Principal travels world as scholar of Holocaust
BY JAMIE ROMM Staff Writer

MIDDLETOWN - The media center at Thompson Middle School was busy Oct. 24 with eighth-graders chatting and moving around.

But when Principal Patrick Houston began his presentation on the Holocaust, for the next hour and a half, the students were silent.

In 1999, Houston as the assistant superintendent in Middletown attended a Holocaust workshop at Kean University, Union. After attending, he developed a strong interest in the topic and was asked by the lecturer to apply for a scholarship to visit the Holocaust sites and Israel. After being talked into it, he applied and was accepted into the program, in part, he believes, because of the fact that he may have been one of the only non-Jewish applicants.

"When I applied for the scholarship I never thought I'd get it," Houston said. "I never thought my wife and kids would let me go to a dangerous place such as Israel at the time. In the end I felt it was worth taking such a meaningful journey.

During the trip he realized that his not being Jewish didn't matter because it is a tragedy that affects everyone.

"People are surprised when they hear that I made the trip and I am not Jewish," Houston said. "But when it comes down to it, the Holocaust is a human tragedy, not just a religious tragedy."

When he returned from the trip, he wanted to educate the students on what he learned, so when he became principal at Thompson, he started giving a presentation to the teachers and students that became a big success. Sharing the information with the teachers is one thing; relating the Holocaust to eighth-grade students is a tougher task, according to Houston.

Using comparisons more applicable to the students' lives helped to get the point across.

"Six million Jewish people were killed in the Holocaust," Houston said to the children. "Giants Stadium filled to capacity fits about 80,000 people. Multiply that by 75 and you'll have an idea of the amount of lives lost."

He hopes teaching about the Holocaust will impart valuable character lessons to the students.

"How many of you have been bullied?" Houston asked. "Now how many of you have been bullies by making fun of people? Well, how many of you have been bullies by remaining silent when seeing someone being picked on?"

He described the Holocaust as an extreme example of bigotry, discrimination and prejudice.

Houston told a story about his trip of him and two colleagues wanting to take a trip to Jerusalem. After entering a taxi, the taxi driver told Houston that he would not take him to Jerusalem but rather to Bethlehem, a place that was experiencing extreme terrorist attacks at the time. This led to a brief struggle with the driver, in which Houston grabbed the wheel and swerved the driver off the road, and the three colleagues ran away from the taxi. It was one of many stories that Houston told the captivated crowd.

His goal in the presentation is to teach the youths so that something like this could never happen again.

"My generation had a chance to end all of the prejudice, and we failed," Houston said. "I think your generation will end some of the prejudices due to our current technology and programs done to teach against these kind of things. It begins with everyone, whether black, white, Jewish, Christian or Muslim, treating each other as they would themselves."

The students said that they took a lot away from what their principal was saying.

"What was done is just horrible," Kira Jarotstchyk, 13, said. "Some of what he said was hard to listen to."

This sentiment was held by many of the students as well.

"It's just so tragic," Taylor Hartl, 13, said. "I can't believe people would do that."

After his lecture, Houston showed slides of his trip to the students, including pictures of a crematorium, rail cars and a concentration camp. Most of the students were seeing images like those for the first time.

"Seeing an oven showed me how bad things were," Taylor Canavan, 13, said. "How could someone in their right mind take a body and put it in an oven?"

In the end, Houston hopes he made a difference in all of these kids' lives and will continue this program in the future.

"I am convinced that all of you in front of me can make sure something like this never happens," Houston told the class. "I hope you can demonstrate the courage that you have. You don't have to like everyone, but you have to show them respect."