Today Friends of Simon Wiesenthal Center (FSWC) hosted a group of Grade 8 students from a local public school on Propaganda and Media Literacy. We had about 35 students for two hours, coinciding with their study of the classic allegory of Communism in the Soviet Union, the book Animal Farm. This was a great group of students to work with. They were a gifted class and very knowledgeable about the history of the Russian Revolution as well as later history during the National Socialist regime in Germany. 

FSWC Educator Elena spent the first half of the workshop going over important concepts and themes including bias, propaganda, dehumanization, and antisemitism. She also connected the idea of propaganda to our own history in Canada by talking about some of the images/ideas used to promote the residential school system. Elena looked at a lot of concrete examples of propaganda, particularly examples from the Nazi regime depicting both the “positive” stereotypes associated with the German race and the villainous images that sought to dehumanize Jews and other supposed “racial” enemies. She finished up the day with an activity where students got into small groups. Each group was then given a propaganda poster to analyze with particular questions to answer: What is the message here? Who is the intended audience? What kinds of emotions is it supposed to evoke in the viewer? What kinds of symbols do you see used to promote the message?