Fund for Teachers--Professional Development Grant Program

The latest from Amy and her book.  

http://fundforteachers.tumblr.com/post/158745169717/fft-fellow-publishes-book-on-survivors-story-amy

Amy McDonald  Shades Valley High School   Jefferson County School System

Amy McDonald next to a traditional wooden gate leading into the town of Targu Lapus, Romania

Brief Description of  Fellowship: Enrich existing research of a Birmingham-area Holocaust survivor by collaborating with a teacher in his Romanian hometown to explore the story, connect classrooms and inform a nearly-finished book for Alabama (and possibly Romanian) classrooms.

Over the past few years, I have worked closely with a Birmingham-area Holocaust survivor. He has visited my classroom on several occasions to speak to my students and we have become close friends. In honor of his life, I wear a bracelet engraved with his camp prisoner number. A year ago, he and his wife asked if I would be interested in writing his story. I was honored and humbled to be asked, and I agreed. While I do not claim to be an author, historian, or scholar, this will be an opportunity to provide future generations with a full accounting of one survivor’s amazing history. It will also be an opportunity to publish a historical account which could be used as a resource in my classroom, and in classrooms everywhere. For over a year, I have been researching and compiling information of one survivor’s story. Last summer, I had the opportunity to travel with a European Study Program to Germany and Poland. While there, I was able to visit the specific concentration and slave labor camps including Auschwitz-Birkenau, Dachau, and the slave labor sub-camps of Dachau, Kaufering I and Kaufering III. I was fortunate to be able to spend time in the archives and meet with archivists at Dachau, as well as meet and spend time with one of the military officers and historians in charge of the facility and museum at the former site of Kaufering I. The information and documentation gained from visiting these sites has broadened my knowledge of Holocaust events and has been invaluable to my classroom teaching and research. To continue developing Holocaust resources, my Fund for Teachers fellowship proposal is to travel to TarguLapus, Romania. From there, the next destination would be to Reghin, Romania, where he and his family were imprisoned in the Szaszregen Ghetto, before they were sent to the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp / killing center. As important as it would be to travel to Romania to experience first-hand the sites of this Holocaust story, there is a larger goal and mission. Over the past few months, I have made several contacts in the town of TarguLapus who are helping me with different aspects of my research. They have provided me with important historical information, old and current photographs, written testimony of survivors from the town, and descriptions of how Holocaust Education is taught in Romania. Two of these people are teachers, one is a journalist. One of the teachers is a high school history teacher and we are working together on possible ways to connect our classrooms and students.

 Career Impact:*World-wide connections and colleagues; this grant focused heavily and still focuses on  working with teachers and students in Targu Lapus, Romania, Max’s birthplace * Sharing my learning with colleagues and the community in the form of a published book  on this survivor’s experiences. * Make myself available to the Birmingham Holocaust Education Center and my school system as a teacher resource *The opportunity to create new classroom resources  *Increased opportunities to assist and train other teachers in the field of Holocaust  Education

Link to article Fund for Teachers did on Amy's trip to Romania.  http://bit.ly/FFTsurvivor