Beyond the Classroom: Reflecting on Auschwitz

Students enrolled in the Religious Studies course Facing History & Ourselves recently traveled to Boston to experience: Auschwitz. Not Long Ago. Not Far Away.

This powerful exhibit recalls the horrors of the Holocaust through over 700 artifacts.

“The way [the exhibit] is set up chronologically makes you feel like you're living it in real time..”Samantha, Class of 2025

"I know the purpose of the exhibit is to educate as many people as possible," notes Samantha, "to try to prevent history from repeating itself. But I think it was also to humanize the victims. It was to give them back the dignity that was stripped from them during the Holocaust."

Through the Facing History & Ourselves course and the Facing History & Ourselves initiative, Central Catholic students explore the history, causes, and aftermath of the Holocaust.

Over 25 students enrolled in the course visited the exhibition with Ms. Anne Martino, Religious Studies Teacher; Mrs. Aliali Silverio Belkus '97, Assistant Principal of Community & Belonging; and Mr. Christopher Merrill '89, Director of Strategic Communications.

Auschwitz. Not Long Ago. Not Far Away.

About the Exhibition

Excerpts from BU Today

"This exhibition includes more than 700 artifacts from what was the largest concentration camp established by the Nazis during World War II under German Chancellor Adolf Hitler. More than one million people died there between 1940 and 1945."

"The traveling exhibition represents an extraordinary collaboration among more than 20 museums across the globe, including the Auschwitz-Birkenau Memorial and Museum, the Anne Frank House, and Yad Vashem, and it is described as the first traveling exhibition on Auschwitz."

"The show is arranged chronologically. Among the hundreds of objects included are suitcases that were packed by Jews deported to Auschwitz, portions of an original prison barrack, concrete posts that served as part of the fence that surrounded the camp, a single woman’s red shoe set against a photo of hundreds of shoes confiscated from Auschwitz detainees on their way to the gas chambers, a child’s doll, hundreds of buttons removed from detainees’ clothing, and much more. The vast collection of personal objects is meant to humanize the lives lost at Auschwitz and to serve as a remembrance and as a reminder of the need to combat hate and evil wherever it exists."

About Facing History & Ourselves

Students explore the history, causes and aftermath of the Holocaust in this one-semester senior elective course. Themes are explored through a series of reading, videos, activities, and reflections. Students reflect on racism and social justice, as well as the importance of global awareness and their own potential for making a difference. Based on the curriculum developed and sponsored by Facing History and Ourselves in Brookline, MA, connections are made to Catholic social teaching, St. Paul’s image that we are all one body in Christ, and our Marist call to reach out to the least favored.