This morning Friends of Simon Wiesenthal Center (FSWC) facilitated a Lessons and Legacies of the Holocaust workshop to 160 Grade 10 students at a school in Mississauga. The students are all currently taking history, and just beginning their World War II unit, so this workshop fit in very well with their curriculum. Being such a large group, there was little participation as students were reluctant to ask questions in front of their peers. That being said, it was evident in their expression that they were taking in every word. Holocaust survivor Stefania Sitbon also shared her experiences in the Warsaw Ghetto and hiding in the Warsaw Zoo with the group, and after the workshop several students came up to Stefania to ask her individual questions and thank her for coming.

Tour for Humanity was in the small farming community of Harrow, 30 minutes south of Windsor. The school was incredibly welcoming and the students were a joy to work with. FSWC Educator Elena taught taught 5 workshops over the course of the day to all of their Grades 4 to 8 students (3 Simon's Story for the Grades 4-6 students and two Canadian Experience for the Grades 7 and 8 students). All workshops went over very well and Elena had a hard time moving on from the Grade 4 class because they all wanted to share some of their own personal stories with her after the presentation. Elena has found Simon Wiesenthal's story to be extremely useful when trying to address the endless barrage of questions about Hitler's supposed escape and faked suicide from Grade 8 students. Elena told them that yes, some Nazis escaped, but that Hitler's survival was not something that Simon, or others investigating Nazi war crimes, believed was a real possibility. They were well-aware of people who were trying to pretend they hadn't been Nazis and hiding out in various corners of the world and tracked down some of the most prominent Nazis who survived and escaped including Adolf Eichmann.