Van Buren teacher selected for Auschwitz Legacy Fellowship

Van Buren High School teacher Chelsea Burden, is heading to Europe to participate in the Auschwitz Legacy Fellowship, an all-expenses paid trip to learn about the inhumane brutalities that took place during the Holocaust. "I've always had an interest in the Holocaust and Holocaust education," said Burden. "It's been a passion of mine since college. When I got the email about the fellowship, I wanted to jump on it because I knew it would be beneficial for my students and myself, to be able to bring that atrocity home to teach my students about everything that happened in Auschwitz." Burden has been a social studies teacher at Van Buren for 10 years, and has taught a semester-long Holocaust class to high school students for eight years. The Auschwitz Legacy Fellowship is offered in partnership with the Auschwitz-Birkenau Memorial Foundation and the Nancy and David Wolf Holocaust and Humanity Center in Cincinnati. After applying in August, Burden had to attend an interview over Zoom. She was selected as one of 40 teachers nationwide to participate in the fellowship. "It felt like the years of studying and trying to better understand this atrocity paid off," said Burden. In preparation for the trip, Burden is taking a six-month online training program to prepare to head to Poland. From July 13-20, she will be traveling to Auschwitz-Birkenau Memorial and Museum, as well as locations in Warsaw and Krakow. Upon returning to America, teachers will receive educational tools including a documentary film, lesson plans, and access to an online, live, guided remote tours of Auschwitz-Birkenau, "Auschwitz in Front of Your Eyes." Teachers will also receive tools for countering antisemitism in classrooms. Burden explained that her goal is to make this atrocity resonate more with her students. "My kids are 16-, 17-, and 18-years-old," said Burden. "The Holocaust and World War Two seem really far away from them, but they don't release that it wasn't that long ago it occurred. I think having someone that they personally know be there and witness where a million people were murdered, will bring home to them the severity of the situation." While she is looking forward to the trip, Burden recognizes how heavy and emotional the experience will be. "I think it is going to be a very somber experience and I think it's going to be very heavy," said Burden. "Ultimately, it will be a good thing what I get out of it, but in those moments, it's going to be very heavy and very somber because it's not a happy place. I am going to take in what I can and do my best to be able to recover mentally from that to help my students figure out what I'm teaching them."