Naperville Central High School's award-winning newspaper.

Central Times

Naperville Central High School's award-winning newspaper.

Central Times

Naperville Central High School's award-winning newspaper.

Central Times

Central sophomores reunited Holocaust survivors

High school students are often unaware of the impact they can have over the world. This is usually due to the belief that teenagers are too young to make a real difference. For the Central sophomores from teacher Catie O’Boyle’s eighth grade social studies class at Madison Junior High School, their age was never an obstacle when they jumped at the plan to reunite two survivors of the Holocaust living halfway across the country from each other.

Back in the year 1938 in Nazi Germany, 12-year-old Edith Westerfield, newly orphaned by the hands of the Germans, managed to escape the concentration camp she and her family had been forced into. Westerfield proceeded to meet 10-year-old Gerta Katz on a ship that would bring them both to safety in America. The two kindled a friendship that would support each of them through the horrific pasts they were trying to leave behind.

Westerfield and Katz’s friendship came to a halt 75 years ago though, after being split up following their voyage to America. Westerfield ended up in Skokie, Ill. This is where the former Madison students come into the story.

Westerfield’s experiences from the Holocaust and her escape to America are written about in a book by her daughter, Fern Schumar Chapman, called “Is It Night or Day?” Two years ago, the Madison students were so inspired by Westerfield’s life story after an author visit by Chapman, that they made it their goal to find Katz and reunite the two long lost friends.

“The idea came up organically,” said O’Boyle. “Fern Schumar Chapman came to speak as an author visit scheduled by the LRC. After her talk, I was telling my students that one of the hardest things about teaching the Holocaust is knowing that no matter how outraged you feel about what happened, you can’t do anything about it. You can’t stop it, you can’t fix it and all you can do is hope you would not have acted the same way. I said that I wished there was something we could do for Edith to help her know that we are sorry for what happened to her family and to know that we would have not done what the Nazi’s did.”

O’Boyle, who led the search, recognizes the students’ work ethic towards finding Katz.

“Students would stay after school to research, research in study hall and even give up their lunch to research,” said O’Boyle.  “I would help organize the information to make sure no one wound up doing duplicate work.”

Sophomore Mackenzie Sisko, one of the former Madison students involved, said they started out using Google for their search and anything they found was hung on a designated bulletin board.

“After three days, the students had narrowed our search down to three women: one in Canada, one in New York and one in Seattle,” said O’Boyle. “They used every kind of data possible, including a woman who wrote a product review on Amazon.”

O’Boyle said that they used Chapman’s book to look for hints, and when they focused on the woman in Seattle, they found the information they were searching rigorously for.

“Finally, we found a newsletter from a neighborhood that featured a story about two of its residents,” said O’Boyle. “This story was on page 14 but gave us the headlines we were looking for. She was a refugee from the Nazis who came over when she was ten years old without her family. We looked her phone number up in the Seattle white pages, and I gave her a call.”

After multiple emails and voicemail messages, they finally received a response via email from Katz’s son who confirmed that they were contacting the correct Gerda Katz. He was also willing to aide them in their quest to reunite Westerfield and Katz.

Sisko said that even though her and her peers were ecstatic to finally find Katz, they knew there was a chance she wouldn’t want to meet up with Westerfield again.

“Mrs. O’Boyle told us not to get our hopes up because there could be a chance that [Katz] would not want to talk about her past anymore and not want to be reunited,” said Sisko. “But she did.”

Katz’s son had his mother contact Westerfield directly, and they were all overwhelmed with what the eighth graders at Madison had done for them.

When a few of the former Madison students reflected on what the driving force was behind their resolve in reuniting the two long-lost friends, they came up with many different reasons.

“I think it was just because you never really hear about middle schoolers doing something so big like reuniting two holocaust survivors,” said sophomore Lisa Tassi. “Everyone just wanted to do it so we could say, ‘Look what we can do.’ It doesn’t matter how old you are or anything. You can accomplish anything you want with use of what you have.”

And what these middle schoolers had was unwavering determination and unlimited access to the internet.

“We would have never done this without social networking,” Tassi said.

Sophomore Corrine Conway’s reasoning behind doing so much research for the cause in and outside of school was that she knew she would want someone to do that for her if she was in the same position.

“I knew that if I had lost contact with a friend and didn’t think I’d ever see them again, I’d be ecstatic if I could see them again,” said Conway. “I figured that giving someone that feeling could be more than amazing.”

Sisko said that she just wanted Westerfield and Katz to know that people cared about what happened to them and wanted to make it better in any way possible.

“This experience is bigger than I could have ever imagined,” said O’Boyle. “To me, it was about actually doing something instead of just being bothered by facts of history. For others, though, it means a lot more. So many people have contacted me to let me know how the story impacted them. I have been overwhelmed by the way it has touched people. They have told me that it has given them the strength to contact long lost family members, helped them heal from losing family, reaffirmed their faith in humanity and much, much more. Seeing firsthand the impact a good dead can have makes me realize the power of our actions. It is so easy to sit back and the let the world go by, but acting can change the world for the better.”

Not only did the people who heard about what these Central sophomores did for Westerfield and Katz benefit from the story. The students themselves have been forever impacted, especially after Westerfield and Katz paid a visit to Madison to thank the students for what they did for them.

“People were crying,” said Sisko. “I don’t think I’ve ever actually cried out of pure joy, and when I turned around and saw them both standing there holding hands, I can’t even describe it. It was so overwhelming to see them together and know that we were the ones that brought them together from opposite sides of the country.”

Conway could barely believe Westerfield and Katz were actually there together.

“It was such a happy ending to the story,” said Conway. “It was amazing to see how a group of eighth graders could accomplish so much.”

O’Boyle was happy that Westerfield and Katz were together again as well as extremely proud of her class.

“This is the reason I teach middle school,” said O’Boyle. “Adults have a cynical view of the world. They see a world that is so full of problems that cannot be fixed and they do nothing. Eighth graders are intelligent enough to understand the problems but not jaded enough yet to think nothing can be done. They believe the world’s problems can be fixed and that all you have to do is act. I love this world view. I think it is the right one to have. That is why I love spending my life in eighth grade with eighth graders.”

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About the Contributors
Meaghan Bedigian, Online Managing Editor, Sports Columnist
Email: [email protected] Favorite Quote: "But I have promises to keep/And miles to go before I sleep." - Robert Frost Best CT Memory: The time Mark Kim tripped on his backpack and face-planted onto the floor and Mr. Carlson was laughing so hard that he had to leave the room. A word that describes me is... genuine because I never say or do anything that I don't actually mean. My interest in journalism is... sports, news and entertainment writing.
Peter Mandich, Sports News Editor
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