Current Stories
From the Saratogian, March 1, 2007
Holocaust survivor tells tale of hardship to students
By MELISSA DOWNER, The Saratogian
SARATOGA SPRINGS - Following their tradition of learning through experience, not text books, Saratoga Independent School students listened to a German Holocaust survivor tell her story Tuesday.
In two separate age-appropriate discussions, Edith Pagelson, who now lives in Westchester, and whose grandson Jacob Lucas attends SIS, talked about her experiences growing up in Germany, as well as being persecuted in the Holocaust during World War II as part of the school's teachings of the German culture
and history.
Pagelson was only 15 years old when she and her mother were taken captive by the Nazis from a home in Worms, a city on the Rhine in southwestern Germany, and sent into a concentration camp in Czestochowa, Czechoslovakia. She was later transferred to other camps, including Auschwitz where she narrowly
escaped death in the "showers" when the gas systems failed. She was finally liberated at age 20.
"I was lucky that I wasn't separated from my family most of the time," Pagelson said. "We tried so hard to stay together, and it was so important to have a sort-of buddy system." There were times when Pagelson was separated from her mother, but they were reunited at a different camp.
Pagelson recalled a time when she was standing in a line among thousands of women to either be given work clothes to dig ditches or be sent to a different camp, and the line was cut off just between Pagelson and her mother.
"I smuggled myself somehow so I could stay with her," she said. "We really had to think of our own lives."
Her father had been taken three years before the rest of her family, and died within three months due to an untreated medical problem, she said. Pagelson, her mother and sister hid in neighbors' houses until they were captured.
Since her younger sister was only 8 years old, she was one of 10,000 infants and young children that the Nazis allowed to leave the country through the Kinder Transport program. Her sister lived with a family in England, and they were later reunited in the United States, Pagelson told the students.
Pagelson said that many Jews were "transported" to alternate camps by ships which were intentionally sunk in order to kill them.
When Pagelson and her mother boarded a boat she was sure she wasn't going to live, she said, but they happened to be on the same ship that held food for the German army.
It was months later that Pagelson, her mother and the other prisoners were liberated at the Nowe Miasto camp. Together, Pagelson and her mother went to the American embassy, received money and visas, and moved to America in 1947 - reuniting with Pagelson's younger sister and aunt who had already moved
to America and were living in Brooklyn.
"I almost didn't make it to America because of a lung condition. I was devastated, but it only turned out to be a laceration so I was OK to go," she said.
She said the lung condition must have been from working in the camps.
"It had to be, there's no other way," she said, as she pulled up her left sleeve to expose the identification tattoo - A-2676 - that she received upon entering her first camp.
She also showed the shirt she was given to wear daily, and the Star of David patch she had to wear on the left side of her chest to identify herself as Jewish whenever she went into public and after she was captured.
With a younger audience, Pagelson discussed growing up in Germany and how her childhood compared to an American's childhood.
"We'd never be able to sit on the floor like you are right now," she said. "We had to sit straight at our desks with our hands on top of the desk to be examined for clean fingernails. If they weren't clean, we were sent home with a message to our parents," she said as the students laughed.
When asked about what kind of toys she played with as a child, Pagelson recalled a specific doll that she owned.
"I later saw one just like her on the Antiques Roadshow. It was worth a lot of money," she said.
Although Pagelson didn't discuss her personal story of the Holocaust with the younger children, her message was simple.
"Children have to be grateful to live in America. Sure, there are problems, but there's no place like the United States," she said. "War is hell, and in America, it's heaven on Earth."
From the Times Union, Jan. 31, 2007
Students re-enact immigrant life
Saratoga Independent School program gives a view of the passage through Ellis Island
By DENNIS YUSKO, Staff writer
Photos by James Goolsby, Times Union
SARATOGA SPRINGS -- The tired, persecuted and poor arrived in huddled masses, yearning to breathe free.
It was a cold January night in 1920, and immigrant families from the SS America and SS Liberty were lined up at Ellis Island, wearing layers of clothing. Often, they carried only a passport, a small bag and a few bills in foreign currency.
The steerage passengers from Europe and beyond endured a difficult two-week voyage across the Atlantic Ocean. They now faced processing, a series of harrowing inspections of their bodies, belongings and beliefs.
"A lot of the officers are bossy, and they tell you what to do, but I'm starting to feel better," said young Caleb Cohen, who portrayed a young immigrant from Russia. "The soldiers didn't like the Jews there, so we had to come to America."
