For the past year, students in MSU's School of Journalism have documented the life experiences of seniors in our state as part of the multimedia initiative "The Living History Project: Stories Told by Michigan's Oldest Old." Oldest old refers to individuals who are 85 years old or older. It's also the fastest growing age group in the US. In our second installment of this four-part documentary series, we hear from 90-year-old Holocaust survivor and Detroit area resident Katherine Sattler.At age 15, Sattler and her family were taken from their homes and sent to a Nazi concentration camp. During her two years in multiple camps, including Auschwitz, she witnessed unspeakable crimes.
A few years after being liberated from Auschwitz in 1945, Katherine and her family moved to the United States where she met her husband and started her family in Detroit, Michigan. Katherine still lives an active life, due in large part to her incredible optimism and resilience.
MSU Journalism graduate Carmen Scruggs brings us her story.
The Living History Project is a collaboration between the School of Journalism and College of Nursing. Professors Geri Alumit Zeldes, Linda Keilman and Eric Freedman led the project.
The work is made possible in part by a grant from the Michigan Humanities Council, an affiliate of the National Endowment for the Humanities.
NOTE: In the audio of this story, we said Carmen Scruggs was a Masters Student at MSU. Carmen is actually a Journalism senior, who graduated from MSU this past weekend with a B.A.
