For two weeks this fall, the story of a teenage girl who hid from the Nazis in an Amsterdam attic was being told at Gorham Middle School by students not much younger than she was when she wrote her diary.
The traveling exhibit,“Anne Frank: A History for Today,” ran at Gorham Middle School from Sept. 24 to Oct. 7. The exhibit was created by the Anne Frank House in Amsterdam with the University of South Carolina’s Anne Frank Center, and it is brought to schools in the region by the Institute for Holocaust Education.
The exhibit’s 32 panels, printed in English and Spanish, trace Anne Frank’s life, her family’s years in hiding, and her death in the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp in 1945, set against the wider history of the Holocaust.
What sets the exhibit apart is who lead the tours. Rather than adults, visitors were guided by 20 Gorham Middle School eighth graders serving as trained docents. Before the exhibit opened, the students spent two full days in training. They studied the history of the Holocaust and the details of Anne Frank’s life and death, and they practiced leading groups through the panels and answering visitors’ questions.
The peer-guided model is central to the program: young people learn the material deeply enough to teach it, and their audiences hear the story from someone close to Anne’s own age. Bringing the exhibit to Gorham was the work of Heather Whitaker, an alternative education teacher at Gorham High School, who arranged for the district to host it.
The exhibit drew a steady stream of visitors. Every social studies class at Gorham Middle School toured it, as did three Gorham High School Holocaust and Human Rights classes. Community showings opened the exhibit to the public, including a visit from a group of senior residents of the Inn at Village Square, who learned about Anne Frank’s story from the student docents. For many in that group, the history on the panels falls within their own lifetimes, and the exchange between generations gave the visit added weight.
The exhibit’s themes reach beyond the past. According to the Institute for Holocaust Education, it asks students to examine prejudice and discrimination, practice empathy, and consider the importance of standing up for others. A central message is that one young person’s voice can inspire generations, an idea the Gorham docents are putting into practice with every tour they lead.
The costs of bringing the exhibit to Gorham were graciously covered by local businesses. Aaron Chadbourne of Demetria Real Estate led the fundraising effort and was joined as sponsors by Maine Community Bank and Treworgy & Baldacci Real Estate Closing Services. Their generosity allowed Gorham students and residents to experience the exhibit close to home.