On Friday, April 27, Indian Mills Memorial School’s seventh-grade language arts classes under Michele Montrose welcomed Charles Middleburg to speak about the Holocaust for the second straight year. Middleburg was a nine-year-old living in Paris, France with his parents and younger brother when the Nazis arrived in 1940. Lynne Shapiro of the Goodwin Holocaust Museum & Education Center of Cherry Hill accompanied him to the school.
Middleburg’s story was a moving tribute to his family, friends, and all those who were brutalized by Hitler’s demonic plan to eliminate the Jewish race and religion from the face of the earth. His mother and father were interned in Auschwitz, Poland in 1942. His mother died there, but his father miraculously survived the ordeal.
Middleburg’s presentation left the students of Indian Mills Memorial School spellbound for over an hour. His story of survival and the reunion with his father is forever etched in their minds. He gave them something that can never be taken away: an eyewitness account of one of the darkest periods in the history of our world. It is a story that they had read about and heard in lecture, but never from a true primary source. After he finished answering questions for more than 30 minutes, a wave of students gathered around him, offering hugs, and sharing tears. It was as moving a sight as one could imagine. Additionally, students spent part of the afternoon thanking Middleburg for sharing his story with them.
In appreciation of the commitment to education and teaching the Holocaust to our students, the Indian Mills Home and School Association presented a check in the amount of $150 to the Goodwin Holocaust Museum & Education Center.
