Students meet survivors

KYLE BERGER SPECIAL TO THE JEWISH BULLETIN

They listened carefully and they learned. And, by the end of the two-day event, hundreds of students from 32 different Lower Mainland secondary schools went home with a new understanding of the Holocaust.

The students were participants in the 29th Annual High School Symposium on the Holocaust, held May 5 and 6 at the University of British Columbia (UBC). The program included sessions with 21 different Holocaust survivors, several history professors and video presentations aimed at opening the students' minds to what took place in Nazi Germany and the realities of hatred. These sessions were followed by a feature presentation by Solly Ganor, who survived the Kovno Ghetto, a slave labor camp and a death march from the Dachau concentration camp. Ganor has published a book, Light One Candle, and currently has an exhibition by the same name at the Vancouver Holocaust Education Centre (VHEC).

Each day of the symposium also included a panel discussion where the students were given the opportunity to ask survivors questions. The panel included child survivors Katy Hughes, David Ehrlich, Peter Parker and Ganor, as well as UBC Prof. Richard Menkis. The panel was moderated by Dr. Robert Krell, past president of the VHEC and professor emeritus of the department of psychiatry at UBC.

One of the questions asked focused on how the survivors feel when they see genocide still taking place, almost 60 years after they were liberated.

Ganor said simply that genocides cannot be tolerated anywhere in the world. Ehrlich agreed with Ganor's sentiments, but recognized a small change in how the world is attempting to respond to such acts of hatred – "At least there is something being done."

Each day ended with a special candlelighting ceremony dedicated to all the victims of the Holocaust.

For many students, learning of the Holocaust was not new to them, as their history classes had provided some background information. However, hearing actual survivors tell their horrifying stories brought a new light to their understanding of events.

"I've been exposed to a lot of information about the Holocaust, but what I found really impactful today was hearing from the survivors," said Elyse Newbert, a Grade 12 student from Lord Byng secondary. "It's one thing to read about it in a textbook or see images of it, but to actually hear from someone who has gone through it and hear their story really puts things into perspective."

Newbert's Jewish classmate, Rachel Aberle, has heard Holocaust survivors speak before. She was gratified that so many non-Jewish students had the opportunity to bear witness as well.

"This is the first time I've really been in a focused group learning about the Holocaust with a group that wasn't all Jewish youth," she said. "It was really comforting to know that this is widely learned about and not just concentrated toward the Jewish youth."

The survivors who spoke at the symposium include Ganor, Hughes, Ehrlich, Parker, Lola Apfelbaum, Jack Benish, Agi Bergida, Susan Bluman, Alex Buckman, Marion Cassirer, Mariette Doduck, Serge Haber, Chaim Kornfeld, Inge Manes, Jack Micner, Rhodea Shandler, Bronia Sonnenschein, Louise Sorensen, Peter Suedfeld, Borge Stromgren, Bente Thomsen and Robbie Waisman.

The event was sponsored by the Waldman Fund of the VHEC, the Jewish Federation of Greater Vancouver, UBC, Meyer and Gita Kron, the Leo Krell Memorial Book and the Lehrer Endowment Funds of the VHEC.

Kyle Berger is a freelance journalist and graphic designer living in Richmond.

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