Today, Friends of Simon Wiesenthal Center for Holocaust Studies (FSWC) hosted 30 Grade 11 students in the Tom & Anna Koffler Tolerance Training Centre for a Lessons and Legacy of the Holocaust workshop. The students travelled in from a high school in Aurora, Ontario.  FSWC Educator Elena, who led the workshop, thought the students had a very meaningful day today. Students were fairly quiet but when Elena asked them questions about their knowledge they impressed her with their answers. A lot of students knew about the Nazi campaign of violence in Poland, for instance, and a lot of students also knew the Nazis were elected following Germany’s humiliating defeat during World War I and subsequent signing of the Treaty of Versailles. They had less knowledge about antisemitism as a European tradition so Elena talked about different moments in history when anti-Jewish attitudes have exploded into violence. 

After lunch, the students came back to hear testimony shared by Survivor Hedy Bohm. Students were captivated while listening to her describe her pre-war life in Oradea (present-day Romania). Hedy has a special "book of memories" where her friends from childhood had drawn her pictures/wrote messages for her. After showing the students the drawings her friends made and describing each friend briefly, she told the students about the fates of each of the friends during the Holocaust. None of them survived except for her and she told the students that this book is an invaluable treasure because it holds the only physical connection she has to people that otherwise live on only in her memory. 

Tour for Humanity made its first North Bay visit this year (our second visit to the area since the bus started travelling). Tour for Humanity spent the day at a French-language schools where, over the course of the day, we worked with every student in the school. Each class participated in the Global Perspectives workshop.  This workshop begins with a screening of the three-part documentary series produced by FSWC entitled The Holocaust, Universal Genocide and Real World Heroes. The Ten Stages of Genocide are then discussed in relation to the Holocaust and other world genocides, including Rwanda, Cambodia and crimes against humanity committed in Ukraine and throughout Eastern Europe under Joseph Stalin’s reign.

FSWC Educator Daniella shared one of the most interesting moments of the day, which came from the school contact who explained that her father had once been part of Canada Intelligence and was instrumental in the capture of Meinout Rost van Tonningen, a leader of the SS in the Netherlands. Rost van Tonningen is credited with the creation of the Mussert-Garde in 1939, which later went on to become the Dutch-SS. 

The classes themselves were lovely, the Grade 8 class in particular was quite knowledgeable and inquisitive about the topic of genocide. A few boys in the class knew quite a bit about the Holocaust so they were able to answer a number of questions and also asked some themselves. One student wanted to know what would happen if the Jewish people in Germany chose not to wear the yellow star, along with what happened to the political parties that ran against the Nazis. Both of these questions allowed Daniella to create a picture of what life in Germany was like under the Nazi regime. She explained that some Jewish people did try to go without wearing the star but that it was done at high personal risk because the punishment was everything from being arrested and deported to beaten. Similarly, Daniella explained to the class that some of the first prisoners to be sent to concentration camps were German political prisoners who tried to speak out against Hitler and the Nazis. 

Each class also focused on today's political climate, where Daniella made sure to tell the classes that hate crimes were on the rise and that antisemitism was still a problem that did not end with the end of World War II.  During the last workshop of the day Daniella was also joined by a school board Trustee; he was very impressed with the workshop as well and specifically got up at the end to ask the class to raise their hands if they believed all the information they learned on the bus was true.  When the students all responded with “Yes,” he then replied, “Exactly. And it's up to every single one of you to make sure the Holocaust never happens again” - at which point Daniella also directed their attention to Simon Wiesenthal's quote on the wall, “Freedom is not gift from heaven; one must fight for it every day.” 

Tour for Humanity continued spreading its message last night as well.   Daniella spent the evening presenting for a local Air Cadet troupe who recently travelled to Vimy Ridge for the memorial celebration.  Daniella was presenting the Canadian Experience workshop to this group.  In this workshop, students learn about a variety of difficult topics in Canadian history including slavery, the Indian Residential Schools System, the voyage of the SS St. Louis and the systemic internment of Japanese Canadians during the Second World War. Following a review of the past, current issues including cyber bullying and modern-day examples of intolerance are examined and discussed.