Tour for Humanity was on the road today at a secondary school in Richmond Hill. Throughout the five Global Perspectives workshops, Friends of Simon Wiesenthal Center (FSWC) Educator Daniella worked primarily with Grades 10 and 12 students. Daniella noticed an interesting difference between the Grades 10 and 12 classes - being early in the semester, the Grade 10 students hadn’t yet studied the Holocaust, and Daniella could tell that for some of them, the information was quite new. By contrast, the students in the Grade 12 classes were quite knowledgeable.

There was an interesting question from a teacher today. Daniella went through the 10 stages of genocide, and at the end the teacher questioned why the 9th stage was called “extermination” - which is typically done to insects or vermin - instead of “murder.” Daniella explained that it was for exactly the purpose of dehumanization - which is one of the stages of genocide and is an important factor that enables genocide to be carried out - the victims are not seen as human beings.

Each workshop was introduced by a student leader from the school’s student council. They each wrote a short paragraph about FSWC and thanked Daniella for coming to their school.