Voices from History: Q&A with ACC Library Teen Services Lead Assistant Rachel Bentley
Athens-Clarke County Library Teen Services Assistant Rachel Bentley helps students navigate the Holocaust exhibit at the ACCL on Nov 14. Bentley facilitated a discussion about the event at the library’s weekly “Let’s Talk about That.” “I hope that (people) will really think about what they’re seeing and really sit with it a little bit, because a lot of them have heard conceptually about the Holocaust, or they’ve learned about it in school, but I’m hoping they’ll really connect to it,” Bentley said. Photo courtesy of Rachel Bentley
The Athens Clarke County Library Holocaust exhibition was open from Nov. 7 until Dec 17, 2024 in collaboration with the Smithsonian, and held a discussion about the event for their weekly “Let’s Talk about That” on Nov 14.
Business Manager Merren Hines: Can you tell me a little bit about the Holocaust Exhibit here at the Athens Clarke County Public Library?
ACCL Teen Services Lead Assistant Rachel Bentley: It’s a full exhibit, it’s actually a traveling exhibit from the Smithsonian, the United States Holocaust Memorial and Museum. They sent out a traveling exhibit (and) it consisted of nine panels. It’s traveling to 50 different libraries in the country, and we’re the only one in Georgia for this tour. It’ll be here until December 17.
MH: Can you tell me about the specific event happening on Nov. 14, 2024?
RB: One of the requirements for the exhibit to come here was we had to have a teen-specific program (and) I’m going to lead the tour. We have a tour designed by the museum, so we’re going to go through and then an artist called Inky Brittany from Savannah graphically takes notes and draws notes as we’re doing it. So we’re going to go through the exhibit, have our tour, and then sit down and have a discussion about the tour, using the library (and) the museum’s discussion guiding questions. She’s going to take notes and draw our discussion as we have it.
MH: What does the event entail?
RB: “It’s focused on what Americans knew during the Holocaust, because there’s this idea that, well, Americans didn’t know anything until all the pictures started coming out. But that’s not true, they really did know the entire time.”
MH: Why did you decide to get involved in this exhibit?
RB: I knew that I would have a good skill set to add. So knowing these teens we have, our sixth through eighth graders are all coming for field trips throughout the entire time that is set up. So I have a good rapport with these teens. I know them (and) I know how to interact with them. Plus, I have (a) background in museum studies.
“I hope that they will really think about what they’re seeing and really sit with it a little bit, because a lot of them have heard conceptually about the Holocaust, or they’ve learned about it in school, but I’m hoping they’ll really connect to it as what they would have thought, what they would have done, what they what Americans were thinking.”
— Rachel Bentley,
Athens-Clarke County Library Teen Services Assistant
MH: Why do you think it is important to educate people about the Holocaust?
RB: There’s a lot of misinformation that goes around having this set, I do ponder a little bit having this nationally recognized institution say, here’s the facts. Yeah, it’s really important, so we’re not losing what actually happened, and the people that were affected, because it was an atrocity, it was a genocide, and the tour goes into the fact that we had to create the word genocide for this event because it had never gone to scale. It’s important to not lose that as we get further time-wise, away from it.
Athens Clarke County Library Teen Services Assistant Rachel Bentley talks to teens at the Athens Public Library on Nov. 14, 2024. The Holocaust Exhibition is available to the community at the Athens Public Library from Nov. 7 to Dec 17, 2024. “This is definitely one of the larger exhibits that we’ve had, it’s (in) its own special place but something of this magnitude is really special,” Bentley said, “It is important to give teens like this opportunity to come look at so that this is not really an activity, but a discussion.” Photo courtesy of Rachel Bentley
MH: What is it like being able to be a part of this event?
RB: It’s really fun to be so hands-on with something as big as a Smithsonian exhibit because this is our nation’s public museums. They are our history, and we’re able to bring that here to Athens. Anyone can just go up and see this exhibit, I saw it when it was originally posted in Washington, D.C. in 2018 so having that same quality here brought to your own backyard is really special. It’s really fun to be involved in (it) because it’s something that’s so massive and to be so intricately involved.
MH: Why do you think the exhibit is important to students and our Athens community as a whole?
RB: We have a very large Jewish population, and they’re also very enthusiastic about coming to the exhibit and being our docents, as well. I think that a lot of those memories are dying out. So a lot of those people were losing them just through age. So, I think it’s really important for our students to come and learn about this and really keep in memory of what happened and the atrocities that happened.
MH: Can you just tell me a little bit about the teen-specific discussion, or any other discussions happening after the event?
RB: All of (the exhibit) is available online, just through their website, and they have some really good questions, asking (questions like), ‘What conditions might motivate people to help each other, and what would make them turn away thinking about why did people vote say yes, or no?’ We don’t think that what they’re doing is right, but we also don’t want to let more people in. So, really think about what was being said, and we’re discussing why they might have done what they did.
MH: What do you hope the discussion will be like and what do you hope people will ask or talk about?
RB: I hope that they will really think about what they’re seeing and really sit with it a little bit, because a lot of them have heard conceptually about the Holocaust, or they’ve learned about it in school, but I’m hoping they’ll really connect to it as what they would have thought, what they would have done, what they what Americans were thinking. I know in the exhibit itself, it does talk about a specific teen event where they were pen pals and she managed to escape, hoping to connect them to their own lives.
