Today, Friends of Simon Wiesenthal Center (FSWC) facilitated a Lessons and Legacies of the Holocaust workshop at a high school in Oakville. There were over 100 students in attendance, mostly Grade 10 History students but also a few senior students. The school has been involved with FSWC for a number of years, and has hosted the Tour for Humanity a few times. All students listened very intently to the workshop. Holocaust survivor Vera Schiff spoke for over an hour about her experience during the Holocaust, but also about the need to always speak up if something bad is happening. There were plenty of questions towards the end, including how Vera was treated when she came to Canada after the war as a refugee.

Tour for Humanity reached a new community today - a small town called Dowling just west of Sudbury. The Principal was extremely welcoming and FSWC Educator Elena spoke with her for several minutes at the beginning of the day about how important it is to bring FSWC programs to her students. The students in Dowling are all either White or Indigenous, without exception, which shapes a lot of the conversations they have around things like race and intolerance. There are only 87 students in total at the school, so Elena was able to see all of their kids from Grades 3-8 in three separate workshops. 

The educators seemed a little apprehensive about what kids would say but Elena assured them that we want to have those questions and conversations so that we can help correct misconceptions and give students information they might be missing. As it turned out, the kids seemed to know quite a lot about the Holocaust and World War II. There was one student who stood out in particular. He was one of the few Grade 8 students and his teacher told me after that he is of mixed Metis and European ancestry and has had some trouble in the past, but Elena's experience was that he was incredibly knowledgeable and curious about history. He knew about details like the secret Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact between Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union, and asked tons of questions along the way. Elena was also impressed when another classmate brought up the "Hitler Escaped" conspiracy theory, this student quickly scoffed that Hitler definitely died at the end of the war. 

The younger students seemed to really love being on the bus as well and Elena had lots of fun with them playing the game where they guessed her age and background.  Elena actually had a bit of trouble getting them off the bus at the end because many students wanted to stay behind and talk with her.