Today, Friends of Simon Wiesenthal Center for Holocaust Studies (FSWC) hosted a group of 25 students from a local Toronto school in the Tom & Anna Koffler Tolerance Training Centre. This was an eclectic mix of English as a Second Language learners from around the world. They all seemed very attentive throughout the 3.5 hours we spent together.  The fact that many of the students are still learning the language, in addition to the fact that different countries teach Holocaust education in very different ways, meant that it was not our typical workshop for Grade 11 students. We had to go over more of the basic facts and FSWC Educator Elena spent a lot of time going over the map of Europe while describing the German army's movements in 1939-40.

There was one question from a young man who wanted to know if there was any truth to the idea that Jews were controlling all the money in Germany. Elena told him that he was hitting on one of the oldest and most complicated accusations used by antisemites in European history. She told the students about the fact that for centuries Jews were not allowed to own land in most European countries and therefore couldn't be farmers, nor were they allowed to join craft guilds (like becoming a blacksmith for instance). This meant that Jews were forced into other roles, such as trading petty goods and money lending. Elena also pointed out that Jewish people didn't actually have that much representation in German banks or the finance industry more broadly. The Nazis made this claim but statistically there were far more Jewish doctors and lawyers in prewar Germany than financiers. Elena also spent time talking about emigration from Europe after World War II and the resounding impact the Holocaust had on the Jewish diaspora. A young lady originally from Venezuela told the group that she had gone to a school called Emil Friedman School in Caracas. Emil Friedman was a Jewish man born in Prague in 1908. He became a violinist and taught at the Prague Conservatory of Music, leaving Europe for Venezuela in 1945 where he continued his mission to educate. This student told the rest of the group that a lot of Jewish people immigrated to South American countries after World War II, as did many non-Jewish Europeans. 

The day ended on a high note with Holocaust survivor Andy Reti sharing his story of survival. The teacher who organized the day was incredibly thankful for the whole workshop and approached Elena afterward about setting up a special event next year where we could arrange for a group of Holocaust survivors to all visit Metro Prep Academy.

Today marked our second day in North Bay with the Tour for Humanity where 6 classes of Grades 7-12 students participated in the Canadian Experience and Global Perspectives workshops. In the Canadian Experience workshop, students learn about a variety of difficult topics in Canadian history including slavery, the Indian Residential Schools System, the voyage of the SS St. Louis and the systemic internment of Japanese Canadians during the Second World War. Following a review of the past, current issues including cyber bullying and modern-day examples of intolerance are examined and discussed. The Global Perspectives workshop begins with a screening of a three-part documentary series produced by FSWC entitled The Holocaust, Universal Genocide and Real World Heroes. The Ten Stages of Genocide are then discussed in relation to the Holocaust and other world genocides, including Rwanda, Cambodia and crimes against humanity committed in Ukraine and throughout Eastern Europe under Joseph Stalin’s reign.

The two Grade 7 classes saw the Canadian Experience workshop and as usual they had a lot of questions. While the class knew quite a bit about the Holocaust thanks to the classroom teachers’ prep work, students were quite surprised to know that hate crimes not only still exist today but that they are on the rise.

In a Grade 10 class one girl wanted to know more about some of the medical experiments that the Nazis carried out so FSWC Educator Daniella explained a bit about Dr. Mengele and his fascination with twins, but steered the conversation back to the fact that these people were experimented on because they were targeted for being Jewish in the first place. 

Last evening, we had another community event, spending almost 2 hours with a local group of retired professionals. The group participated in a slightly modified workshop consisting of the Global Perspectives workshop with current hate crime statistics added in. There was also some very good discussion from the group, including questions surrounding the whereabouts of the money, possessions and property of the Jewish people because everything was taken away. Daniella explained a little bit about different cases of stolen Nazi art, most notably the Woman in Gold. Similarly, one woman wanted to know what Canada's position was during the Holocaust, so Daniella told the group all about the SS St. Louis and a bit about Canadian immigration policies during the war.