Today Friends of Simon Wiesenthal Center (FSWC) hosted a very lively group of Grade 7 students from a public school in Keswick for a Roots of Hate and Intolerance workshop. There had clearly been some prep work done by the classroom teachers as the students were very engaged in the conversations. While students knew about Jewish people hiding during the time of the Holocaust, the rise of Hitler and the fact that 6 million Jewish people were murdered, the students weren't as familiar with the camps or the train journey in the cattle cars. As such FSWC Educator Daniella spent a lot of time with the “cattle car” activity. She asked the entire group (about 30) to fit themselves in the taped off model on the floor. From there, Daniella proceeded to explain the actual conditions that people faced in the cars. After returning to their seats, the class had a lot of questions about the conditions inside the trains, including access to food and water, fresh air to breathe, and washroom facilities. Daniella answered all of their questions in an age-appropriate manner. 

As Daniella began to wrap up the Holocaust, she asked the class if they knew why we still discussed the Holocaust today. Answers included “because we need to know so we don’t repeat it” and “because it was so important in history.” Daniella used this opportunity to explain about May being Jewish Heritage month. She discussed the meaning of someone’s “heritage” and why Jewish people want to preserve their heritage. Daniella was very impressed by the answers, which also included references to never forgetting the Holocaust and remembering the people that had been lost.

Holocaust survivor Max Eisen was invited to speak at a Christian school in Woodbridge today as part of the FSWC Education Department's Lessons and Legacies of the Holocaust program. Max's audience included every Grade 10 history student in the school. The invitation for Max to speak was to give the students an opportunity to bear witness to live testimony from a survivor. The students listened attentively and asked a variety of questions at the end of the presentation which included how Max found his way back to his hometown after the war, how he was able to rebuild his life after losing his entire family and whether he still had his tattoo.

The Tour for Humanity continued its trip around Sudbury today. FSWC Educator Elena was at a public school in Sudbury working with their Grades 5-8 students. Elena had 6 workshops throughout the day, 3 on Simon's Story for the Grades 5-6s and 3 Canadian Experience for the older groups. The workshops also took on special meaning because May 1st marks the beginning of Jewish Heritage Month. Elena gave the students a brief introduction to Jewish history and the fact that Jewish people  are a good example of an ethnic group that has often been persecuted but has always found ways to survive and thrive.    

All of the workshops were very well received and once again Elena was blown away by the friendliness and welcoming attitude of the school's staff - and the students had a lot of questions! One Grade 7 student wondered who Japan sided with during the war after Elena mentioned the racism that existed in Canada and the USA towards people of Japanese descent. She was horrified to learn that Japan had sided with Germany, and her look of horror only grew as Elena told her about the invasion of China, Korea the Philippines, and other Asian states in the 1930s. Elena explained that Japan had its own ideas about racial superiority and a lot of different countries were involved in different ways.  The student was pretty upset and said, " I am never going to think about Japan the same way again." Elena said that it was definitely upsetting to learn about Japan's activities, but she said that it's really important that we don't blame all Japanese people for things that happened in the past.  None of us have control over the countries we are born into and although countries can be guilty of crimes in history, we can't blame individuals alive today, as long as they aren't denying it happened. 

Elena also had lots of questions with one Grade 7 group about the residential school system. One student wanted to know where they found teachers to work at the schools. Elena told them that most of the schools were managed by partnerships between the government and the different churches of Canada, with the largest number of schools run by the Catholic Church. Many of the staff at the schools were nuns and priests, but there were also lots of teachers hired on as well.