New Trunks for Georgia’s Holocaust Learning Trunk Project

“STANDING UP AND PROTECTING EQUALITY IS WORTH FIGHTING FOR”

SPECIAL FOR THE AJT

A total of 20 new trunks decorated for the Georgia Commission on the Holocaust are now on display at the Anne Frank in the World: 1929-1945 exhibit in Sandy Springs. The trunks will join a collection of over 50 trunks currently in circulation throughout the state as part of the Holocaust Learning Trunk Project. Student-created artwork on the trunks reflects stories of “upstanders” from the Holocaust, World War II, Civil Rights Movement and related themes found across curriculum
standards. Examples of such upstanders include Rosa Parks, the rescue mission for Jews in Denmark, the Tuskegee Airmen, and Nelson Mandela.

The Holocaust Learning Trunk Project is sponsored by the Georgia Commission on the Holocaust, The Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany, Inc. and the Georgia Foundation for Public Education. A pilot program of the project began in 2011 and trunks have been distributed to all 16 of Georgia’s Regional Educational Service Agencies and over 13 school districts. Middle school educators may request to check-out a trunk online at www.holocaust.georgia.gov. Each trunk is filled with
educational materials that assist educators in fulfilling the Georgia’s Standards of Excellence by teaching the lessons of the Holocaust. The
trunks are used as an interdisciplinary supplement to curriculum already in place.

Schools and organizations that participated in decorating trunks during the 2013-2014 academic year include: B’nai Torah Religious School, Congregation
Ner Tamid, General Ray Davis Middle School, Luther Hudson Price Middle School, Madras Middle School, Moore Middle School, The Marist School’s Reach for Excellence program, Shiloh Middle School, Westside Middle School, and Woodstock Middle School.

Students of Woodstock Middle School Art Club wrote the following describing their experience decorating a trunk: “[We] would like to say to the
world, through our artwork, that all people are equal and standing up and protecting that equality is worth fighting for.”

Editor’s note: For more, contact Emma Ellingson (770) 206-1555; ellingsonholocaustga@comcast.net