Editor’s note: This article is part of an ongoing series highlighting local educators who have participated in the Youngstown Area Jewish Federation’s Classrooms Without Borders Poland Seminar. Through firsthand experiences at Holocaust sites and encounters with Survivors, these teachers bring powerful lessons of history, empathy, and civic responsibility back to classrooms throughout our community. To learn how you can support future educator participation, contact the Youngstown Area Jewish Federation at 330.746.3250.
For educator Madelyn Wansack, teaching history is about more than facts and textbooks. It is about preserving human stories, fostering empathy, and helping students understand their responsibility to others.
That commitment was strengthened in the summer of 2024 when Wansack joined a cohort of local educators sponsored by the Youngstown Area Jewish Federation and its donors to attend Classrooms Without Borders’ CWB’s Poland Seminar. The experience transformed not only her understanding of Holocaust history, but also the way she teaches it today.
A graduate of Kent State University, Wansack taught English language arts at Bristol Local Schools and is currently pursuing a Master’s of Education in literacy and second language studies. In the fall, she will begin teaching at an international school in Costa Rica.
Among the most powerful moments of the seminar were those shared with Holocaust Survivor Howard Chandler. At Treblinka, Chandler spoke about family members who perished there. Later, inside a barrack at Auschwitz-Birkenau, he shared his testimony for more than an hour.
“He stood there for over an hour, never taking a seat and never taking a sip of water as he told his story,” Wansack recalled. “His strength from his past to the present day was inspiring.”
That evening, she watched Chandler celebrate Shabbat with his family.
“It was a reminder of his resilience and how he had not succumbed to bitterness,” she said.
Today, Chandler’s story remains part of her classroom. “While my students did not meet him themselves, his story lives on in my classroom.”
Wansack believes that no book or documentary can replicate the experience of standing at Auschwitz or Treblinka. “It is not until you stand on the ground and see these places that it begins to feel fully real,” she said.
The seminar changed how she teaches the Holocaust. Rather than focusing primarily on statistics and historical facts, she now emphasizes personal stories and Survivor testimony. Through mobile exhibits provided by the Youngstown Area Jewish Federation, students learn about local Survivors such as Henry Kinast and William Vegh through personal accounts, interviews, and creative reflection projects.
Many students are surprised to discover that Holocaust Survivors settled in Youngstown.
“This proximity increases their engagement and deepens their understanding of the Holocaust as both a global and a local history,” Wansack said.
For Wansack, Holocaust education remains essential because the dangers that enabled it still exist. “Hate exists and is real,” she said.
Her classroom lessons focus on empathy, civic responsibility, and becoming “upstanders” rather than bystanders. This year, her students even created Upstander Pledge Cards that were displayed throughout their school.
One lesson from Poland remains permanently displayed in her classroom. During a conversation at Treblinka, someone asked Howard Chandler what he wanted students to learn from his experiences. His answer was simple:
“Be nice human beings. Don’t interfere with other people’s rights. Don’t be jealous. Improve others.”
“I want students to understand that these words come from someone who experienced the worst of humanity and still chooses goodness,” Wansack said.
Years after the trip, its impact continues to shape her teaching and her life.
“It has not only influenced my teaching, but also the way I see the world and my responsibility within it,” she reflected. “I am reminded of the people I met, the stories I heard, and the responsibility I now feel to honor and share them.”
For Madelyn Wansack, the lessons of Poland did not end when the trip concluded. They live on every day—in her classroom, in her students, and in her commitment to ensuring that history’s human stories are never forgotten.