A traveling exhibit about Americans during the Holocaust and World War II, made its way to Seward. Last week, the youngest members of Gen Z took field trips to learn more about what the Greatest Generation went through.
Seward High School students walked through "Americans and the Holocaust," a small exhibit at the Seward Community Library and Museum on a recent Wednesday morning. Displays and kiosks filled the room, showing what newspapers wrote about the war in every state, and how people viewed Jewish refugees.
One display discussed propaganda during World War II. Several students were surprised to learn that children's book author Dr. Seuss drew political cartoons encouraging Americans to get involved in the wartime efforts.
Before going through the exhibit, students watched a video about what Jewish people went through during the Holocaust. Ninth grader Atigun Petersen said the exhibit taught more about World War II than what she learned in the classroom.
“I knew some parts about the Holocaust and everything that happened with Hitler and all them, but I wasn't sure, like, on details and everything about it,” Petersen said, “so it was kind of just eye opening to see everything that they were doing to them and all the punishments that they had to go through just for being Jewish.”
The Holocaust happened during the 1930s and 40s. German Nazis persecuted and killed millions of people, the majority being European Jews.
Petersen said seeing everything in the exhibit helped her to understand the topic better.
“I have a hard time just like, getting told one thing and going in and out another ear,” she said, “so like being here, being able to read what we like, want to read and experience, is a very different thing rather than just being taught in a classroom.”
The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington D.C. chose the library as one of 50 to host the exhibit, the only one in Alaska. Part of hosting the exhibit includes bringing in students to learn more about the Holocaust.
Sophomore Amara Ransom said they don’t often get to go on these types of field trips.
“I feel like, living in such a small town, it's really hard to get out and, like, try to have these opportunities. But I'm really thankful for our teachers that like, provide it for us,” she said.
Library director Sue Drover says she wanted more students in the state to access the exhibit, but it’s difficult to get students to Seward. So she worked with the Holocaust museum to create a virtual field trip instead.
“The U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum offered to send one of their historians to Seward, to work with me for about two and a half days to get together that field trip,” Drover said, “and she was actually the one who led the virtual field trip, and we had a videographer from Anchorage come down and film it.”
Drover said the video will be posted on the library’s YouTube page and sent to school districts across the state soon.
The exhibit will run until Oct. 3.