A Bay Area educator just returned from a very rare and unique international trip where he retraced the history of the Holocaust.
- Retired Bay area teacher takes rare look into the Holocaust
- Larry Grimes one of 19 educators in Jewish Foundation for the Righteous’ 2017 European study program
- Grimes spent two weeks in Poland and Lithuania
Larry Grimes is a recently retired teacher from Tampa and was one of only 19 educators from across the country chosen to be part of the Jewish Foundation for the Righteous’ 2017 European study program.
Grimes spent two weeks in Poland and Lithuania. He said the trip, was hardly a vacation.
"You go to mass graves, you go to ghettos, but the joyful part is these people, the righteous people the rescuers who hid the Jews during the time of the Holocaust," Grimes said.
The program is a high-level, intensive experience that included trips to concentration camps and Holocaust memorials. Grimes said the group spent up to 12 hours a day re-tracing the tragedies that took place in hopes of keeping this important part of history alive while also spreading the mission that hate is never an option.
"You don't have to be Jewish to try and understand what took place," Grimes said.
"I think we need to know that it's all wrong. We can't hate people because of their religion, because of their political views. You can't hate people for who they are," Grimes said.
Leaders from the Jewish Foundation for the Righteous said a main goal of the program is to help educators better connect with the history of the Holocaust and help them bring those lessons into classrooms.