Hampstead Middle School students hear Holocaust story firsthand

By Penny Williams
Staff writer

May 07, 2008 05:55 am

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HAMPSTEAD — Holocaust survivor Henry Price, 96, and his granddaughter Kendra Damphousse visited Hampstead Middle School to share Price's harrowing story with eighth-graders.

The tradition started six years ago when Holocaust survivor Charlene Schiff visited the school. Her presentation inspired students to start a penny drive, with a goal of collecting 110,000 pennies, each one representing 100 lives lost in the Holocaust.

For six years, eighth-graders have added to the penny collection, watched over by eighth-grade teacher Katie Wolff. The collection has reached 160,387 pennies, $1,603.87. The students are donating $550 to the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C., in Schiff's honor to help continue her legacy of fighting injustice, ignorance, intolerance and indifference. The rest of the money will be donated to other suitable charities.

Damphousse told the students her grandfather's story. Born in 1912 in Breslau, Germany, Price was captured in Berlin and sent to a concentration camp, where he had to fill mass graves. He was liberated in 1945, reunited with his wife and the couple immigrated to the United States in 1946 with a single suitcase between them.

"Papa is a living piece of history," Damphousse said of her grandfather. "He is a walking history book for us."

She brought the suitcase, pictures and Price's passport to show the students. Her grandfather has lived with Damphousse and her husband in Raymond for eight years.

"I thought he was wonderful. It was neat to learn about the Holocaust from his story because it sends kids our age a message and that message is 'never again,'" eighth-grader Chris Reschberger said after the presentation. "And yet we have all the genocides happening today, despite the clear message that it should not be repeated again."

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