​The project provides learning trunks to middle schools throughout the entire state of Georgia. Each trunk contains a full complement of educational materials about the Holocaust, WWII, and genocide. Mayor Kasim Reed selected JCYMS as the site for receiving the first Holocaust Learning Trunk to teach about the consequences of hate, prejudice and discrimination.

Thursday's ceremony included speeches from Mayor Kasim Reed, the Southeast Regional Director of the anti-Defamation League (ADL) Bill Nigut and Deputy Consul General Sharon Kabalo.

"The atrocities which occurred must never happen again and everyone in this room has a unique role in ensuring it does not," said Mayor Reed. "If we can rise an entire generation that understands the past and has full hearts we can eliminate hate."

Special honored guest Holocaust survivor Dr. Eugen Schoenfeld told his own personal story of surviving the notorious death camp Auschwitz as a teenager. The assembly of students remained dead silent while listening to Dr. Schoenfeld. 

"Learning about the holocaust is hard," said Bill NIgut. "We as a Jewish community and you as an African American community need to speak together about our shared experiences, and together never allow the results of hatred to happen again."