When Burrell High School senior Lily Sassani wanted to bring light to little-known stories about Girl Scouts’ role in society during the Holocaust, she turned to history books.
After two years of research, writing and interviews, she shaped her findings into a Holocaust education patch that troops across the world can earn.
It will be displayed at the Tri-City Historical Society in New Kensington from Thursday, March 12 through mid-April.
“There’s a lot of stories that go undiscovered ,” Sassani said. “There’s a lot of people we shouldn’t forget.”
Seth Johnson, the historical society’s excutive director, said he learned about Sassani’s project through the center’s history club partnership with Burrell High School.
“We’re hoping it shares more information on the subject,” Johnson said. “We want to highlight Lily’s hard work.”
Sassani, who will attend Kent State Univeristy in the fall, said the multimedia project allowed her combine her love of history, visual communication and artistic design.
She made informative videos about Holocaust misconceptions, wrote activity-based curriculum for grades six to 12 and helped design the patch depicting a Girl Guide standing, chin held high, in front of a brick wall.
The Holocaust Center of Pittsburgh mentored her through the process, connecting her with experts, historians and a survivor.
Sassani said she valued the varied perspectives and context in her research.
“I tried to make the curriculum have as many different voices as possible,” Sassani said.
During World War II, Girl Guides — the Girl Scouts in Europe — kept morale high, and fed and healed soldiers to contribute to the war effort.
Girl Guides also participated in resistance efforts during the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, helped women survive the Ravensbrück Concentration Camp and extinguished fires caused by incendiary bombs during the London Blitz.
She said a troop in Florida has already begun teaching the curriculum and that when the historical society display closes, museums or schools across the country can borrow the project posters from the Holocaust center.
“I can’t wait to see who is attracted to this,” she said.
She started the project her sophomore year to earn Girl Scout’s Gold Award, the organization’s highest honor, but it has expanded beyond what Sassani and her mother, Rachel, expected.
“I had no idea how much this would grow,” Rachel Sassani said.
Rachel said she knew Lily, one of few Jewish students in her school, would pick a topic about her heritage.
Lily said the project helped her look inward.
“I didn’t have a strong connection to the Jewish community before,” She said. “I understand myself and my place in the world better.”
She hopes the stories of resilience she outlines in it can “encourage reflection” on modern life.
“We can all come together if we just learn from history. We’re all human, and we all have to remember each other,” Sassani said. “History is everwhere. We’re history. History is behind us.”