Masks, a movable exhibit, meeting a survivor, a museum visit and reading Art Spiegelman’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, Maus. That’s how 15 Tallahassee high school students spent a week of their summer vacation. Consistent with Spiegelman’s use of animal masks in Maus, the students received community service hours for working under the direction of Dr. Dave Gussak and art therapy graduate student Jennifer Suarez as they read the graphic novel Maus that was banned in Tennessee earlier this year. The kids were given portions of the photo below (which they had not seen/did not know what it depicted) to paint. The final product is incredible. It consists of eight movable panels that, together, portray Spiegelman in his studio.

The students also had the opportunity to speak with Holocaust survivor Alan Hall, who is believed to be the only known survivor of the infamous Nazi round-ups of Jewish children. Hall, an eyewitness to the Warsaw Ghetto uprising, spent the years of terror hiding in closets, underground bomb shelters, and safe houses, shared his incredible survival story with the students, HERC community supporters, and board members.

The students capped the week off with a trip to the Florida Holocaust museum in St. Petersburg where they learned about the history of antisemitism, the rise of the Nazi Party in Germany, and the subsequent events of the Holocaust.

“I am so proud of the kids and content knowing they now know more about the Holocaust than they did a week ago,” said HERC President Elizabeth Ricci, who organized the program. “We hope to host another Summer Service Program next year.”

Hear WFSU-FM’s Story About the Program: