North Central Middle School was chosen by the South Carolina Council on the Holocaust (SCCH) to receive a trunk containing over $1000 worth of books and materials related to the Holocaust. It is the first school in the state that has been selected as a recipient of a trunk to permanently remain at the school for use with students.
The SCCH began its traveling trunk program in 2021 with three trunks of Holocaust materials: one is appropriate for elementary school, one for middle school and one for high school. Each trunk is valued at over $1000 and contains lesson plans, maps, reference materials, a classroom set of books, a variety of nonfiction books, graphic novels, and DVDs. Each trunk is loaned out to a school for a minimum of 2 weeks and a maximum of 4 weeks of time.
Additionally, if a school successfully incorporates the use of the trunk in multiple classrooms each year for a period of 3 consecutive years then they can apply for a grant from the SCCH to receive their own trunk full of the same contents for free to be permanently housed on the school campus.
School librarian Jennifer Gibson reserved the trunk in 2022 and then each year since making North Central Middle School the first middle school eligible to apply for its own permanent trunk, which was delivered to them on September 17, 2025. Scott Auspelmyer, the Executive Director of the South Carolina Council on the Holocaust, states, “Our council felt that one valuable way we could contribute to Holocaust education in our state is to get more resources into the hands of the teachers and students at the schools that they attend. We have received great interest in this traveling trunk program and we are excited to work with teachers throughout South Carolina to provide them with quality resources to use with their students.”
The South Carolina Council on the Holocaust was established in 1989 through a state legislative mandate. It operates in collaborative partnership with the state legislature and the SC
Department of Education to promote awareness about the Holocaust and to honor the survivors and concentration camp liberators who call South Carolina home. To this end, the Council supports teacher training programs, special events that discuss Holocaust history, human rights, and genocide, and annual Holocaust commemorations around the state.
Photo: (L-R) Library Assistant Monica Adams, SCCH Director Scott Auspelmyer, Librarian Jennifer Gibson, Principal Chad Dixon
