Today Friends of Simon Wiesenthal Center (FSWC) Educator Daniella presented a Lessons and Legacies of the Holocaust workshop to over 60 Grade 10 summer students at Crescent School. This marked our third visit to the school. Crescent School’s summer program is enrichment rather than remedial. This means these were students who voluntarily chose to spend summer in school to work ahead in order to take more advanced courses in Grades 11 and 12.  

After presenting the workshop, Daniella spent an additional 30 minutes answering their enthusiastic questions. The boys were particularly interested in the Nuremberg Race Chart, especially the treatment of “mischlings” (people with part Jewish and part Aryan ancestry). When Daniella initially presented the group with the race chart, one young man in the front looked especially horrified. He later stated, “this is just so ridiculous that it was that detailed” – Daniella agreed with him, which led into a brief overview of Nazi record keeping. Daniella spent considerable time discussing how the treatment of mischlings depended heavily on multiple factors, including the geography and chronology of the war. 

Other questions focused on the types of jobs prisoners had in the camps and the correlation of survival rates. Daniella explained that this again depended on where the camp was located and the year of the war. One student wanted to know what the worst job in a camp was, so Daniella explained a little bit about the Sonderkommandos (groups of Jewish prisoners whose job it was to aid with the disposal of gas chamber victims). Daniella also gave the students Simon Wiesenthal’s example of being forced to carry rocks up a hill, so the group really understood that the “jobs” that prisoners were often given weren’t jobs in the traditional sense. Even some of the teachers asked questions, focusing on the Allied response to the Holocaust and what the rest of the world might have known. Daniella told the group the story of the Red Cross visiting  Theresienstadt in 1944.

If you're looking for an innovative and meaningful learning experience for your students, please contact the FSWC Education department at education@fswc.ca.