Cohen, a student at Saratoga Independent School, played Calev Prinyavietsy as part of the school's elaborate re-enactment of the Ellis Island immigration experience last week. The re-creation, followed by a student debate, topped off the private school's examination of the history of immigration and why it's become a national political issue.
Students, teachers and parents all became immigrants fleeing the teeming shores of Italy, Russia, Greece, Scotland, Germany, France and more for a better life in the United States. Abe Gordon, 6, played a boy who sailed from Lithuania to escape persecution. Erick Guttier, 47, portrayed someone who left France because of famine and poverty.
Once at Ellis Island (the school's main learning room), immigrants ascended a homemade staircase and went through various checkpoints. The ill and unruly faced quarantine or deportation, as Italians Kim Palermo and her daughter Christianna discovered.
Wearing shawls and aprons, the Palermos portrayed people who left Sicily because they "were really poor," Kim Palermo said. But the mother faced deportation for calling an Ellis Island inspector an imbecile.
"They said I don't know how to count," the mother said in a thick accent, while making her case to stay to officials in the deportation and special inquiry office.
Student George Stack, 9, played an American legal inspector. He wore a tie.
"We ask people questions, check their passport, and that determines if they can enter America or not," Stack said.
If the new arrival admits to being an anarchist, they are denied entry, Stack said.
Doctors on site checked for signs of mental illness, conjunctivitis, blindness-causing trachoma, lameness, pregnancy, scalp fungus and possible problems with the heart, eyes, feet, lungs or back.
Immigrants also exchanged money for dollars and U.S. coins, purchased railroad tickets and sought assistance from the Immigrant Aid Society.
"We're sure this will be a memorable experience to actually dramatize the immigration experience at Ellis Island, rather than reading it in a book," said Joe Mammola, the school's executive director.
The evening included a debate on present day immigration issues. Two teams of five students answered questions from a moderator before an appreciative crowd of about 100.
Student Cohen and his parents were eventually allowed entry, and he set his sights on the American dream.
"I might want to be a scientist or an artist," Cohen said.
From the Saratogian, January 27, 2007
Students travel back in time to Ellis Island in the 1920s
By MELISSA DOWNER, The Saratogian
SARATOGA SPRINGS - Saratoga Independent School's students went back in time to 1920 for an evening to learn about their ancestors' immigration experiences.
Dressed in traditional clothing, families arrived as immigrants to the United States at "Ellis Island" on Wednesday night for the school's Know and Tell Evening. After months of comprehensive study of immigration, the students demonstrated what they learned by a simulation of the Ellis Island immigration
experience.
"We wanted to make the night meaningful by taking what the students learned and giving them an authentic assessment," said Education Director Felice Karlitz. "It's much more meaningful than taking a test."
Families assumed the roles of their ancestors and had to experience the process of coming to Ellis Island and being processed as an immigrant. Whether they were first class passengers or steerage, all "immigrants" had to check in, be inspected by students portraying inspection officers for health, mental
or legal problems, exchange foreign currency for American money, and finally receive a train ticket to their final destination. The student immigration officers decided which families were allowed to enter "America," and which ones were deported back to their home countries based on their extensive classroom
studies.
All school subjects were integrated into this event as the students studied the historical aspects, money exchange and put together an immigration museum throughout the school which included essays, maps, portraits, and biographies of famous immigrants who have come to the United States.
After all of the "immigrants" were processed, a current-day immigration law debate was held with the 9 and 10-year-old students participating.
The debate focused on current day issues, and was held in the same fashion as a professional debate, complete with a student moderator and timed responses.
The questions debated included:
ä Should the United States limit the number of immigrants allowed to enter the country?
ä Does the average American benefit from having a source of cheap labor, or are illegal immigrants hurting the economy?
ä Are highly skilled immigrants beneficial or harmful to the American economy?
ä Should English be the "official" language of the United States?
Two teams of five students prepared speeches and answered the questions so intelligently and thoroughly that it was hard to remember that elementary school children were giving responses.
Nine-year-old George Stack re-wrote his speech 18 times for exercises in his public speaking class.
"We had to learn to emphasize words or sentences and remember to use body language," Stack said. "I feel good about my speech. I'm very happy."
Although these potential future politicians didn't choose the side of the question they debated, they thoroughly researched the topic and gave convincing speeches complete with facts and statistics.
Following the debate, students asked the audience questions from the United States Immigration test. When everyone was accepted as a United States citizen, the night was closed with everyone standing to recite the Pledge of Allegiance as "newly inducted citizens."
"We've been studying and preparing for this for a long time," said Jonah Cohen, 9, of Wilton. "I'm a little glad it's over, but I'm really proud of what we've done tonight."
.
