By Alysha Blakey

The Shoah and March of the Living Committee of the Jewish Federation of Ottawa is honoured to launch an education initiative this November to mark Holocaust Education Month, with the goal of making Holocaust education accessible and visible across the city. In collaboration with Ottawa Public Libraries, two Yad Vashem exhibits, Stars without a Heaven and Shoah: How was it Humanly Possible? will be circulating at four branches in the city. 

Holocaust Education Month provides the opportunity to reach those who need it most: those with no personal or familial ties to survivors and little foundation in the history of antisemitism. 

Stars without a Heaven is dedicated to the unique stories of children during the Holocaust, and Shoah: How was it Humanly Possible?  paints an overview of the 12-years of atrocities committed by the Nazis and their supporters.  

Not only will the public be able to see world-class exhibits, but thanks to generosity of community volunteers, tours are being offered to school groups from both the Ottawa-Carleton District School Board and the Ottawa Catholic School Board. Knowing that Holocaust education cemented into both the Grade 6 and 10 history curricula in Ontario, these exhibits will provide an invaluable opportunity to see photographs, drawings, and written testimonies from this era of history and support teachers as they tackle this very difficult topic.

Antisemitism is, unfortunately, something that the Jewish community is painfully aware of. But thanks to public education campaigns such as this one, we have the ability to connect with and educate the public at large, specifically the youth, who are being inundated with Holocaust denialism and antisemitic imagery on social media. 

Alex Munter, the chair of the Shoah and March of the Living committee, provides an excellent perspective as a non-Jewish ally, saying, “As a teen and young adult, I had the chance to speak extensively with my late Germany grandmother and other relatives of her generation, who themselves were teens and young adults in the years prior to World War II and the Holocaust. My grandmother told me about how her own father blamed Jews for both the economic turbulence in Germany and his own frustrations in his workplace.” 

While a devastating perspective, this led to his passionate allyship. 

“What I learned most from those conversations was that the evil deeds of wartime were made possible because of the evil words beforehand. Decades of pervasive, relentless scapegoating of Jews is what ultimately led so many Germans to become indifferent to the fate of their Jewish friends, neighbours and colleagues," Munter explained

The ideal learning outcome is for students to see the Holocaust not as a horrific blip in history, but rather the calculated result of years of normalized hate.

This Holocaust Education Month, we can harness the annual opportunity to arm ourselves and our children against Holocaust denialism and discrimination through education, while becoming the voice for the voiceless. 

A heartfelt thank you to our incredible committee, volunteer guides: Jared Shecter, Larry Ruch, Gracie Henneberry, Isabelle Alexandre, Carlie MacPherson, and David Sachs; and deep gratitude to Ottawa-Carleton District School Board, the Ottawa Catholic School Board and the Ottawa Public Library for their active roles in this initiative. 

For more information on all the Holocaust Education Month events please visit the Federation website. 

Photo: Left to right: Jared Shecter, Isabelle Alexandre, Gracie Henneberry, Larry Ruch, and Carlie MacPherson