As part of Holocaust education week, Professor Mark Celinscak was invited to Ulpana Last Friday to speak to the students about the role of Canadians in the liberation of Bergen Belsen. He spoke about two army individuals who after seeing the camp, specifically chose to help make a difference with its living conditions even though they were not assigned those jobs. With their effort and determination, the
camp became more livable after the liberation, which shows how much of a difference each individual can make. Another thing he spoke about was how much Bergen Belsen influenced the world of art. Thank you to Professor Celinscak for coming to our school and teaching us new insights about Bergen Belsen.
Last Friday, Or Chaim students took part in an interactive seminar led by Dr. Waitman Beorn. Over the course of an hour, he discussed the German Army’s willing and active participation in the Holocaust. We learned about the “Holocaust by bullets” – the 1.5 million Jews shot in the forests of Eastern Europe and places like Babi Yar. We also learned that the German army held a more important role than historians originally understood – it was not simply the SS and the Einsastgruppen who perpetrated these crimes. Following the lecture, students participated in a question/answer period, which led to a discussion on the amount of blame that one can place on ordinary Germans. Thank you to Dr. Beorn for the session, to Mrs. Slodovnick for delivering greeting on behalf of the Holocaust Education
Week Committee, as well as to Dr. Carson Phillips, Assistant Director of the Sarah and Chaim Neuberger Holocaust Education Centre, for his closing remarks.
The program was generously co-sponsored by Steven & Shelley Ekstein and Paul & Nili Ekstein in memory of Mordechai & Hilda Stern and members of their family.
