In order to supplement her students’ reading of Anne Frank and other Holocaust diaries, Kayla Strickland turned to IWitness for the first time.

Strickland, an English Language Arts teacher at Five Points School in Alabama, first heard about IWitness at a workshop led by the Birmingham Holocaust Education Center. She was excited to show her students the survivor testimony videos so they could have a personal connection to what they read about the Holocaust.

Strickland introduced the story of Anne Frank as well the diaries of teenagers in the book Salvaged Pages to her students, and they watched testimonies both as a class and on their own. They also did IWitness activities including Growing Up Behind the Barbed Wire of Auschwitz and an activity Strickland created.

“Seeing those survivors actually tell their story is what I want my students to connect with so that they will be better able to connect with Anne when we read her diary,” Strickland said.

“Seeing those survivors actually tell their story is what I want my students to connect with."

Her students loved watching the videos, she said. They were very engaged in their work on IWitness and seemed to get a better understanding of the Holocaust. They saw that the Holocaust was a real event, not just something in a book, and millions more people in addition to Anne Frank were also affected.

When the students found out that Anne did not survive the Holocaust, they were devastated. Some felt that Anne had become their friend. Watching testimonies of survivors in IWitness had helped them see her and other victims of the Holocaust as real people who were forced to endure terrible real-life events.

“Before hearing and seeing the survivors, Anne was just another book they had to read,” Strickland said. “The stories of the survivors illuminated the event and the people that endured such a hardship. It really brought Anne to life.”