Wiesenthal Education Weekly

FSWC Yom HaShoah Resources for Holocaust Remembrance Day

April 21, 2020

Today is Yom HaShoah, Holocaust Remembrance Day, dedicated to honouring the six million Jewish men, women and children who perished in the Holocaust. Yom HaShoah is particularly poignant this year as it coincides with the 75th anniversary of the Liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau.

2020 also marks the first time we cannot come together to mark this meaningful occasion. Covid-19 has disrupted our daily lives and changed the way we typically approach large gatherings. That does not mean the day should go unnoticed. Here at FSWC we have important online resources for you to use in your homes and virtual classrooms.

Working With Holocaust Survivors: Personal Reflection

Emily Barsanti-Innes
FSWC Education Associate
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I have worked with the Simon Wiesenthal Center in Toronto for nearly two years, and in that time I have been fortunate enough to work closely with many of the survivors in our network. Whether it is road trips to schools across southwestern Ontario, having them join our classrooms in the Tolerance Training Centre, or simply grabbing a coffee with them at Tim’s, working alongside them has been a singular experience and one that I know I will carry with me always. In my schooling prior to working at FSWC, I always understood the necessity of survivor testimony in a more abstract manner.

However, it wasn’t until my time at the Centre that I truly understood that survivors are so much more than their stories. Each and every time I hear them speak, I am so incredibly humbled by the exceptional grace and the stoic resolve with which they present their memories. They willingly re-traumatize themselves on a regular basis in order to preserve the memories of their loved ones and to impress upon the next generation the fatal consequences of unbridled hatred.

However, it is not until they are back in the passenger seat with me that I am reminded that our survivors’ lives go beyond the confines of this dark history; that they have lived full lives outside of the few years that they are continuously asked to recount for the students Ontario. They have had families, careers, adventures, loves, and losses that are entirely unrelated to the Holocaust. The survivors I work with are funny and brilliant and opinionated and curious and, above all, tenacious. I can, and have, entire hours-long conversations with our survivors about everything from modern day politics to their favourite blueberry oatmeal muffin recipes; conversations where I completely forget the trauma upon which their lives were built. My own grandparents had passed away very early in my life, so in many ways our survivors have acted as surrogate grandfathers and grandmothers to me with their anecdotes and their wisdom.

In the end, I often feel a bit regretful that most people only get to see the one side of our survivors, as it turns them into a somewhat typecast figure of tragedy. I have been lucky enough to delve beyond this singular dimension and get to know the people behind the stories. The old idiom to never meet your heroes holds no water for me, because not only have I met my heroes, I have the great fortune of being able to call them my friends.

FSWC's www.neverforgetme.ca website is a great educational resource for educators, parents and students to use at home. The website showcases 15-minute videos of Holocaust survivors sharing their stories. As teachers and educators, we can fill in dates, places and times, but someone who experienced the horrors of the Holocaust will be able to add an emotional element to the history: what it felt like.

Today we would like to introduce you to some of the courageous men and women we have the privilege and honour of working with. We have seen how they recount painful memories and impart their stories to young people and adults alike across Ontario and beyond.

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Andy Reti

Andy’s earliest memory of the Holocaust was living in a two bedroom apartment in a Budapest ghetto in the fall of 1944 with 27 other people. He recalls his mother and best friend huddling together, as they both placed their young children between them, and the feeling of how cold his friend’s feet were when they touched him. Even to this day, Andy finds it difficult to understand how anyone could hate him or declare that his life was not worth living, solely because he was a Jew. He credits his survival to his mother and grandmother and the strong relationship between his parents, along with their love of life. The ghetto was liberated in January 1945 and it was only months later that Andy found out that his father had been murdered by Nazis. In comparing the hatred and destruction of the Holocaust and the resurgence of hatred today, he believes the only way to eliminate hate is through education, understanding and tolerance.

