This morning, Friends of Simon Wiesenthal's (FSWC) Education Department braved the rain and traveled back to a local Toronto District School Board school with Holocaust survivor Andy Reti for another insightful morning of workshops. FSWC Educator Daniella spoke in front of over 100 Grade 10 students.  Once again, Daniella began with an overview of the Nazi rise to power, the Nuremberg Laws, propaganda and ultimately the ghettos and concentration camps.  Daniella asked the group to think of characteristics of the modern interpretation of the word “ghetto.” Answers included “sketchy”, “poor” and “high crime.” Daniella explained that the original ghettos were Jewish ghettos, both in the middle ages and then revisited during the Nazi era. All Jewish people from surrounding towns, villages and other parts of a city were sent to live in the part designated as a ghetto. When Daniella spoke about concentration camps, students were surprised to learn that there were different types of camps – so she spent some time discussing transit Camps, concentration camps and death camps. Daniella made sure to emphasize that people died in all three types of camps, but the circumstances were sometimes different.  

Following Daniella's presentation, Holocaust survivor Andy Reti spoke to the group for over an hour and shared his experiences as a young child in a ghetto in Hungary. Daniella was impressed by the number of questions asked by the students, including questions about Andy's emotions when he returned to his hometown decades later.