotas (JCRC) created the trip and raised money to subsidize some of the cost.
Loeschke was part of a group of more than 20 teachers, with about half of them from Minnesota.
"These kids have to learn so that history doesn't repeat itself. They have to learn about these events so that they can recognize potential signs of a repeat," she said.
Three months after that trip, few could have imagined the current events that would follow: a terror attack in Israel that was the deadliest attack on Jews since the Holocaust. The resulting war has also led to a surge in antisemitism across the country and around the world.
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Laura Zelle is the director of Holocaust education at the JCRC.
"We're talking to principals, we're talking to teachers, we're talking to district leaders, DEI coordinators, we're talking to Fortune 500 companies, we're talking to teacher unions," Zelle said.
She says the current crisis underscores the importance of helping people learn more about the Jewish people, and not just about Jewish suffering.
"We don't want students to walk away thinking that these people are only victims," she said. "We really want there to be a building towards religious tolerance."
Loeschke's assignment Thursday for class certainly reflects that, as does her commitment to what she thinks is the true American dream.
"Part of being a good citizen is looking out for my neighbor," Loeschke said.
The JCRC says it's in the planning stages to organize another trip to Europe for teachers next summer.