Today Friends of Simon Wiesenthal Center's (FSWC) Education Department was at a Catholic secondary school in Milton for a Lessons and Legacies of the Holocaust presentation. The school’s entire Grade 12 population (approximately 400 students) was in attendance. FSWC Educator Daniella began with a brief overview of FSWC and Simon Wiesenthal’s legacy, followed by the importance of learning about the Holocaust. Holocaust survivor Gershon Willinger then spoke to the students and told them all about his story as a hidden child and surviving camps like Westerbork and Bergen Belsen. 

There was a truly special moment that occurred at the end of the presentation. As usual Gershon asked if there were any questions and as the students were leaving a young man came up to him. He wanted to know “How does someone keep the faith in the face of such evil things happening?” Gershon, the principal, vice-principal and Daniella were all very surprised by the complexity of the question. As Gershon and the student continued to talk about this question, the student revealed that he had lost his mother to a heart attack 3 years ago and was continuing to struggle with the loss. He said he felt he could open up to Gershon because he had also been through severe loss. Students continue to make profound connections with survivors as they share their testimony. The experiences are truly life-changing.

The Tour for Humanity was in Mississauga at a Catholic elementary school today where Friends of Simon Wiesenthal Center (FSWC) Educator Elena taught 6 workshops to students between Grades 5 and 8. For the Grade 5-6 students Elena taught a fusion of Simon’s Story and the Canadian Experience and for the older students she presented 4 workshops on the Canadian Experience. 

The whole day was excellent and Elena was very impressed with the behaviour, interest, and knowledge of the students. There was a large Polish population at the school and this was reflected in the understanding several students had about World War II and the Holocaust. A lot of students knew that the Nazi death camps were located in Poland and that the Nazis killed a lot of non-Jewish Poles as well as the Jews. One girl in Grade 8 belongs to a Polish cultural youth group outside of school. She told the group about how she actually visited Auschwitz with this group last summer and how she saw the piles of children’s toys and shoes with her own eyes. 

One of the teachers also brought her own personal experience with Auschwitz to the workshop. She is also Polish and had visited Auschwitz not once but 3 times. In preparation for the Tour for Humanity visit she told all of her students about an interesting Catholic connection with Auschwitz and a fascinating example of moral courage in the face of Nazism. Maxmilian Kolbe, now canonized as a saint,  was a Polish Conventual Franciscan friar who volunteered to die in place of a stranger in the German death camp of Auschwitz. Kolbe was one of very few monks of his order who remained in their monastery once the German invasion began. Although Kolbe was ethnically German on his father’s side, he refused to use this status to gain favour with the Nazis and turned the monastery into a hospital, eventually using it to shelter 2000 Jews during the early days of the war.