120 Toombs County Magazine
Logan’s ancestor also played an integral part in events leading up to the American
Revolution. “At the April 1768 session of Anson County Court, a mob of angry men
stormed the Courthouse and broke up the Court,” said Logan. “They were led by
Solomon Gross. This mob was a part of the Regulator movement in North Carolina
and South Carolina protesting the high taxes and crooked officials imposed upon
them by the British Royal Governor. This was a prelude to the unrest which started
the Revolution in 1775. (Apr 28 1768)”
Another surprising discovery was that many of his ancestors were of the Jewish
faith. These discoveries came together in a school assignment when Logan was 13
years old and in the eighth grade at J. R. Trippe. “Anna Helms, who was my English
Language Arts teacher, had us read The Diary of Anne Frank. Knowing that many of
my ancestors were of the Jewish faith, the story became so real to me. But there were
students in the class who thought it was kind of a joke. I was deeply offended.” But
it was more than personal offense. He realized he could either stand by in anger or
take responsibility to do something that would bring change. “Bystanders can be just
as guilty as the perpetrators when they see
wrong being done, and they don't intervene
or do something. A whole country watched
Hitler come to power and have over six
million people killed. And it was something
people never thought could happen.”
He began to search for any Holocaust
survivors still living in Georgia. “Burt
Lewyn was born and raised in Berlin,
Germany, where most of his family died in
the Holocaust. He was living in Atlanta, so
I just called him. I asked him to come and
speak to my eighth-grade class about his
experiences, and although he was elderly
and no longer able to travel, he put me in
contact with Sylvia Wygoda, the Executive
Director of the Georgia Commission on the
Holocaust.”
Logan invited her to J. R. Trippe,
and she came and spoke to the entire
eighth grade. “Sylvia Wygoda’s father was
a Holocaust survivor named Hermann
Wygoda,” said Logan. “He was an amazing
man. He saved an entire Italian village from
the Gestapo. As she spoke, I could just see
that everyone’s opinion and demeanor was
changed because someone was standing in
front of them telling them, ‘I lost my halfbrother
and all my aunts and uncles in the
Holocaust. My father was the only person I
had left who survived.’” (Her father passed
away in the 1980s.)
Logan was so inspired by Hermann
Wygoda’s courage, he wanted to do more.
The following summer, Sylvia Wygoda gave
him the task of research and data collection
for the Georgia Commission on the
Holocaust. As he discovered more about the
Jewish contributions in Georgia, he said, “I
realized Georgia has a Black History Month,
a Hispanic Heritage Month, an Italian
American Heritage Month, a Caribbean
BELOW Logan recently
completed an internship at the
Presidential Correspondence.
OPPOSITE PAGE Logan is no
stranger to Georgia's political
scene. At age 14, he drafted a
resolution to establish a Jewish
Heritage Month in Georgia,
the Georgia House Judiciary
Committee about free speech
on Georgia’s college campuses.
His efforts contributed to the
passage of Senate Bill 339.