A Frankfort High School teacher is going to get an opportunity to renew his own curiosity and deepen personal and professional development.
Justin Seymour, a Social Studies teacher at FHS, was one of 101 educators from across the state of Indiana who will receive a grant through the Lilly Endowment Teacher Creativity Fellowships which will allow him to travel the European path of the allied liberation during World War II, while exploring key events and sites of the war and culminating in Auschwitz, Poland, in honor or Holocaust survivor and personal inspiration, Eva Kor.
The title of his project is ‘Remembering Eva Kor: The Path of Liberation.”
“My project will allow me to travel across most of Western Europe following the allied path of liberation as soldiers went through the UK (United Kingdom), France and Belgium and ultimately Germany and Poland along the way,” said Seymour.
How did he choose Kor as his main subject?
“I had to go way, way back in my childhood,” said Seymour. “I remember reading Eva’s book when I was a kid. I read her book and then she actually spoke at my school. That was really my initial starter. Learning her story was what started me having the passion for teaching social studies.”
Kor died on July 4, 2019, at the age of 85. She was a Romanian-born survivor of the Holocaust that only she and her twin sister, Miriam, survived. Her parents and two older sisters died in the gas chambers at Birkenau.
Kor founded the organization CANDLES, which was an acronym for “Children of Auschwitz Deadly Lab Experiment Survivors” in 1984, and through the program located 122 other survivors. She authored or co-authored six books, and took part in numerous memorial services and projects. Kor was the main speaker at the Women’s Expo held at the Frankfort Community Public Library in 2019.
Seymour said the main thing that stood out about Kor was her ability to forgive. In fact, one of her books, “Forgiving Dr. Mengele” was about the man who did lab experiments on her and her sister.
“It (Kor’s story) has literally resulted in kids not only crying and having an emotional moment, but some kids having genuine moments where they could give forgiveness to people in their lives because Eva’s message was forgiveness,” said Seymour.
Seymour is hopeful he will be able to travel this summer. However, that hope is up in the air at this time because of COVID-19. The good news for Seymour is that his grant was extended until the summer of 2022.
“The trip I will be doing would kind of culminate at Auschwitz,” said Seymour. “I’m going to focus on other stories.”
Some of the stops on his way to Auschwitz includes the Churchill War Room, D-Day Staging Museum, the Beaches of Normandy plus the Paris Liberation Museum and the Brussels Liberation Museum.
How did Seymour find out about this project?
“I was actually informed about it by other people here on the staff at Frankfort High School,” he said. “The way I went about doing that was I wrote a grant proposal for a project that I wanted to do which included travel to Europe. It’s done as a renewal project for teachers to kind of reinvigorate and kind of redevelop the passion for maybe the subject they’ve taught or even teaching itself.”
Each individual will receive a grant of up to $12,000 to fund personally and professionally meaningful activities. These educators work in a variety of schools, including traditional public schools, charter schools and private schools (both religiously affiliated and independent). The schools are in cities and towns and in suburban and rural communities throughout the state.
Eva Kor was a speaker at the Frankfort Community Public Library about two years ago. Please note a couple technical issues are worked out and her talk begins at the 46 minute mark. To watch Eva Kor’s talk, CLICK HERE.