News Photo by Julie Goldberg Judy Sima presents to Thunder Bay Junior High School students her Holocaust student program, Escape to Freedom on Monday.

ALPENA — Award-winning Michigan storyteller Judy Sima was at Thunder Bay Junior High on Monday and did a presentation about her Holocaust student program, Escape to Freedom.

Sima recounted her mother’s journey during the Holocaust and escaping Germany during World War II. She told it in first person for the students. Sima has been telling her mother’s story for five years and has been storytelling for over 30 years.

“When I became a storyteller, at first I only told folktales and then people were telling stories about themselves and their families so I thought my mother’s story was very compelling and I wanted to know more about it,” Sima said. “She had Alzheimer’s so I couldn’t ask her questions, I had to build the story about things that I remembered and what friends had told me.”

Sima said she thought her mother’s story should be told because it’s important for kids today to learn about what happened during the Holocaust.

Originally only 600 of the students were going to hear Sima speak but all the students were able to hear Sima tell her mother’s story.

“They were fabulous,” Sima said. “They had really good questions and the sixth-graders had lots of questions. You could tell that they were really curious, really engaged and wanted to know more about it.”

Sima thinks it’s important for the students to know about the Holocaust.

“If America would have took more people in, they probably would have saved my uncle or grandparents,” she said. “I think it’s important for people to know this so it doesn’t happen again, not to the Jews or to any other group of people.”

Dawn Gentry, secretary at TBJH and member of the Thunder Bay Arts Council, helped get Sima to come to the school on Tuesday.

“I’m always a big advocate for our youth and TBAC always brings the arts to the community,” Gentry said. “Our eighth grade curriculum includes The Diary of Anne Frank and I thought with all the technology that we have today, kids are so over stimulated and I don’t think they ever hear storytellers.”

Gentry said for the students to hear from someone whose mother was directly involved brings a personal note to the subject.

“From what I’ve heard from teachers and students, I think that they really learned from it and I think they really enjoyed it,” Gentry said. “I really liked how she did the powerpoint and the personal narrative because I think it put it all together.”

Seventh-grader Madison Ellis told Sima after the presentation that it was the most inspiring story she’s ever heard.

Sima also presented at the Alpena County Public Library on Monday where she did her presentation In my Mother’s Voice. Audience members listened to Sima’s story about her mother and also encouraged participants to tell stories about their own parents.

The programs were made possible through the support of the Michigan Humanities Council, Michigan Council for Arts and Cultural Affairs, and the Women’s Giving Circle of the Community Foundation for Northeast Michigan.

Julie Goldberg can be reached via email at jgoldberg@thealpenanews.com or by phone at 358-5688.