Get to Know Carolina Simon

It was the Friday after St. Patrick’s Day of my senior year in high school, March 20, 1992. I was one of a couple hundred high school students attending one of the first Student Awareness Days. Elie Wiesel was one of the Holocaust survivors in attendance. He spoke to the entire group before the event ended. I cannot tell you what he said. I can only tell you that it impressed me. It impressed me more than anything had before that moment, or since. It has always awed me that a man who suffered so much; who survived the very definition of hell on earth; and reemerged into a world where language had become devoid of meaning but engorged with power had such a spiritual connection to words. His words could pierce the soul and plant seeds of hope, and love, and faith, and even lament. His words pierced my soul and planted the seeds of a passion for pursuing justice and bearing witness.

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Like most young people, I ignored my passion and calling for a few years, but when G_d has a plan for you He keeps putting His plan in your path. And so I kept being called to  enroll in Holocaust related coursework, teaching it to kids who themselves survived genocide, and even receiving a Masters Degree in Holocaust & Ethnic Literature. And at each step meeting amazing people, particularly Holocaust survivors and scholars.

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After graduating from my masters program, I returned to teaching students, first at the high school level, then at the college level, and finally at the middle school level. Through this academic journey, I discovered how much students crave this history and how sporadic, limited, and increasingly politicized Holocaust training for teachers can be.

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In 2020, I spoke at the 50th anniversary of the Holocaust and the Churches Scholars Conference at my Alma Mater The University of Texas at Dallas. I spoke on the future of Holocaust Education. It was during this conference that I decided the classroom teacher deserved a similar academic scholarly experience. That in providing that kind of space for academic discourse and growth, the classroom Holocaust teacher would become empowered to teach the Holocaust in a way more in keeping with its historical truth and academic integrity while elevating the classroom teacher to their deserved level of expert in their field- in this case pedagogical experts in teaching the Holocaust to students under 18 years old.

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I am an author, a scholar, and most of all an educator. I love my teacher colleagues and hope to help them help me keep the promise I made to my dear friend and Holocaust survivor - Leon Schagrin  to never forget his family's suffering; to never forget him; and to make Never Again a reality in this world. That is why I founded Zachor Shoah, why I have the motto #NeverAgain begins with me! and why I am organizing this Symposium for all teachers be they in public, private, religious, secular, or home school settings.