Mercer Island High School (MIHS) seniors Macy Poll and Daniel Mezistrano sat at the front of the room, laser focused on author Georgia Hunter while intently listening to her profound presentation about her novel, “We Were the Lucky Ones.”

Having Hunter in their presence that night and for a few days at MIHS was a crucial experience for the students of Jewish faith. Poll is the president of the school’s Holocaust Education Committee (HEC) and Mezistrano is regional president of the BBYO Jewish youth group. Both are extremely active in their Mercer Island Jewish community and are fighters against antisemitism.

Within the pages of her New York Times bestselling book, Hunter delved into her Jewish family’s harrowing Holocaust survival story. While on the Island, she brought some of their individual stories to life for students in MIHS literature classes and in front of a crowd of adults, high-schoolers and middle-schoolers on Jan. 9 at the Islander Middle School (IMS) Library.

The IMS and MIHS PTSAs co-hosted the event, during which Hunter discussed discovering, unearthing and recording her ancestors’ horrifying experiences in Radom, Poland and beyond. “We Were the Lucky Ones” has recently been adapted into a Hulu limited series and is currently in the making, said Hunter, adding that it took her about a decade to write the novel following five to six years of extensive research and visceral interviews with family members in their homes around the world.

Hunter — who was not raised in the Jewish faith, but is one quarter Jewish — said that her family members avoided being encamped during World War II as they were on the run and in hiding during that time.

“I hope that the story offers some hope in these dark times, because we need it. It is the Holocaust story set to a backdrop of really really dark, terrifying times, but at its core it’s the story of a family and about a group of people that just want to come together again. It’s a story of courage, and perseverance and love, and so I hope that that brings some inspiration and some hope,” she said.

Poll said that it’s the right time for Hunter’s visit and discussion as Jewish people have been experiencing trying times over the last few months. The school’s HEC strives to bring about meaningful change, especially following Mercer Island antisemitic incidents in November when suspicious packages were delivered to two local Jewish organizations and the Herzl-Ner Tamid Conservative Congregation was desecrated.

“It’s really tough right now just being Jewish in general — just comments even in class or just out on social media,” Poll said. “It’s hard to just be proud of who I am today, and having somebody talk about her family’s history, her past, it’s very dignifying. It makes me proud of who I am — to know that she’s proud of this book that she put out.”

Mezistrano has known Poll since preschool, and the duo is passionate about helping other Jewish students and fighting for Jewish rights, Poll said.

On the recent vandalization of the Herzl synagogue, Mezistrano said: “It hit close to a lot of students in the community. I think a lot of students have been feeling really isolated from their peers and unable to relate to a lot of people about what’s been happening and about kind of the identity crisis a lot of us are going through.”

With Hunter in town and sharing her story, Mezistrano added that, “Just having that representation for our student body has been really really important in showing our community that we do have a voice and we have a place in this Mercer Island community.”

Hunter first learned of her family’s Holocaust story at the age of 15 while interviewing her grandmother for a school English assignment focusing on digging into students’ roots. She discovered that her grandfather — who passed away the year before — grew up in Poland, was raised Jewish and came from a family of Holocaust survivors.

Six years later, Hunter met copious family members from France, Brazil, Israel and elsewhere for the first time at a family reunion in Massachusetts and the history lesson continued.

Already filled with curiosity from her grandmother’s interview as a teen, Hunter received an earful of additional stories from her mom and cousins after dinner one evening around a picnic table.

“I sat down and I realized they were telling stories about the war. I leaned in and I listened and I realized that they were stories unlike any I’d ever heard before,” she said.

As the stories rolled out, she knew that someone needed to document them.

“I think that’s when the idea was seeded and it sat somewhere deep down inside and germinated until I kind of couldn’t ignore it any longer,” Hunter said about beginning her researching journey that would eventually fill the 403 pages of “We Were the Lucky Ones.”

Bringing her story to Mercer Island has been an amazing experience, said Hunter, adding that she never thought the themes within the book would feel so relevant in this day and age.

“There’s no more important time I feel like to share the story — to inspire conversation and questions,” she said.

Georgia Hunter speaks about her Jewish family’s harrowing Holocaust survival story on Jan. 9 at the Islander Middle School Library. Andy Nystrom/ staff photo