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The 8th graders at Isbell Middle School in Santa Paula will be hosting Judith Meisel, a Holocaust survivor on June 4 from 1 to 2:30 p.m. in the Cafeteria.

The 8th graders at Isbell Middle School in Santa Paula will be hosting Judith Meisel, a Holocaust survivor on June 4 from 1 to 2:30 p.m. in the Cafeteria. Prior to listening to Judith Meisel, the students will view the film “Tak for Alt (Thanks for Everything): Survival of the Human Spirit, a film depicting her life.

In July of 1941, when Judith Meisel was 12, all of her family was taken to the Kovno ghetto in Lithuania. At night she would smuggle in bread and butter; during the day she was a slave laborer working at a factory that made rubber boots for the German Army.

In June of 1944 she was taken to the Stutthof concentration camp, where the soldiers tore out her hair. The first thing she saw at the concentration camp was a guard kill a baby.

Several times she escaped death. She ran out of the gas chamber and even survived the death march with her sister.

Back in Lithuania, 146 members of her family did not survive. She arrived in Denmark on May 5, 1945 after being liberated by the British; she was 16 years old, weighed 47 pounds, and had tuberculosis. “I owe my life to Denmark,” she said. “They put a beacon of light in the darkest hours of that time.”

Judith Meisel has dedicated her life to educating people about tolerance. During the 1960s she was involved in the Civil Rights movement, and even met Dr. Martin Luther King while she helped organize the march on Washington.

“What I went through during the Holocaust empowered me to do something to make the world better,” Ms. Meisel noted. “One person can do a lot. It all starts with one person. Thank God that I survived.”

This is an opportunity of a lifetime for these 8th graders. In 8th grade, students study “The Diary of Anne Frank” and the Holocaust. The students at Isbell completed research projects on the Holocaust in January.