On Thursday, April 6th, Tour for Humanity and FSWC Educator Daniella journeyed to a small community outside of Windsor, Ontario to work with the Grades 5 - 8 classes in the school. One Grade 5 class in particular was really impressive with their background knowledge. A few students were very knowledgeable about Hitler, the Holocaust and World War II. When the group was asked what they knew about concentration camps, one student raised his hand and said that the “Jewish people were treated like they weren’t even human in these camps.” When the class was asked the class if they knew why someone would treat people so badly, a young girl commented that Hitler “was a really bad man who had a lot of hatred in his heart.” 

The Grade 8 class at the end of the day was also quite interesting. The class was just finishing a unit on the Charter of Rights and Freedoms in Canada.  While they were able to list off various freedoms that Canadians have, many were shocked to learn that Canadian history is filled with multiple instances of discrimination and violence. They were particularly affected by the story of the SS St. Louis, especially since many of the students assumed that because the Holocaust happened in Europe it had no impact on Canada.

In the classroom, Friends of Simon WiesenthalCenter (FSWC) hosted 35 Grades 11-12 students from A Toronto high school for a Leadership andDiversity 101 workshop. The school operates a leadership program and for the past 5 years, FSWC's leadership workshop has been anintegral part of their curriculum. This school is typical of Toronto's culturaldiversity and students brought lots of interesting perspectives to theclassroom.

FSWC Educator Elena spent thefirst portion of the workshop talking about the concept of leadership asexemplified at different moments in history – the positive and the negative - withspecial attention to the Holocaust and the negative strategies employed by topNazi officials. Elena also spent quite a bit of time with the class talking aboutdiversity, equity and leadership in the Canadian context. One interestingthread of the conversation focused on the disconnect between rural and urbanareas. The students highlighted that most people who immigrate to Canada preferto move to large cities where there are most opportunities and the greaterlikelihood of connecting with people from their country of birth. In contrast,there are many places "out in the country" in Canada where diversityis minimal and people are dealing with issues relating to population declineand disappearing resources (ie. local hospital services). 

 After lunch, Elena led the group in a discussion about hate crimes in Canadatoday. There were a few comments about the current state of the world. Elenaencouraged students to be proactive in spreading respect and tolerance in theirschools and communities. There will probably always be people who blame"the other" for their problems, but she reinforced that we don't haveto let those attitudes control the rest of us. Elena spoke at length about thebystander effect and concluded the workshop by collectively looking at somequotations from history on different concepts of leadership and pulled out somekey qualities to look for when judging leadership.