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Gerda Freiberg

Gerda’s story is one of perseverance and the love of her family which kept them alive throughout the horrors of the death camps. Although her father was taken away in 1939, Gerda, her mother and sister ended up in the Oberaltstadt concentration camp in Sudetenland together. Gerda remembers their bravery prevailing over fear of the Nazi guards, explaining, “When you had somebody, you had someone to live for.” However, the conditions in the labour camp were horrific and included regular beatings from officers. Gerda eventually attempted to jump out of a window to her death, but was saved by another prisoner at the last second. When the camp was liberated in 1944 she regained her freedom but had lost her childhood. After spending four years in a refugee camp and later immigrating to Israel, today Gerda is proud to live in Canada – “the best country in the world.”

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Gershon Willinger

Gershon does not have many memories from the Holocaust. Born in Holland after his parents moved to Amsterdam to escape Nazi Germany, he never knew his mother or father; they selflessly gave him to a Christian family as a baby in 1942 to keep him safe. Gershon was eventually taken from his foster parents when the Dutch police found out they were hiding him. When he was just two years old he was sent to Westerbork, followed by Bergen-Belsen and Theresienstadt. In the summer of 1945 he was liberated by Russia – his earliest memory is of Russian soldiers giving him candy. Gershon eventually returned to Holland and found out after the war that his parents had been murdered in a Polish concentration camp called Sobibor in 1943, shortly after giving him up. Eventually, Gershon decided to leave the country that failed to protect his parents, and moved to Israel where he felt safe. In Canada Gershon worked as a Social Worker. He says he feels fortunate to live in a free country and urges young people not to be bystanders to hatred, or to take life for granted.

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Faigie Libman

Faigie, an only child, clearly remembers the sacrifices her parents made to save their family during the Holocaust. She recalls her mother covering up the yellow star that Jews were forced to wear as a badge of identification, to sneak out of the ghetto and exchange their possessions for food. As a child of the Holocaust, Faigie’s life was miraculously saved twice. The first was on a day when she was taken from the labour camp where she was held with her parents to work at a different site with her mother. When she returned to the camp at night, she discovered all the children and elderly had been taken to Auschwitz. The second time was when she was very sick and a nurse saved her life by hiding her from the guards. Although Faigie’s father was taken to Dachau concentration camp and killed, she says she was lucky to have her mother with her, as there were so many orphans in the death camps. To this day, Faigie speaks to a wide audience to share her belief in the need for people to be kind to each other. “If there is hatred in your heart, there is no room for love.”

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Max Eisen

Max was brought face to face with the absolute evil of the Nazi Holocaust as a teenager. While celebrating the Jewish Passover holiday with his family in Moldava in the former Czechoslovakia in 1944, Max remembers how soldiers kicked down his front door and forced them to hand over their most cherished possessions. Eventually, Max and his family were placed on cattle cars and deported to a death camp called Auschwitz, where he lost most of his family, including his mother and siblings, when they were sent to the gas chambers. When Max asked where his family went, the Nazi officers told him they had “gone to the chimney.” He never had a chance to say goodbye. Max recounts a story of tragedy and loss, but also of courage as he fought for his life for over a year in the most horrific conditions in multiple camps and, finally, on a death march that lasted for days. After living in Canada for many years, Max began to share his story to educate new generations about the lessons of the Holocaust, and on the importance of standing up for freedom every day.

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Vera Schiff

Vera never expected that Czechoslovakia, a country she believed was democratic and free, would deport 90% of its Jewish population to their deaths. This is the reality Vera had to confront as a teenager. In 1939, strict curfews had been imposed upon Jews in the capital city of Prague and eventually her family was herded onto a railway car along with many others Jewish citizens headed for the death camps in Eastern Europe. Vera and her family ended up in Theresienstadt concentration camp where inmates barely survived on a liquid diet of only 300 calories a day. By 1944, Vera’s sister and parents had died, leaving her to face the unimaginable horrors of the Holocaust alone. Vera said the most difficult part after the war was coming to terms with what had happened. She is grateful to the Canadian government for having afforded her a new lease on life. Her message to younger generations is to remember that freedom is not a gift, and that it is important to stand up to violence and bullying.

