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the Lockport Legend | April 26, 2018 | 7
Holocaust survivor, D92 speaker remembered by students, staff
Jacquelyn Schlabach
Assistant Editor
Students at Oak Prairie have always
been taught to be “upstanders,”
and stand up for what they
believe in.
For 15 years, Aaron Elster visited
Oak Prairie and shared with the
eighth-grade students how important
it is to be the change and make
a difference in the world around
them. As a Holocaust survivor, Elster
continued to share his experience
all those years in hopes that
children would learn to fill their
hearts with acceptance rather than
hate.
His message resonated with the
thousands of students and the many
teachers and staff who listened to
his words every year he came to
the school. On April 11, Elster died
at the age of 86, and while he can
no longer tell his stories, they will
live on through those who knew
him and had the privilege to hear
him speak.
“I want him to be remembered
for his insistence that this is the
generation that will make the difference,”
said Carl Munson, a retired
D92 social studies teacher.
“He put a lot of faith in them not to
be bystanders. He put a lot of faith
in them to stop bullying.”
Munson initiated the relationship
with Elster and Oak Prairie around
2003. He was an eighth-grade social
studies teacher at Ludwig before
teaching at Oak Prairie when it
became the new junior high school.
He would take his students to the
Illinois Holocaust Museum and
Education Center, where he met
Elster. As one who heavily studied
the Holocaust, Munson began to go
with Elster to schools in the Chicago
area in 2002 to speak about
the historical event.
“I’m pleased that as long as I’m
around, for example, I spoke at a
school yesterday, and as long as
I’m here I’m going to continue
to go to schools and talk without
him,” Munson said. “I sort of
promised him that I would continue
the message.”
Elster came to Oak Prairie every
year around the time that the
eighth-graders finished reading
“We’re definitely
going to miss him,
but we will make
sure that his legacy
and story is always
heard at Oak
Prairie.”
Amy Cusack — Oak Prairie
social studies teacher, on the
late Aaron Elster
his book “I Still See Her Haunting
Eyes: The Holocaust and a Hidden
Child Named Aaron” in language
arts class. He last came to the
school on Nov. 9, 2017.
“When he came to talk, what
stood out to me was he said to
treat everybody with kindness and
respect,” eighth-grader Andrew
Crosby said.
Classmate Dylan Vilcek said
that after hearing Elster speak, he
learned there’s always light in the
darkest of moments and there’s always
something to fight for.
When Elster was 9 years old in
Sokolow-Podlaski, Poland, the Gestapo
moved Jewish residents to
the Sokolow ghetto, and when the
ghetto’s occupants were being relocated
to Treblinka concentration
camp, he was forced to escape.
For two years, Elster hid in an attic
of a Polish family before World
War II ended. He lived in multiple
displacement camps and orphanages
before immigrating to the
United States in 1947.
“It’s important for him to come
talk to us because it’s like a lot of
kids don’t understand, they think
it’s just like events that happened,
they don’t understand how big it
really was to the world and how
it was to the Jewish religion and
population of how many people
got wiped out,” eighth-grader Kelley
Rourke said. “They just think
it’s numbers and figures, but really
it’s like a human race.”
The late Aaron Elster, a Holocaust survivor and author, spoke at Oak Prairie for 15 years. Photo submitted
Amy Cusack is a social studies
teacher at Oak Prairie and teaches
the eighth-grade students about
World War II the same time they’re
reading Elster’s book in language
arts class.
“If we don’t teach our kids to
have empathetic hearts and minds,
and they don’t ever put themselves
in someone else’s shoes, and it’s
always kind of me before everyone
else attitude, we are not going very
far as a society,” Cusack said.
Language arts teacher Amanda
Rainaldi said it’s important to keep
the Holocaust relevant, and echoed
Cusack’s comment on teaching the
idea of empathy.
“So my big push is teaching empathy
and making sure that they
keep caring; I think [that] is my
bottom line,” Rainaldi said. “I always
just tell my students to care
about what’s going on in the world
and just care about how other people
are feeling, really.”
According to Cusack, Elster
would always talk to the students
about understanding the consequences
of hate and prejudice,
and to see how things can quickly
spiral out of control as a result. If
they stand up for what’s right and
look out for one another, the world
won’t be in a dark place, he said.
“Another message that always
resonates with me and from what
I’ve learned from Mr. Elster is that
there is more good in the world
than bad, and for him to have said
that, every time he came to speak
to us he would say look for the
good, there is more good in the
world than bad, and today that’s
something that stuck with me,”
Rainaldi said.
Eighth-grader Alia Abuzir found
it inspiring that when Elster came
to speak he was very positive even
though he lost his parents and
younger sister during the Holocaust.
“I feel like even if you don’t
have anything, you can always find
something to have hope in and stay
positive,” classmate Jessie Knippenberg
said.
Munson said that by meeting a
survivor of the Holocaust like Elster,
who went through an extremely
difficult time in his life at such
a young age, the children can see
there are always things to be thankful
for.
“They could actually say ‘I can’t
go home and complain today about
dinner, or what I had for lunch, and
then actually meet a man that lived
in an attic for two years.’” Munson
said.
For Munson, it was a privilege to
know Elster.
“I want him to be remembered
for having gone through all of
that, but yet being forgiving of
things,” Munson said. “He gave
the challenge to the kids to make
a difference and his biggest fear
was that when he and the other
survivors are all gone, they’ll be
no one left to continue the stories.”
In remembrance of Elster and
the impact he had on the students
and staff, teachers will be making
a collective donation to the Illinois
Holocaust Museum, where
he was also the first vice president
of the board, in his honor.
Rainaldi also created posters for
the language arts and social studies
classes that are hanging in the
classrooms with Elster’s picture
and some of his common phrases
written that he would say to the
students.
“We’re definitely going to miss
him, but we will make sure that his
legacy and story is always heard at
Oak Prairie,” Cusak said.