Toronto (November 12, 2021) – Friends of Simon Wiesenthal Center (FSWC) is writing to Alberta’s Minister of Education expressing concern and requesting a review of the province’s diversity education guidelines that minimize the actions of the Nazi regime.

The Alberta Ministry of Education’s Guidelines for Recognizing Diversity and Promoting Respect advises that educators should include in their resources both “positive and negative behaviours and attitudes of the various groups portrayed” and have students “suggest ways in which members of these groups can collaborate or could have cooperated to bring about positive interaction and understanding of one another.”

Using the Nazis as an example, the document states, “if a video details war atrocities committed by the Nazis, does it also point out that before World War II, German government’s policies substantially strengthened the country’s economy?”

Michael Levitt, President and CEO of FSWC, issued the following statement:

“It is shocking that the Alberta Ministry of Education would consider the genocidal Nazi regime as a good example of a group that had positive behaviours, given Nazis murdered six million Jews and millions of others, in addition to completely destroying their country because they initiated a war. In what world could collaboration or cooperation have taken place between Nazis and the groups they targeted for complete annihilation? The fact that Alberta students could have possibly been fed such an outrageous proposition is extremely troubling. We expect the Ministry of Education to address this issue immediately.”

UPDATE: Alberta Ministry of Education Pulls Document That Minimized Actions of Nazis Following Condemnation from FSWC