by Alyssa Halberstadt, grade 12 student
This week as part of our 21st century perspectives on the Holocaust course, we visited York University. There we were served a delicious lunch and had the opportunity to form strong and intelligent personal opinions on the Holocaust. We met three students who are studying a Holocaust course at York. Each of the three students chose a table to sit at and began a discussion with us. They all shared with us their own reflection on the Holocaust and allowed us to compare and contrast our own opinions to form an intellectual and inspiring conversation. This was followed by a brief reflection on the stories we read in class, in order to transition into a creative piece written by Rabbi Kleinberg, when he was in university. This piece was a critique on the bystanders of the Holocaust. A Jewish man is rebuking a Polish woman on her experience in the Holocaust, questioning her on whether or not she stepped forward in any way to speak up against the Nazi’s cruel actions. This story provides a deep and troublesome debate on the idea of a bystander in the Holocaust. This brings up questions such as: would it have been worth it? Would it have even made an impact? Would anyone have followed? Or especially, would it be in vain?
All of these questions and ideas were then brought together by one of Rabbi Kleinberg’s old teachers, Professor Brown. He allowed us to openly discuss the opinions we formed in our group sessions and have a debate. The opinions shared by the York students and students from Ulpana were incredible and extreme thoughtful. Everyone in our grade 12 class was left feeling very pleased and heard. We discussed topics such as, people from the Nazi groups being given the opportunity to leave at the beginning of the uprising without punishment and even still, chose to stay. This ultimately shows the corrupt and evil ways of the Nazis and the incredibly hard idea of being trapped in a terrible situation, not knowing if standing up or leaving is okay. By the end of the discussion, our class had a new and interesting perspective on the Holocaust and an experience we would not forget.
