Holocaust educator Steve Gonzer visited Sussex Academy April 29 to speak with eighth graders following their March field trip to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. 

Gonzer, the co-chair of the Halina Wind Preston Holocaust Education Committee, an affiliate of the Jewish Federation of Delaware, was instrumental in providing grant funding to provide buses that enabled the trip to Washington, D.C., as well as lunch, books and associated project costs for all students.

After learning the fate of many of his own family members during the Holocaust, Gozner sought to raise awareness about the consequences of hatred, discrimination and indifference. He got involved with a project to record the stories of any Delaware Holocaust survivors and eyewitnesses, and produced an eight-hour video documenting their accounts, excerpts of which he showed students.

Students expressed their gratitude for the visit and grant funding by handwriting thank you notes they presented to Gonzer, and student Kendall Rhodes read her letter aloud to all.