Today Friends of Simon Wiesenthal Center for Holocaust Studies (FSWC) hosted 40 students from a high school in Aurora in the Tom & Anna Koffler Tolerance Training Centre. This workshop was the third day this semester we have taught a workshop to students from this school. We also travelled with survivor Max Eisen to the school one day last week so that he could share his testimony with a couple hundred more students. Needless to say, the school recognizes the value of FSWC programs as we have become an essential part of their Holocaust Education for Grade 11 students. 

Today’s group was very attentive. The first half of the workshop was spent going through the chronology of the Nazi rise to power and a description of how Nazi persecution evolved from legal/legislative discrimination into outright violence and murder. There seemed to be some surprise when FSWC Educator Elena told them about the existence of Nazis and antisemitism all over the world, particularly when she mentioned the Canadian situation. Elena explained that the kinds of ideas promoted by the Nazis were not created in isolation. Even Canada’s longest- serving Prime Minister, William Lyon MacKenzie King Jr., wrote in his diary of his open admiration of Hitler. 

Another interesting conversation from the day arose when a young woman questioned whether Jewish people ever tried to “fight back.” This question crops up occasionally and Elena did describe some of the resistance activities that occurred in ghettos and camps, but she wanted them to understand why it was so difficult to mount any kind of resistance so she pointed out a couple of things: 

1.       It took a long time for people to believe that the Nazis were actually murdering innocent people by the thousands in their death camps. These rumors were shocking and seemed beyond the cruelty of any modern nation. Most Jewish people felt like their best chance at survival was to just keep their heads down, as history had taught them in past moments of antisemitic violence. 

2.       Somewhat related was the fact that for people who still had hope of survival, throwing themselves into a desperate attack against SS guards in the ghettoes and camps where there was almost no possibility of success was psychologically very difficult. Prisoners may have outnumbered the Nazis, but their lack of weapons and strength meant that by rebelling, they were throwing away their only tiny chance of survival. 

3.       Jewish people were being put onto trains from all corners and countries of Europe. This meant that people who ended up together in the camps often didn’t speak the same languages/couldn’t easily coordinate information or attempts at rebellion.

In the afternoon the students returned to FSWC to hear Gerda Freiberg’s testimony of survival. They were completely silent the whole time she was speaking, indicating their awe with the fact that she had actually been in Berlin during the 1936 Olympics. Gerda even saw Hitler and several other top Nazis riding in a motorcade during the Olympics and saw thousands of people lining the streets giving the sieg heil. 

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Tour for Humanity was also on the road at a Catholic school in Oshawa. FSWC Educator Daniella presented 6 workshops to the school's Grades 4-8 classes. The first class of the day, a very lively Grade 4 class had a lot of questions about the Holocaust. The group especially struggled to understand why the Nazis would target the Jewish people. When Daniella was discussing life in a concentration camp, with specific reference to the different jobs that people were given, one young girl asked if people were paid - and when Daniella said no - the student emphatically replied, “Well that’s not right. People should always be paid for work.” It's always rewarding when you see young people reach their own conclusions about the topic being discussed - to see them process the difficult topics and come to meaningful, thoughtful conclusions certainly gives hope for a more peaceful and inclusive future. A young boy in one of the Grade 4/5 classes really impressed Daniella with his knowledge. When a picture of Hitler came onto the screen he immediately raised his hand and proceeded to explain Hitler’s antisemitic views to his classmates.