Today marked the second day of our North Bay week, where we returned to the same secondary school we were at yesterday for an additional 5 workshops. The school is a Grades 7-12 school, so today Friends of Simon Wiesenthal Center (FSWC) Educator Daniella also had the pleasure of working with Grades 7 and 8 students. There were 4 Canadian Experience workshops and 1 Global Perspectives workshop. There were some very interesting discussions on the Tour for Humanity, particularly during the Global Perspectives workshop. Students were quite interested in propaganda, particularly how the Nazis used propaganda to influence children and ordinary citizens. Daniella explained about the Nazi Ministry of Propaganda, including some of the jobs that were assigned and how everything was censored and one-sided. She then came to antisemitic propaganda posters, so Daniella asked the group to analyze the images and come up with the intended audience and message. The Grades 7 and 8 classes were very interested in Residential Schools as they had just begun studying Canada's past. Daniella spent a lot of time discussing the imagery of the before and after photos of Thomas Moore (an aboriginal child sent to a Residential School). The students were horrified to find out the last residential school only closed in 1996. 

The FSWC Education Department was also conducting away workshops in Toronto at a secondary school. The first group of the day were ESL students who participated in Lessons and Legacies of the Holocaust. They were very quiet but also an attentive audience. Many of them had less background on the history of antisemitism in Europe and consequently FSWC Educator Elena spent more time on that subject. In addition, Elena looked at the rise of Nazism and she also included a parallel discussion of some of the atrocities committed in Asia and associated racism in the 1930s. Elena also provided 2 workshops to Grade 10 Civics students on Global Perspectives on Genocide. These  went very well and Elena felt that the diversity of the students helped them empathize with different genocidal situations. When Elena showed them photos of the actions of the Einsatzgruppen and conditions in the camps including a few scenes of liberation many students expressed shock. Most of them didn't have a lot of knowledge about later 20th century genocides so they benefitted from going over the ten stages of genocide and focusing on a couple of case studies (Rwanda and Cambodia).

FSWC Director of Education Melissa and Holocaust survivor Max Eisen continued their Saskatchewan training today at the Saskatchewan Association of Chiefs of Police (SACP) conference. The morning consisted of a presentation on the history of the Holocaust with a focus on the role of law enforcement followed by the testimony of Max Eisen. Conference attendees were members of the SACP and government officials. Later in the evening, Melissa and Max were invited to the SACP mess dinner as special guests of honour. FSWC's involvement in today's program was organized by SACP President, Weyburn Chief of Police, and Compassion to Action alumni Marlo Pritchard.