On January 29, the student forum on genocide -- the final piece of Winchester Thurston’s annual eighth grade Holocaust Project -- unfolded to its largest audience ever. Over 200 students from area schools, including Sterrett Classical Academy, Pittsburgh Obama, and Shady Side Academy, convened at the City Campus for the yearly symposium designed to raise awareness of genocides past and present, inspire interest in world politics, and galvanize efforts for advocacy.

“We are the up and coming generation,” declares Samantha G. “We need to start now if we want to change our future. Just because we’re 13 or 14 years old doesn’t mean we can’t make a difference.”

The forum, the latest installment of a project that has expanded considerably in scope and scale since its inception four years ago, was designed and created entirely by the eighth grade student body, bringing full-circle the multi-faceted, multi-layered, multi-media initiative that has become a powerful WT institution and a key City as Our Campus program incorporating social studies, visual art, language arts, and community outreach.

Participants attended an array of seminars featuring Edie Naveh of the Holocaust Center of Greater Pittsburgh; Theresa Bachmann of Action-Reconciliation Service for Peace, a German peace and volunteer service organization; and members of WT Amnesty International, who spoke about current genocide in Darfur, Sudan, and explained how students can help. Tours through the eighth grade Holocaust Museum installation Lost, Loved, Remembered were central to the forum, as was the opening presentation by Auschwitz survivor Sam Weinreb, whose entire family was lost to the Holocaust. “It is important that you, the younger generation, hear this,” Weinreb urged, “so that it never happens again.”

“We’re one of the last generations to see and talk to the survivors,” says Noah D. “This is a golden opportunity for all of us to take this experience, this knowledge, and share it with others.” Adds Gray P., “As Mrs. Naveh said, there are only about 10 survivors in the area who are comfortable speaking about their past, and they’re in their 70s and 80s. This may be one of WT’s last chances to hear them tell their stories.”

Students also viewed Rebuilding Hope, a documentary about the escape of Sudan’s Lost Boys from civil war in South Sudan, and their journey back home – as young men -- to find surviving family members. “People’s faces,” says Noah of the film’s impact. “When people heard the stories and saw the photographs, they didn’t know what to do or say about this devastating situation.”

Simultaneously moving and motivating, WT’s student forum on genocide brought home the simple but powerful message that each person can make a difference.

“We’re walking away with the knowledge of what happened and what is happening,” states Sophia P. “We can tell our parents and our friends who couldn’t come. We can make sure if we’re ever in a situation, even bullying, for example, that we stop or prevent it. Any kind of hatred can lead to tragedy like genocide, and I hope people leave the forum with knowledge and ideas on how to help.”

 “Survivors have done their part,” concludes Samantha. “And now it’s our job to take what they’ve told us and given us, and carry it on.”