Today Friends of Simon Wiesenthal Center (FSWC) conducted a Lessons and Legacies of the Holocaust workshop at a Junior Middle School in Etobicoke. The students were in Grade 5 and the school librarian did a wonderful job preparing the classes for our workshop. 

Knowing their age, FSWC Educator Daniella began by asking the students what terms came to mind when they heard the word “Holocaust”. Answers included “World War II” , “Hitler” and “Jews”. Daniella elaborated and asked them what they knew about Hitler, where she was very pleasantly surprised by their knowledge. One young girl immediately raised her hand and said “Hitler and the Nazis wanted to eliminate the Jewish people”. A boy chimed in with “Hitler wanted to make a special race of people”. After this we went over a brief history of antisemitism throughout history as well as the Nazi rise to power and the Holocaust itself. Holocaust survivor Faigie Libman joined us for the workshop as well, and following Daniella's workshop with the students, Faigie spoke about her experiences for over an hour. 

At the end the students had plenty of questions for Faigie, some of which were very insightful. One boy wanted to know how it felt to know "that you are part of history."

The Tour for Humanity was also on the road today in Milton working with Grades 7 and 8 students through the Canadian Experience workshop ( 5 sessions throughout the day). It was a soggy day outside but that didn't dampen the excitement of the students that came aboard.  When FSWC Educator Elena began the day by asking students what they thought of when she said the word 'Holocaust' several boys wanted to talk about World War II video games they have played. One boy described a game set in Nazi Germany where you kill Nazis and free Jews from the camps. After doing some quick research, it sounds like a game called "Wolfenstein: New World Order." Elena explained that while it's good to be interested in history and video games are a neat way of immersing yourself in a story, we also need to be aware that games like that are not about educating the player, they are an entertaining fantasy. In reality no military made saving Jews their primary goal and by the time the Allies actually reached concentration camps, most had been abandoned by the Nazi guards. We can't pretend that heroism of special agents saved Jewish lives because that wasn't a top priority at any time for Allied armies. There was a lot of interest in the Nazis as well and Elena dispelled quite a few theories. Elena was impressed with the level of interest among all of the groups and she suggested some books and video resources to help refocus their minds.