Mobile Holocaust classroom visits Perth for two days of classes (Perth Courier)

The Holocaust may not be as close to everyone as it is for Elena Kingsbury — which is why she is on a mission to bring the “never again” message to as many ears as will hear.

The educator was in Perth from Feb. 12-13 as part of the Friends of the Simon Wiesenthal Center for Holocaust Studies’ “Tour for Humanity” bus that parked in the lot of St. John Catholic High School in Perth. Her maternal grandparents narrowly avoided the Nazi concentration camps, and, at the ages of 13 and 14, were sent from their native Czechoslovakia to Denmark.

“It was incredibly lucky,” she said, during an interview on Feb. 12 on the tour bus, which is also a mobile, multimedia classroom. Denmark, while occupied by the Germans, actively sought to protect its Jewish population, unlike some other European countries. At the age of 18, in 1943, her grandfather joined a Czech brigade of the British army, to fight against the Nazis.

That history “is what got me interested at a young age,” she said. “Education is our main focus … I was very lucky to get this position.”

The Brockville native now lives in the Toronto area. “I’ve always wanted to bring the tour out this way. The whole purpose of this bus is so we can go outside of the Greater Toronto Area.”

The bus has been on the road for four years now, and while the Holocaust is front and centre, “we are connecting this with other issues as well,” such as residential schools, the Chinese head tax, the Japanese internment camps, and other issues.

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