At Abbeville High School, the past spoke directly to students as Holocaust survivor voices came alive through artificial intelligence.

In Phillip Bannister’s English II Honors class, students had been reading “Night,” Elie Wiesel’s memoir of survival.

Wiesel, a Holocaust survivor, professor and humanitarian, died nearly a decade ago, but Bannister said his words remain essential.

“Since his passing nearly 10 years ago, I feel that it is more important than ever to preserve the words of wisdom and the story of his life by teaching it to my students,” Bannister said.

To deepen their understanding, Bannister first led a Socratic seminar on the memoir’s opening chapters. Many of the students’ questions, he noticed, focused on “themes of survival, hope, and sheer will to live.”

That curios

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