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Best Practices for using Holocaust Survivor testimony in the classroom or at home - A few things to keep in mind before watching the videos:

The Holocaust and the Second World War are distinct historical events.‍

It is important to clarify for students that the Holocaust and the Second World War are distinct events. The Second World War was a conflict that ranged from September 1st, 1939 until 1945, with victory in Europe (VE Day) on May 8th, 1945, and victory in Japan (VJ Day) on August 15th, 1945. This was a global war that drew in countries and armed forces from almost every continent. The Holocaust, however, was a historical event ranging from January 1933 with the appointment of Hitler as Germany’s chancellor, to May 9th, 1945, with the surrender of Germany to the Soviet Red Army in Berlin. While many historians agree that the Holocaust likely would have had a lower death toll without the cover of a global conflict, documentation of the bureaucratic operations in Berlin show us that in most cases the military personnel involved in carrying our the war effort were distinct from those perpetrating the Holocaust.
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Survivors are not necessarily experts on the Holocaust—they are experts on their own stories.‍

For the survivors who work with us, they have told and retold their stories hundreds of times in the decades since the end of the war. They are experts in their own lived experiences and some of the historical circumstances that led to their lives being impacted by the Holocaust. However, it is important to keep in mind that the Holocaust is a historical period that had a broad geographic and temporal range. The Holocaust lasted 12 years, from 1933 with the election of Adolf Hitler to May 1945 with his death. The physical range of the Holocaust stretched to encompass over 20 distinct nations, each with their own languages, cultures, histories, and governing bodies. Even historians who dedicate their entire lives to Holocaust studies would never presume to know every story and every facet of this history—the scale is simply too large for any one academic. For survivors, this history is not simply “history”, but the story of the murder and destruction of their families, religions, and their cultures.‍

Not every survivor went to Auschwitz.‍

Auschwitz was the largest death camp complex under the Nazis, with three main camps along with 44 sub-camps. 1.3 million people were sent to Auschwitz and 1.1 million people died there. It is because of the size and the notoriety of this camp that it is often the only one recognized by many students and even some teachers. While some of the survivors we work with were sent there, many were sent to one of the other thousands of camps across Europe. In many cases, survivors were not sent to a camp at all but remained in the Jewish ghettos in European urban centers.

Holocaust Testimony: After-Viewing Discussions

Now that you have watched one or more of the videos on neverforgetme.ca, consider the following questions:‍

1. How does listening to testimony help further your understanding of the Holocaust?

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2. Was there a particular story that stood out to you? Why or why not?
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3. If you could speak to a survivor/ ask a question to a survivor, what would you say?
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4. What are you left wondering after listening to the testimonies? How would you go about finding that information?‍

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How Can Canadians Commemorate Holocaust Remembrance Day Virtually?

Elena Kingsbury
FSWC Education Associate‍

In our current atmosphere of uncertainty and isolation, parents and educators may find it difficult to integrate Holocaust remembrance into their home schooling efforts. FSWC’s education team is here to help. We are prepared to offer resources and support in your efforts to create opportunities for Holocaust remembrance, particularly as we approach Yom HaShoah on April 20th-21st. This time of disruption reminds us that some of the most powerful lessons we can teach our children go beyond typical coursework: the importance of community, the need for empathy and compassion during times of crisis, and courage of ordinary citizens in the face of overwhelming obstacles. The most important resources for teaching young people about the Holocaust are Holocaust survivors themselves, many of whom are in their 80s and 90s today.

With the current need for social distancing and isolation, we encourage you to get creative with some of FSWC’s online resources to help the young people in your life engage with this history. Check out our online collection of survivor testimony videos found at neverforgetme.ca.  After a watching a video, have your child or student write a letter to the survivor with questions and comments as a follow-up exercise. The value of writing a letter to one of our survivors is two-fold: it allows children to develop a more empathetic understanding of what individuals went through during the Holocaust while also allowing kids to have dialogue with the elderly in a time when many older Canadians are feeling isolated and lonely. In order to make sure our survivors receive these letters, please send a photo or scanned copy of it to education@fswc.ca.