MANCHESTER — The story began with a ceremony in a sunlit garden, descended into darkness, and rose again with a gift of enlightenment.
Illing Middle School paraprofessional Phil Axler and English teacher Ryan Parker recounted the story Friday in the school’s Holocaust Children’s Butterfly and Remembrance Garden.
Parker and other eighth-grade language arts teachers lead the school’s Holocaust studies unit. Axler, who started the remembrance garden four years ago, helps by talking to students about Jewish culture.
In June, Axler invited a Courant reporter to a culminating ceremony at the garden, where Lt. Gov. Nancy Wyman spoke and students recited poems inspired by children lost in the Nazi genocide. A news story published on June 12 described Axler’s role in the Holocaust studies curriculum.