On Tuesday March 18^th, we had a wonderful assembly for the sophomores, juniors and some seniors. Bozenna Urbanowicz Gilbride spoke about her experience during World War II and taught the teens a valuable lesson to “love thy neighbor.”

Mrs. Gilbride was born in a small village in Poland in 1934. She spoke about her experience during the war and how she lost her mother when she was arrested and sent to a concentration camp.

Kelly Mead, a junior said, “The assembly was very emotional. I couldn’t imagine going through something like that and being able to talk about it after, I think she is a strong woman for being able to do that.” Emily Bak agreed and added, “I was surprised as to what she had to say; I didn’t know that Christians experienced something so tragic. It felt different hearing it from her experience than reading it in a textbook.”

Mrs. Williams, who set up the assembly, met Mrs. Gilbride by chance in Southampton while getting pizza. Mrs. Gilbride ended up giving Mrs. Williams her book, which she read and was so impressed by. Mrs. Williams knew she wanted students at WHB to have the opportunity to meet her, so she spoke to Mr. Herr and called Mrs. Gilbride about speaking to us.

Mrs. Williams spoke about the assembly and said, “Sometimes things like ‘Holocaust’, ‘genocide’, ‘Kristallnacht’ and ‘gulag’ are just vocabulary words that we learn about in class, but when you meet a person like Mrs. Gilbride it reminds you that they are so much more than words. That words are really inadequate to describe the horrors that took place in Europe during WWII.”

To hear a personal narrative like Mrs. Gilbride’s helps us to gain a greater insight and understanding of the human aspects of history.

Gilbride and Igne Auerbacher, a German Jew who was a witness to the Nazi horrors during World War II, co-authored a book called Children of Terror. The book presents the separate, yet similar, autobiographies of both women. Mrs. Gilbride inscribes her book with the messages, “Remember us” and “Remember what you learned.” It is very important for us to be educated, informed, and presented with actual stories instead of books that say what MIGHT have happened.