Michelle Chavez

At Weiser High School, Chavez will be instructing students to create a three-phased project entitled "Remembrance Camp" that depicts the Holocaust. The first phase will be transforming classrooms into learning stations to illustrate Hitler's rise to power, propaganda against the Jews, Kristallnacht, and the ghettos. The next phase is to have the gymnasium simulate a concentration camp including constructed walls with razor wire around the top. Visitors will view the exhibit riding a cattle car through a gate with the Nazi concentration camp slogan, "Arbeit Macht Frei," imprinted on it to see living conditions at camps. The final phase will be a survivor testimony where a Holocaust survivor will share his/her memories and answer questions. The camp will allow students to visually experience the monumental effects of discrimination, hatred, and genocide. Chavez, who resides in Weiser, wants to offer the school a powerful lesson to emphasize the importance of future generations not repeating or allowing such an atrocity to occur again.