Tour for Humanity finished up the week at a Catholic secondary school in Barrie. Friends of Simon Wiesenthal Center (FSWC) Educator Daniella presented 4 Canadian Experience workshops to Grade 10 history students.

As the classes were preparing for exams, our material acted as review of topics they had covered early in the semester. This also meant that the classes had quite a bit of prior knowledge and were able to discuss topics. Daniella spent considerable time on the Holocaust and Residential Schools with the groups.

Daniella led a very interesting discussion about race versus religion versus culture when it came to Nazi ideology and the Jewish people. One student raised a question, wanting to know “Why the Jewish people were targeted for their race when its actually a religion and culture.”  Daniella agreed with her and explained that to the Nazis there was no difference between religion and race when it came to the Jewish people. They made it one and the same. There was also a question about the Nazis sending the Jewish people back to their homeland, so Daniella gave the class a brief overview of Jewish history going back to biblical times and ending with the State of Israel.

The impact of FSWC's workshops was felt immediately throughout the school as at the end of the day other teachers and students came by to visit the Tour for Humanity to see what all the talk was about.