Claire Sarnowski began her author visit for “Remember My Story: A Girl, a Holocaust Survivor, and a Friendship That Made History” at Lakeridge Middle School with a caveat.
“My name is Claire Sarnowski; you can call me Claire, and, as (Principal) Dr. Schultz mentioned, I did go here. So I promise you even though I’m graduated and in college, I’m not as old and uncool as you think I am because I was just like you guys not too long ago,” said Sarnowski.
During lunch at Lakeridge Middle School on Thursday, March 14, Sarnowski joined students to read part of her new book and answer questions. Sarnowski attended River Grove Elementary, Lakeridge Middle School and Lakeridge High School, graduating in 2022.
“Remember My Story” describes her relationship with Alter Weiner, a Holocaust survivor who immigrated to Oregon whom she befriended in 2014 after hearing him speak when she was in the fourth grade. Sarnowski played a pivotal role in helping pass Oregon Senate Bill 664, which requires school districts to provide instruction about the Holocaust and genocide in social studies classes, in 2019.
“When I was their age, I never would have thought that this would be my life,” said Sarnowski. “Don’t be afraid to open your own opportunities or to take advantage of any if you were lucky enough to have them presented to you. I really believe in the power of storytelling and the power of listening to each other.”
The title, “Remember My Story,” invites the reader to learn Sarnowski and Weiner’s stories. Sarnowski still thinks back on her friendship with Weiner fondly, recalling how they connected and what she’ll never lose from their time together. In 2018, months before the bill passed and became Oregon law, Weiner was tragically struck and killed by a driver near his home in Hillsboro.
“We bonded over things that we have in common or shared passions and love for things like education or being able to volunteer and change someone’s life. … We both had a similar mission that we wanted to help people and help the world,” she said. “I remember seeing and hearing his presentation, the one thing that I think really stuck out to me was how positive he was, how he maintained this idea of peace and love and kindness and resilience when he talked about the horrors that he went through — being in five camps as well as losing 123 members of his family and being so young. He was a teenager when first his father was murdered by the Nazis and then being entered into the camps.”
Sarnowski got a crash course in the legislative process when she was a seventh grader at LMS. She teamed up with Sen. Rob Wagner, D-Lake Oswego, her local representative and former Lake Oswego School Board member, and began lobbying lawmakers in Salem. When she was a sophomore in high school, her hard work paid off and the bill passed.
“There’s different ways that you can take action and there’s different ways that someone can be an activist, and I say this in the book as well, but I firmly believe that each person can be or is an activist already for their own cause,” said Sarnowski.
After the bill’s passage, she was approached by many national organizations to speak about her work advocating for Holocaust and genocide education and becoming an advocate at such a young age. Prior to that, in fall 2018, Sarnowski headed to Washington, D.C. with STAND, a student-led movement against mass atrocities, and spoke to the Anti-Defamation League.
Through these opportunities, Sarnowski connected with a literary agent who helped her shape her experiences into “Remember My Story.” She got to work with professional editors and a New York Times bestselling co-writer, Sarah Durand, who helped shape the final book.
She said that it was important that the book could be read by middle school students so that they could see themselves in her story and Weiner’s.
“It was very intentional. The book is truly intergenerational and I did that because the story is intergenerational. I wanted to have a book that younger people could relate to, that they could see themselves in, that they could be inspired by, and would allow them to have the opportunity to say, ‘I could do something like this if this girl could do it,’” said Sarnowski.
Since graduating from Lakeridge High School and starting at Boston University, Sarnowski has continued her involvement with STAND. She also sees the need for education about genocide and mass atrocities to be just as important now as it was five years ago.
“Here we are years later, not even that long, where this is a very normal thing happening in a lot of states,” said Sarnowski, referring to high-profile book banning campaigns in the U.S. “It’s concerning to me because I think a lot of people believe this history is being taught or assume that it is. The gap between historical education in the U.S. is frightening. It’s not just an Oregon problem; it’s nationwide and the gaps are only going to get bigger.”
Sarnowski added that the number of survivors of the Holocaust, and even World War II, are dwindling. This puts “education on the shoulders of the next generation.”
“I think that, if we talked more, if we really embraced different perspectives, different ideas and we elevated the voices of people who have been underrepresented historically, we bring people to the table who traditionally have not been brought for conversations such as young people, when we do that we can not only better understand ourselves and each other but we can enrich the world through our own stories,” she added.
Sarnowski lingered after her Q&A, answering questions from students too nervous to raise their hands in the group and reconnecting with excited teachers. Nearby was the district’s memorial to Weiner, fittingly located in Lakeridge Middle School, a stack of copies of “Remember My Story” on the bench below.
Most Popular
Comments / 0