Holocaust survivor visits schools
By News-Argus Staff
Published in News on February 9, 2006 1:47 PM
Students in Wayne County Public Schools are getting an opportunity to learn about the Holocaust from someone who experienced it firsthand.
Gizella Abramson, a native a Poland, will speak for several classes at Spring Creek High school this month about her experiences as a child in the Nazi concentration camps, including the Majdanek death camp.
Last fall, Mrs. Abramson shared her experiences at Wayne Community College during a "World View" lecture. Her return to eastern North Carolina is part of the third annual "Wayne County Reads" program. The feature book being studied is "Night," Elie Wiesel's personal account of surviving the Holocaust.
As a child, Mrs. Abramson's family was forced into the "Luck Ghetto," where she became a member of the underground resistance movement and later spent two years in concentration camps during World War II. After Liberation in 1946, she came to the United States, moving to Raleigh in 1970. She has been sharing her experiences with audiences across the state ever since.
She was to visit the eighth grade-classes at Spring Creek today and has been invited to return Feb. 23 to speak with students in 10th- and 12th-grade classes.
Olivia Pierce, the school sykstem's representative for Wayne County Reads said, "Having someone like Mrs. Abramson speak at a school is a privilege for both students and teachers."
Mrs. Abramson's school presentations are not open to the public. But Ms. Pierce said people are encouraged to join in the Wayne County Reads initiative and read "Night" in order to better understand the Holocaust.