Wednesday, June 18, 2025
What started out as a social studies school project has evolved into a passion for learning and sharing information about the Holocaust, most specifically the Kindertransport.
Harley Moritz and Romy Fruman, Woodmere Middle School eighth graders, created a documentary for their National History Day project at school. They interviewed Manfred Korman, 93, about his experience during the Kindertransport — a rescue effort, transporting nearly 10,000 mostly Jewish refugee children to Great Britain from Nazi Germany between December 1938 and May 1940 — according to the Holocaust encyclopedia.
The girls had the opportunity to speak at the unveiling of the first Kindertransport dedication bench at the Holocaust Memorial and Tolerance Center, in Glen Cove on May 4..
“I felt very honored to be there and it was such a great opportunity that we got invited and that we got to talk,” Fruman said. “It was so great to see where we started has grown so much and now we have all these opportunities and it’s really amazing.”
Fruman and Moritz spoke about their History Day project, interviewing Korman and how from that they developed a clothespin project that anyone can make and donate to.
Moritz said she felt “ecstatic” to be there and that “it was the most amazing opportunity they’ve had so far on this journey.”
“We feel so connected to it and coming into it I felt that this could be apart of me because I knew how important the Kindertransport is to me,” Moritz said.
The bench will be displayed in the children’s garden at the HMTC and was donated by the Kindertransport Association.
“We were the first recipient of one of the Kindertransport benches, it’s now in our children’s garden,” said Donna Rosenblum, director of education at HMTC. “Our children’s garden is about remembering the children, so the Kindertransport perfectly segues because it’s about saving children.”
In the fall when the girls selected the Kindertransport as their topic for the project, they had no idea it was going to open doors for different opportunities.
“I did not think that we would even come up with this idea or take it this far, I’m really proud that happened,” Fruman said.
The girls’ original mindset was getting the project done for school and now it has turned into a passion to share information on the Kindertransport.
“We had no idea that we would have such a passion for this after meeting Manfred Korman and we’re most looking forward to teaching young Jewish kids that they are also important,” Moritz said.
Throughout the summer, the girls will be working hand-in-hand with Rosenblum on an educational packet for fifth and sixth graders.
“We plan to give these out next school year and I want to be able to give it to teachers that are interested in implementing the Kindertransport in their curriculum,” Rosenblum said.
The girls are most looking forward to continue working with the HMTC and spreading the word about their clothespin project.
“I’m really looking forward to making the new curriculum flourish,” Fruman said.
Moritz added that “We are going to take our passion and make sure that we spread it, we want everyone to be apart of it.”