MH: Why is this event important for people, especially teens to come and see?
RB: I think it’s an opportunity that they’re not going to get very often. The exhibit’s only going to 50 libraries, and we’re the only one in Georgia. This might be as close as they get to seeing an exhibit of this scale. It’s important that they see it, that they hear about it, that they know what happened, and have it spelled out for them and say, ‘This is what happened, and you need to see it.’
MH: What are your hopes for future events at the Athens Public Library?
RB: I hope this opens up more discussions. It lets the community know that this is a place to come and have these hard discussions. I’m hoping that this will bring good attention to Athens as a cultural place. (I) hope it just opens a lot of doors. It’s fun to be involved in something so closely tied to such a large institution.
A trip to The Breman Museum
Exhibits inside the Breman Museum and Cultural Center in Atlanta are shown. English department co-chair Meghan McNeeley took 21 Holocaust and Genocide Studies students to The Breman Museum and Cultural Center for a field trip on Nov. 4, 2024 and found it to be helpful for the students. “We’re really fortunate to have a Holocaust museum and a center for Jewish people in (Atlanta). Taking (the Holocaust and Genocide Studies students) there to see an experience, the layers and the actual items is so worth it,” McNeeley said. Photos courtesy of Meghan McNeeley
CCHS Holocaust and Genocide Studies students attended a field trip to The Breman Museum and Cultural Center on Nov. 4, 2024 to expand their knowledge of the Holocaust.
On Nov. 4, 2024, English department co-chair Meghan McNeeley took 21 Clarke Central High School Holocaust and Genocide Studies students on a field trip to the Breman Museum and Cultural Center.
The elective Holocaust and Genocide Studies taught by English department co-chair Meghan McNeeley was added to CCHS during the 2022-23 school year as a vehicle to educate students on the Holocaust found in social studies classes. Since then, McNeeley has led three trips to The Breman Museum and Cultural Center for students to find a greater meaning within the class.
“Academically, I want (the students) to have a deeper understanding behind what we study. I would love to pique more levels of curiosity, so they want to go out, explore, read or learn on their own. I hope (the field trip) gives them a sense of place in our world,” McNeeley said. “I think there are some pretty real-life moralistic and human lessons to be learned.”
Click here to read the rest of Viewpoints Editor Isabella Gresham’s story.
Absorbing History
The gated entrance of Auschwitz-Birkenau Concentration Camp is shown. Senior Copy Editor Miles Lawrence went on a Clarke Central High School Holocaust-based trip through Central Europe during the summer, and was shocked by what he saw at Auschwitz when the class toured the camp on June 10. “It wasn’t until we walked through the gates with barbed wire still attached to it that all of my knowledge came into perspective,” Lawrence wrote. “It wasn’t until I saw the gigantic rooms full of hair and children’s shoes that I truly understood how many innocent people took their last breaths in the camps I was visiting.” Photo fair use of Flickr
Senior Copy Editor Miles Lawrence reflects on his two-week trip through Central Europe, where he learned the importance of putting history into perspective.
In the months working up to my trip to central Europe, Clarke Central High School English Co-department Chair and Holocaust and Genocide studies teacher Meghan McNeeley emphasized how difficult the sights were going to be.
Even though I expected the worst, I was utterly shocked by what I saw in Auschwitz-Birkenau and Dachau, the two horrifying concentration camps where historians speculate a collective of over 1.1 million people were killed during the Holocaust, which took place between 1933 and 1945.
Throughout my academic career, my knowledge about the historic genocide remained surface-level. I was aware, like most people, that nearly six million Jews had been killed by the Nazis, who were overseen by Adolf Hitler, and I knew that it was one of the darkest and most terrifying times in human history.
However, after I joined McNeeley’s Holocaust and Genocide Studies class in the second semester of my junior year, my knowledge of the topic became much more extensive. I learned about the things history books frequently forget to mention: the torture, animosity, and backstory behind the genocide of not only the Jews but the Polish, disabled, homosexual men, and Roma and Sinti.
Until I got to Auschwitz-Birkenau and Dachau, though, these murders were just statistics.
It wasn’t until we walked through the barbed wire-lined gates of Auschwitz, which were emblazoned with the message “Work will set you free” in German, that all of my knowledge came into perspective.
It wasn’t until I saw the gigantic rooms full of hair and children’s shoes that I truly understood how many innocent people took their last breaths in the camps I was visiting.
It wasn’t until I was standing outside of the crematorium at Dachau that I realized I was standing on the ashes of hundreds of thousands of innocent people who were murdered just 20 feet away from where I was standing.
In my 17 years of age, it’s safe to say that that was one of the most life-changing moments I’ve ever experienced.
It was heartbreaking, and the lessons I learned in the five or six hours I spent in those camps have helped me realize what is important in my life and what isn’t. It’s helped me recognize the things that I take for granted, like my family, and shown me that the things I spend too much time obsessing over don’t truly matter.
It wasn’t until I saw the gigantic rooms full of hair and children’s shoes that I truly understood how many innocent people took their last breaths in the camps I was visiting.
In a world where superficial problems like boy drama get an abundance of attention, it’s vitally important to remember our history and remind ourselves every day to do better.
In honor of the innocent lives that were lost during the Holocaust, we have to.
We owe it to the victims, and we owe it to each other.
