New Maryland elementary public school named for Holocaust survivor

JTA — A new public elementary school named after a Holocaust survivor opened in Silver Spring, Md.

The Flora M. Singer Elementary School, whose name was unanimously approved by the Montgomery County Board of Education on May 8, opened its doors to students on Monday.

Singer, who died in 2009 at the age of 79, spent three years hiding in a Belgium convent during World War II with her two sisters, according to Bethesda Magazine. A few years after reuniting with her father in New York City in 1946, Flora married Jack Singer and raised their two children in Silver Spring and Potomac, Md., where she taught in the public school system.

Singer, who frequently traveled to share her personal story, was reportedly inspired to action when she encountered a flier on her car suggesting that the Holocaust was a hoax.

“My mother said that she felt a cold chill down her spine when she saw that,” said Singer’s daughter, Sandra Landsman, in a YouTube video produced by Montgomery County Public Schools. “She felt it was very important to keep that memory alive and to let people know that she had lost family and she had lost friends.”