Angelus News | January 26, 2024 | Vol. 9 No. 2
On the cover: High school student Atticus Maldonado smiles between classes at St. Pius X-St. Matthias Academy in Downey. On Page 10, Angelus contributor Steve Lowery has the incredible story of how Maldonado’s school community rallied behind him in prayer — and why his unlikely recovery from a rare cancer may not even be the story’s biggest miracle.
On the cover: High school student Atticus Maldonado smiles between classes at St. Pius X-St. Matthias Academy in Downey. On Page 10, Angelus contributor Steve Lowery has the incredible story of how Maldonado’s school community rallied behind him in prayer — and why his unlikely recovery from a rare cancer may not even be the story’s biggest miracle.
Create successful ePaper yourself
Turn your PDF publications into a flip-book with our unique Google optimized e-Paper software.
ABSORBING AUSCHWITZ<br />
After seeing the Holocaust site close-up, an<br />
LA-area Catholic school teacher is bringing her<br />
experience back to students.<br />
Michelle Herrera poses outside of<br />
the Polin Museum of the History of<br />
Polish Jews in Warsaw, Poland, during<br />
a trip as part of the Auschwitz Legacy<br />
Fellowship. | MICHELLE HERRERA<br />
BY NATALIE ROMANO<br />
Catholic school teacher Michelle<br />
Herrera never had a<br />
Jewish friend, never stepped<br />
inside a Jewish synagogue, and never<br />
learned much about the Jewish faith.<br />
But after noticing a rise in antisemitism<br />
in recent years, Herrera thought<br />
it was time to better inform herself<br />
and her students. So she joined the<br />
Auschwitz Legacy Fellowship, a<br />
unique program that gives American<br />
teachers academic-focused tours of<br />
the Auschwitz-Birkenau Memorial<br />
and Museum in Poland. Herrera knew<br />
seeing the concentration and extermination<br />
camps was going to be difficult,<br />
but it was tougher than expected.<br />
“That first night I prayed the most,”<br />
she said. “I wasn’t ready for the emotions<br />
that came up … nothing can<br />
prepare you for it.”<br />
The Auschwitz Legacy Fellowship<br />
is a yearlong intensive education on<br />
the Holocaust, antisemitism, and<br />
Auschwitz-Birkenau, the network of<br />
Nazi-run camps where more than<br />
1 million people, mostly Jews, were<br />
murdered. The Auschwitz-Birkenau<br />
Memorial Foundation (ABMF)<br />
launched the initiative in 2022 so<br />
younger generations would be taught<br />
not only the history of the Holocaust<br />
but its social relevance today.<br />
This year, the ABMF, with partners<br />
like Holocaust Museum LA, invited<br />
teachers from California to apply to<br />
the fully funded program. It includes<br />
in-person and online classes as well as<br />
a weeklong tour of historical sites in<br />
Poland. Herrera, who teaches theology<br />
at Ramona Convent Secondary<br />
School in Alhambra, was one of 20<br />
educators chosen from Southern California<br />
and the only Catholic school<br />
teacher.<br />
“I felt a certain responsibility with<br />
that,” Herrera said. “I thought about<br />
what this history teaches us about<br />
14 • ANGELUS • <strong>January</strong> <strong>26</strong>, <strong>2024</strong>