Today welcome an excited but attentive group of Grade 6 students that travelled all the way from a public school in Keswick to participate in our Heroes Among Us workshop. There were 55 students in total and although they were a large group, Friends of Simon Wiesenthal Center (FSWC) Educator Elena was definitely impressed with their ability to focus on the subject for more than 2.5 hours. 

The first half of the workshop was dedicated to understanding heroism as a real quality exhibited by many people in difficult times, not just something we see in the movies with action heroes like Superman and Wonder Woman. Elena used the Holocaust and figures within that time period to illustrate this point. Elena talked at length about Simon Wiesenthal and she showed them a brief clip of some of his work and interviews after World War II ended. The students loved the exhibit of Simon’s desk and a lot of kids wanted to know more about specific Nazis listed on the file folders. Many kids also wanted to know more about Simon’s life details and so Elena pointed them in the direction of the film, I Have Never Forgotten You.

All of the students present today are currently reading the book Number the Stars, detailing the efforts of Danish citizens that helped Jews escape from Denmark to Sweden in 1942. Elena, therefore, also talked about the unique example of heroism exhibited by large numbers of Danish people who put their own lives at risk to ensure that Danish Jews and other Jewish refugees in Denmark survived. To make it more personal for them, Elena also told them briefly about her own grandparents and their experiences as refugees in Denmark from 1939-1942. 

In the second half of the workshop Elena talked more about the idea of what qualities heroes possess and the kinds of people who we should acknowledge as heroic. Elena used the concept of bystander to contrast with the concept of heroism and made the connection between bullying and other forms of intolerance.

Tour for Humanity finished off the first week of our Northern trip in North Bay. FSWC Educator Daniella once again had the opportunity to work with both intermediate and secondary classes. The first class of the day was a Grades 11/12 Law class. Coincidentally about a quarter of the students had been on the bus during a different class the previous day. At first Daniella was a bit concerned that they wouldn’t pay attention but it actually worked the opposite way. Now that students had the night to digest the material, they had questions and things they wanted clarified. In particular Daniella spent a lot of time discussing the politics behind Hitler’s rise to power and the Nuremberg Laws following the war. Daniella also digressed a little and told them at length about Simon Wiesenthal’s career after the war.