Friday, Friends of Simon Wiesenthal Center for Holocaust Studies (FSWC) hosted 45 Grade 8 students from an elementary school in Oshawa. They came in to the Tom & Anna Koffler Tolerance Training Centre for a Lessons and Legacies of the Holocaust workshop, which included testimony from Holocaust survivor Vera Schiff. 

One girl in particular really impressed FSWC Educator Daniella, who was leading the workshop, with her very insightful questions. She struggled to understand why the Nazis would choose the yellow star to force the Jewish people to identify themselves. Daniella explained the significance of the star both as part of the Jewish religion and the culture (including the flag of Israel) and eventually she said, “so the Nazis probably chose it on purpose to make it difficult for the Jewish people.”  Daniella agreed with her and said that there was definitely a significance to many choices that the Nazis made.

During Vera Schiff’s testimony, another student wanted to know if Vera had thought at the time that she would survive the concentration camp where she was imprisoned (Theresienstadt). Vera told the class that survival depended solely on a combination of luck and outside help from another human being. She tied her experience into how lucky she was to be living in Canada and how the class should never take their freedoms here in Canada for granted.