Melissa’s Generations Presentation
Melissa’s grandparents and mother all survived the Holocaust. Living in Belgium, the Nazis took her grandfather as a worker; he survived four camps. Her grandmother and mother escaped a sorting camp and were hidden in plain sight. Melissa’s presentation focuses on the lessons we learn from the Holocaust: how her mother and grandmother survived due to the upstanders who risked their own lives to save her.
Note: Variations of this presentation have been presented to students in 6th grade all the way up to adults.
About Melissa
Understanding the Holocaust — including the history, governmental policies, and psychology of it — led Melissa to become a social studies teacher. She taught middle school for 10 years in Cincinnati, Ohio. For the past 22 years, she has been a professor of education at the University of Pittsburgh at Greensburg. She has been speaking to students and community members about her family’s various experiences during the Holocaust for over 35 years. She serves on the advisory committees at the Holocaust Center of Pittsburgh and on the steering committee at Seton Hill’s National Catholic Center for Holocaust Education.
Melissa is married and has 22-year old twins. Her great pyrenees pup, George, and kitty, Esme, fill her house with hilarity. In her free time, Melissa likes to camp, hike, garden, and read.