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Seven seniors interviewed Holocaust survivor Morris Rosen on Wednesday, April 27 as part of the spring term elective “McDonogh Remembers." The elective is a three-part class where students study and research a major event in history, interview and videotape witnesses to the major event, and then edit the material for viewing.

During the interview session, the seniors distributed the responsibilities. While Teddi A. and Mitch B. were the official interviewers, anyone in the class was permitted to ask questions during videotaping. Molly J. and Jo B. monitored the sound and video camera, respectively.

At the beginning of the term, history teacher Chet Janiga gave a historical lesson on the Holocaust and students wrote a paper. Then, during the second section with Upper School Technology Director Mike Robertson, students learned about interviewing techniques and the technology behind videotaping to prepare for their session with Mr. Rosen. The final section, which will take place the first week of May, will be led by technology specialist David Fulton-Howard. He will teach the students how to edit their videotaped material for presentation.

According to Teddi A., this class has been very enlightening, “When I signed up I didn’t know it was going to be about the Holocaust, but I find history very interesting and I knew that we would get to interview people who actually experienced a historical event.”

Senior Mitch B. has similar sentiments, “I saw the video from last year’s class and thought that there are fewer and fewer Holocaust survivors alive, so through this class I could share someone else’s experience.”

Mr. Rosen spoke to the students about his life in Poland before WWII and how life changed leading up to the war. He told students about how the relationships between Jews and non-Jews changed very quickly, including with people he believed were his friends. As the war progressed, his parents were taken away and he never saw them again. He described how he lived in constant terror and had to lie and hide food to stay alive. He watched people getting beaten and shot at work camps. Ultimately, Mr. Rosen was one of the lucky ones.

“Overall, we want the students to understand the importance of capturing a historic experience on tape. It brings to real life the event in our history books,” said Robertson. “They get to hear about it first hand, record it, and save it for future generations.”