In a steady, even voice, 82-year-old George Spooner recalls the start of his last year of grade school in Austria – a year he wouldn’t be allowed to complete.

“Within a matter of a couple of weeks, my friends started showing up in short pants and brown shirts with little swastikas on their arms, maybe a little knife on their side,” he said.

Spooner wouldn’t have to see the distinctive Hitler Youth uniforms for long. Soon, the Nazis removed all Jews from the school.

Last week, the area resident was able to share his experiences with a group of today’s students. In fact, thanks to HEC-TV, he was able to relate his past to hundreds of youngsters from around the country. The live program, which took place Wednesday, Jan. 26, was part of a joint effort between the educational television network and the St. Louis Holocaust Museum and Learning Center. Broadcast to 60 different schools from California to New Hampshire, the effort, in recognition of International Holocaust Remembrance Day, comprised both a morning session, which included a live audience of more than 100 teens from Orchard Farm High School in St. Charles County, and an afternoon session that featured a smaller audience of educators from a local independent private school group.

Spooner was one of three survivors to speak during the programs which were broadcast live and allowed an interactive question period from both the on-site viewers and the various online schools. Outside the United States, a high school in the Mediterranean island nation of Cyprus was included in the electronic linkup.

Jean Cavender, executive director of the HMLC, said that the broadcast was a way of raising the profile of the museum and creating awareness of Shoah history. It included some rural schools, which may not be near a Holocaust educational resource.

“Through today’s event we were able to reach a lot of people who may never have an opportunity to visit a Holocaust museum and that makes it so much more special,” she said.

It seemed to benefit HEC as well. Cavender said one technician told her that almost immediately she fielded more than 120 email questions addressed to the survivors.

“She said she couldn’t even keep up with it the response was so high,” Cavender said. “We’ve invited them back and they said they probably will be back because they got a great response.”

Cavender said the kids appeared to have been deeply affected by the presentation.

“You could have heard a pin drop,” she said. “They were very attentive to what was going on and I think they really got a lot out of it.”

One of those students from the morning session, Anna Anguiano, confirmed that. She said she learned that it was important to protect those around her and make sure that nothing like the events of 1930s Germany happens again. She said that while she had learned about the topic in classes and read books on the subject, last week’s experience really brought the Holocaust to life.

“It was just shocking to actually hear and see the people who lived through this horrific event. I was stunned to hear what they had to say,” said the 16-year-old Orchard Farm sophomore. “Hearing about it first hand from someone is just like learning about it all over again.”

The teachers and administrators in the afternoon group also found hearing from the survivors to be a rewarding experience.

“It sensitizes you and reminds you to never forget,” said Dennis Guilliams, a volunteer assistant to the group. “Hopefully, the teachers that were here today will go back and carry on the message that it can happen and you have to be mindful of the kind of conditions that existed back then which can recur and the horrors that men can bring onto other men.”

HEC’s Tim Gore hosted the session, both asking questions and relating those from students in the virtual audience. He said this wasn’t the first joint initiative between the network and the HMLC. The two organizations previously partnered on the appearance of a Holocaust-related play in St. Louis last year. He also thought it wouldn’t be the last. HEC does this type of broadcast on a different subject roughly two to four times a month during the school year.

He hopes the network might do a similar program with the HMLC annually.

“To hear a person first-hand, live, face-to-face just creates a power you really can’t explain,” Gore said. “It’s just an extraordinary opportunity that gives kids the chance to meet someone who has lived that history and can learn from them.”

Despite the difficult subject matter, the survivors were open and frank in telling their stories. Ilse Altman was there for the morning session while Bernard Fainer was present for the afternoon broadcast. Spooner was at both sessions.

Interviewed afterward, Spooner said the most interesting question he received was about his faith. He called being Jewish “a marvelous experience” and said he wouldn’t want it any other way.

Spooner, who escaped Austria as a child via kindertransport after watching his synagogue torched on Kristallnacht, said the questions he received were generally similar to those he’s heard from students locally since he began speaking about his experiences a decade ago. He said he tries to emphasize the role hatred played in bringing about the horrible events that scarred his youth. It’s a danger he sees echoed in the terrorism sweeping the world today.

“I have hundreds of letters from children who appreciate what I told them because they have no knowledge of this – very moving letters at times,” he said. “If I can only make a difference with one child at one time I’m perfectly satisfied.”

Fainer, a native of Poland, spent time in a few different Nazi camps including Buchenwald and, briefly, Dachau. Though he’s been talking of his experiences for about two-and-a-half years, he was reluctant to participate in the event as he still finds it difficult to speak of those times. He said Gore talked him into sharing his story.

“Hopefully, it will give people a little bit of education so what we experienced and the horrifying world that existed – they will see to it that it never happens again,” he said.

Fainer said he never spoke of his time in the camps in his early life, not even to family who inquired about it.

“Really, I surprise myself because each time I speak, it feels a little better,” he said. “I am getting used to what I’m doing. I’m beginning to feel that it should be done and that’s the reason that I’m doing it.”

Visit this story on www.stljewishlight.com for a link to the HEC-TV webcast. The broadcast will also be available at iTunes, hectv.org and jewishinstlouis.org.