Today was the Tour for Humanity's third day of workshops at a Catholic school in Stratford. Friends of Simon Wiesenthal Center (FSWC) Educator Elena taught 4 workshops today, bringing our total to 12 workshops taught at this school over the last 3 days. Elena taught two sessions of The Canadian Experience and two Global Perspectives on Genocide workshops. Once again it was a very successful day - teachers were thrilled with the program and stayed behind to thank Elena and talk about how well the material fits with their lesson plans.

One of the Canadian Experience workshops included a young woman who knew a lot about World War II. She brought up the subject of artwork stolen by the Nazis and mentioned Maria Altman's fight to get her family's painting, The Woman in Gold, back from the Austrian government. Elena spoke a little about the broader context of the Nazi kleptocracy and the range of property stolen by the regime, from priceless artworks and estates, to the gold teeth stolen from the mouths of thousands of Jewish inmates in the concentration camps. 

FSWC Educator Daniella was also on the road today, delivering two workshops to Grade 7 students at a local middle school.  The focus of today’s workshops was the Roots of Hate and Intolerance. The school reached out to FSWC as they have recently had issues with bullying. In particular, the administration felt that these two classes in particular would benefit from the FSWC workshop. 

Daniella began with an overview of Simon Wiesenthal’s history, which weaved into the broader context of the Holocaust. This was followed by a few examples of hate and discrimination in Canadian history – most specifically Residential Schools,  Japanese Internment camps and the story of the SS St. Louis, carrying Jewish refugees, being turned away just before the Second World War began. The second half of the workshop focused on the current climate, including hate crime statistics today. Students were very surprised to learn that most hate crimes today are committed by their peers in the 12-14 age bracket.  Daniella left each class with food for thought in the form of giving them the responsibility to learn from the past. She explained to the groups that all the instances in our past come down to one person or one group targeting someone else because of who they are. Daniella also told the classes that although it may appear to be removed from them, when someone is being bullied that is the same type of behaviour.