Gingerich
Mount Gilead’s Vanessa Gingerich feels a personal connection with the Holocaust since hearing stories of her Uncle Preston Hamm, a World War II veteran who experienced imprisonment in a Nazi Luftwaffe prison camp.
Hamm was in the D-Day invasion at Omaha Beach in France and during a battle later in the war, he was wounded and had a large part of his nose shot off. A German Army doctor repaired his nose, and after surgery, the doctor and his wife kept him in their basement until he had healed.
After some weeks, the doctor said he would have to turn him in to the Gestapo or he and his wife would risk being shot for helping an American. Her uncle was sent to a Luftwaffe prison camp. Gingerich doesn’t know which one. She only knows her uncle told her about how he and other prisoners were mistreated, abused and badly beaten. They were given only one cup of water at the end of the day and almost nothing to eat.
Gingerich tells how her uncle and other prisoners sacrificed their water one evening to electrocute a much hated, cruel guard. Soon after that incident, the camp was liberated by the Russian Army, and her uncle was rescued with the other prisoners.
Because of Gingerich’s network of friends, her uncle’s story became known, and she was contacted by Howie Beigelman, executive director of Ohio Jewish Communities. Beigelman invited her to participate in an Echoes and Reflections seminar on June 6 in Worthington.
Echoes and Reflections is a multimedia curriculum with much information online about the Holocaust. It is primarily for middle school and high school educators and their students. There are also audiovisual materials that contain testimonies from survivors, prisoners, liberators and witnesses.
Gingerich is appreciative of the opportunity and invitation to attend the seminar, not only because of her connection to the Holocaust through her uncle, but because she is interested in education and believes it is important to have the truth known about the horrors of the war and the Holocaust. She recalls her uncle telling his stories about the war with tears running down his cheeks.
Much of the seminar she attended was based on personal accounts of people who lived through the Holocaust and concentration camps. Unlike some entries on social media, Gingerich said the curriculum is well researched for the facts of the Holocaust. She said a good part of the program is the way it is tailored to different age groups.
“It was a somber experience hearing some of the people’s experiences,” Gingerich said. “But it’s important to have facts of the Holocaust taught.”
Gingerich noted that Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine would like to see education about the Holocaust throughout the state.
DeWine was honored with the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum’s National Leadership Award in Mayfield Heights back on May 17.
The presentation was covered by Courtney Barnes in Cleveland Jewish News who reported DeWine was “presented with the award in recognition of his ongoing fight against antisemitism and his contributions to advancing Holocaust education.”
DeWine said, “We are all products of our upbringing, what we learn in our life.”
Barnes went on to write that DeWine spoke of stories he heard as he grew up from his father, Dick DeWine, who served in World War II. He “arrived at Dachau concentration camp just days after it was liberated. He shared a picture his father took of a liberated prisoner he had met wandering a road.”
As governor, DeWine hosts the annual Governor’s Holocaust Commemoration in Ohio.
More Ohio educational resources and information about the Holocaust are available at https://holocaust.Ohio.gov.
Alberta Stojkovic is a correspondent for The Morrow County Sentinel.
