PROCTORVILLE — The fourth-grade class of Patrice Daniel at Fairland West Elementary school planned a special event to remember the victims of the Holocaust on April 29.

The class had made a brief study of World War II from their history books. They discovered that an estimated 1.5 million children were killed during the war. They read a story in their reading text, “Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl.”

The staggering number of victims is difficult for many to imagine. So, Daniel suggested a day to think of one child for one day to better understand the tragedy.

The students honored the youngest victims of the Holocaust by providing a yellow Star of David badge with a victim’s name on it. Daniel’s students made their own stars out of yellow construction paper and wrote the name and age of a child victim. They presented their stars to at least 14 students and explained the purpose of the activity. Each fourth and fifth grade student was asked if they wished to wear a star for one day.

Sharon Weed, a Rome Township resident, visited the class and told them about her relatives who did not survive the Holocaust.

She read a letter written by her grandmother’s sister who lived with her family of five children in Poland during the 1930’s.

Weed’s great aunt was writing to her sister in America for help to escape Europe and Hitler’s Nazi regime.

Unfortunately, help came too late and all five children perished in the concentration camps. Mrs. Weed praised the students for remembering the youngest victims, and their teacher for educating the children about the Holocaust.

She encouraged them to always be aware of prejudice and the victims who suffer from bullying.