Eighth grade students at Islip Middle School recently participated in a powerful experience of learning and reflection at the school’s annual Holocaust Remembrance Day.

In the morning, students met with Holocaust survivor Werner Reich, who shared his own harrowing experience and helped students understand the dangers of hate and division. In the afternoon, the eighth graders returned for a performance of “From the Fires: Voices of the Holocaust,” a drama that traces the life of Berlin teenager Rachel Gold and her experiences from 1937 to 1945. The play follows Gold from the inception of the Nuremberg Laws through deportation to Auschwitz and finally the death march to Mauthausen. Students wore formal attire to mark the seriousness of the events.