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Last Fall, Pasquale Di Iorio,
Bayonne High School Italian teacher, showed his Italian
Language Class the Roberto
Benigni film “Life is Beautiful,” which is
about how a concentration camp inmate uses humor to shelter
his son from the camp’s horror. Mr. Di Iorio then
decided to complete an educational video on the Holocaust.
“The project began last year when I gave my class
the assignment to write first-person accounts of what it
would be like to live in Italy during WWII. BHS student
Mark Squitieri’s essay, which conveyed the story
about a 12-year old Jewish boy taken to Auschwitz to die,
became the narrative model for the video,” states
Mr. Di Iorio.
Student Mark Squitieri states, “Through
this video, I want people to know that this should never
happen again.
If people do not put aside their racial differences, this
can happen anywhere.”
A 12-minute video, “Mai Più” (“Never
Again”), which includes a narrative in Italian with
English subtitles, archival photos, and music by Italian
artist Francesco Guccini, was produced by BHS teacher Pasquale
Di Iorio and written by student Mark Squitieri.
“This video has tremendous impact. It has an extraordinary
and important message about the problem of sensitivity
to all of the diversity in this world. Both teacher Pasquale
Di Iorio and student Mark Squitieri did a phenomenal job,” according
to Dr. Patricia L. McGeehan, Superintendent of Schools.
Varda Wendroff, Director of World
Languages/ESL/Bilingual Education, and a member of the
Holocaust Remembrance Day
Committee and past-president of the Bayonne Jewish Community
Center, states, “This video will be shown to the
public on April 15 at the City of Bayonne’s Annual
Holocaust Remembrance Day Observance at City Hall. I have
also suggested that it be shown at every annual commemoration.
Also, it will be used in classrooms at certain grade levels
and aired on our BEN-TV station.”
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