Learning History With Cattle Car Exhibit

This week, the School hosted the Hate Ends Now Cattle Car Exhibit, a multimedia installation inside a replica WWII-era cattle car used to transport Jews and members of other ethnic, religious and minority groups to concentration camps. The exhibit gave students, faculty and other community members a unique opportunity to hear real stories from Holocaust survivors and think deeply about the effects of hate and intolerance.

The national traveling exhibit was presented by Hate Ends Now, an organization committed to educating the public about the Holocaust and the dangers of antisemitism, racism and bigotry. 

“The students and faculty I've spoken with have described it as a very powerful experience, and I would agree,” said Peter Newcomb, head of upper school. “As I see it, one of the benefits of having them visit campus is that it is a reminder for our community to stand up and speak out against hatred in any form.”

Matthew Ives, history and religion department chair, said the timing was ideal for the tenth grade history students. “They are studying the 20th century — WWI and WWII — and obviously the Holocaust plays a central role in the 20th century,” he explained. “It’s pivotal. We always spend considerable time looking at the root causes of the Holocaust, and the ways that survivors like Primo Levi and Viktor Frankl responded to their experience in the camps, but to have the cattle car here physically adds so much to those lessons. Being in the car, hearing the voices of survivors — it brings the past to life.”
 
The U.S. History and AP European History classes also visited and found it very useful.
 
“It was really powerful,” said Jesse Gelman ’25, who attended with his family. “The experience is something you can’t get from anything else. Being there with my family is something I’m grateful that I could do. To be with the people who would have been in that scenario with me… as a Jewish person, realizing that this could have been me and my family was deeply moving.” 
 
Mert Kaplan, a senior boarding student from Turkey, thought that the artifacts added an important element to the experience. He was most struck by the Hitler alarm clock that was made in America. “I didn’t know that there were actually Hitler rallies in Madison Square Garden.”
 
Levi Halliwell ’25 noted, “Hitler drew inspiration from segregation and Jim Crow laws — we learned about that in AP Euro.”

Middle school humanities teachers Stephen Hildreth and Tim Campbell brought their eighth grade classes to the exhibit as part of their study on WWII, the rise of dictators and extreme nationalism throughout the world. They have been studying the Holocaust and the United States’ response to news of Hitler’s Final Solution and the immigrants fleeing Germany and Europe to seek asylum in the U.S. The students are also reading George Orwell’s “Animal Farm.” Seventh grade humanities students visited the artifacts display, which coincided with their reading of “The Diary of Anne Frank.”

“Whenever students can have a more personal, hands-on experience with history, especially one as awful as the Holocaust, it is incredibly impactful,” Hildreth said.

Selas Douglas, associate head for inclusive excellence, said, “This has been an opportunity for us to learn together, and whenever we gather in pursuit of deep understanding, we’re also engaged in the process of building community. That community building process feels as important today as ever, and that message was present in the reflections I’ve heard from students, colleagues and parents this week. I feel such gratitude for the way folks have engaged with the experience and look forward to using the lessons we’ve gathered to continue drawing us closer together.”