Upper Burrell teen developing Holocaust education patch for Girl Scouts

Lily Sassani learned about the Holocaust through her studies in the Burrell School District.

But the 17-year-old Girl Scout from Upper Burrell never knew about the role of Girl Guides in World War II until her mother, Rachel, gave her a book on the topic.

Now, she is expanding on that knowledge to create a Holocaust education patch as her project for the Gold Award for Girl Scouts, the organization’s top honor. To her knowledge, no such patch exists.

“I thought it would be really important to highlight what was going on that’s not really been talked about,” said Sassani, a sophomore.

“Not many people know about Girl Guides. I need to help tell this story, and I need to help keep these women’s memory alive.”

During World War II, Girl Guides — the Girl Scouts in Europe — kept morale high, fed and healed soldiers and contributed to the war effort.

“Their role has definitely been underappreciated by history,” Sassani said. “There’s all this complex work they’ve done to help people escape. They kept people alive. … It’s important and impactful work that we’re digesting and passing it to younger girls.”

She is collaborating with the Holocaust Center of Pittsburgh to create the patch. The Jewish Women’s Foundation of Greater Pittsburgh donated a $10,000 grant to assist with the project, said its executive director, Judy Cohen.

“This patch is about writing women and girls back into history,” Cohen said. “The lessons of the Holocaust still resonate today, and the learning required to complete the patch will bring to light historical stories of courage, resistance, sacrifice and resilience among women and will inspire Girl Scouts of today to model their own actions on the Girl Guides of World War II.

“By learning about the Girl Guides when working on this patch, Girl Scouts are also provided an entry point to learn about the Holocaust and antisemitism, which is so critical today given the rise of antisemitism.”

Once complete, the patch would be available to Girl Scouts in Western Pennsylvania. Sassani is hoping to expand it nationwide.

“I’d like it to be accessible to not just Scouts but anyone interested in the project,” she said.

Emily Loeb, director of programs and education at the Holocaust Center of Pittsburgh, said the center plans to host an event in which Sassani will present her findings and work.

“There is no formal opportunity for Girl Scouts in Southwestern Pennsylvania to learn about the Holocaust or antisemitism,” Loeb said. “When Lily noticed this lack and approached us about helping her create a Holocaust Education patch program, we knew we wanted to be part of this work. It’s a new and creative approach to teaching about the Holocaust and antisemitism that extends outside our traditional education network, and it’s about a little-known aspect of World War II history that highlights extraordinary upstander behavior of young women.”

Loeb said the program will generate conversations about the erasure of the role women played during the war, the history of the Holocaust and antisemitism and identity-based hate, then and now.

“The patch curriculum will move Girl Scouts from learning to action, encouraging them to become upstanders in their own communities by implementing a project addressing an injustice of today, emulating the Girl Scouts and Guides who came before them,” Loeb said.

Sassani is the only Jewish student she knows, and the project has connected her with others in the Jewish community, she said.

Sassani still is in the process of making the curriculum for the patch. The research involved in the project has been an outstanding and rewarding experience, she said.

“It’s really educational,” she said. “It’s not just sitting in school. It’s connecting and doing an activity.”

Along with working with local Jewish history historians, Sassani also interviewed a Holocaust survivor and her daughter, as well as Janie Hampton, author of “How the Girl Guides Won the War.”

Sassani acknowledges creating the curriculum and the patch is a daunting task, but it’s one she is more than willing to tackle.

“I’m just a kid from Burrell,” she said. “It’s so much bigger than me.”