The Freeman Family Foundation Holocaust Education Centre
The stories of our survivors must continue to be heard! The world must not forget!
Our 9th Annual Holocaust Symposium, Thursday May 13, 2010
The Jewish Heritage Centre of Western Canada presented its 9th annual Holocaust Symposium for grades 9-12 students on Thursday, May 13, 2010 at the University of Winnipeg's Duckworth Centre. Some 1500 students from Winnipeg schools and also those from as far away as Dauphin, Manitoba attended. The Symposium is generously supported by the Sam Grosberg Estate and by the Jewish Foundation of Manitoba. It is co-sponsored by the University of Winnipeg, with additional funding provided by Gail Asper and Michael Paterson. The principal focus of the Symposium is to educate students on the events of the Holocaust, on anti-racism and ultimately, to identify what society has learned from the Holocaust.
This year, our keynote speaker was Mr. David Shentow of Ottawa. Born in Warsaw, in 1925, Mr. David Shentow moved to Antwerp, Belgium as an infant, as his family sought to escape antisemitism. In August of 1942, Shentow and his father were ordered by the Gestapo to report to the Antwerp railway station. This was to be the last time Shentow would see his mother and two sisters. Shentow was deported to a work camp at Dannes-Camiers near Dieppe in France and was later deported to Auschwitz. In 1943, Shentow was transferred with a group of two thousand prisoners from Auschwitz to the remains of what had been the Warsaw Ghetto. Their job was to level the remains of buildings shattered during the Ghetto Uprising. In the summer of 1944, anticipating the advancing Russian army, the Nazis sent the Jewish prisoners on a death march to Kutno, Poland. From there a cattle train took them to Dachau. Shentow was liberated from Dachau by the American army Dachau, on April 29, 1945, his twentieth birthday.
We look forward to our next symposium, which will be our tenth – a major milestone!
Voices of Winnipeg Holocaust Survivors
Documenting the stories of more than 70 local survivors and their families before, during and after the Holocaust, Voices of Winnipeg Holocaust Survivors was edited by Belle Millo, Chair of the Holocaust Education Committee. Gustavo Rymberg, formerly of Winnipeg produced the design and layout.
In addition to the written testimonies of the survivors, precious photographs further tell the story of a world that was lost, of entire families that were eradicated. Documents attest to imprisonment in concentration camps, confiscation of businesses by the Nazis, incarceration by the British on the island of Cyprus, to mention but a few. The stories vary in length from 2 to 30 pages and the hardcover book is 432 pages in length.
An extremely successful launch took place on April 15, 2010. More than 300 people attended, necessitating overflow seating in the Freeman Family Foundation Holocaust Education Centre as well as the Berney Theatre. Dignitaries who attended and spoke included Anita Neville and Flor Marcellino. Sam Katz and Steven Fletcher sent their greetings which were read aloud. The launch was generously co-sponsored by Jewish Federation of Winnipeg and the planning of the evening was co-chaired by Belle MIllo and Shelley Faintuch. Musical entertainment was provided by Eli Herscovitch and Jane Enkin, performing an original composition of Eli’s, dedicated to our survivors. A reception followed.
We are proud to announce that the Honourable Peter Bjornson, (former) Minster of Education, Citizenship and Youth has directed that the book be placed in every senior years’ school in the province of Manitoba. Since all public schools in Manitoba study the Holocaust as part of the grade nine curriculum, it is an absolute priority that the students be able to access a book that will give them the opportunity to learn about the experiences of our local survivors. As the years pass, our survivors are aging and sadly, we lose a few each year. Fewer and fewer are available to tell their stories in person to our students. It is imperative therefore, that we have their stories and documentation available now and in years to come. Educators have already communicated that they are using the book to help teach the human rights curriculum.
We are extremely grateful to the Jewish Foundation of Manitoba which has awarded the project a grant of $5000.00. The book was fully funded before even going to print, thanks to the generous support of private donors.
Voices of Winnipeg Holocaust Survivors is available for purchase for $36 plus shipping where applicable.
For multiple purchases, please for special shipping rate.
Reviews for Voices of Winnipeg Holocaust Survivors:
The memoirs collected by Belle Millo in Voices of Winnipeg Holocaust Survivors are integrally related to the ongoing and compelling need to voice the realities lived through by those who endured the years of extermination conceived and executed by the Third Reich. As an educator, writer, and activist, I find the diversity, intensity, and authenticity that distinguish this collection vital to my own work within the university and the wider community. Meticulously edited and carefully presented, the collection honours the specificity of the individual contributors as revealed through questionnaire, photograph, and story. The experiences and visions it preserves and embodies encourage and sustain us, providing a model for the work of remembering that deepens our capacity for lament and for peace and justice making . . . I look forward to its inclusion in our libraries and to the opportunity for knowing and response-ability it provides researchers, students, teachers, and community members, both nationally and internationally.
Deborah Schnitzer, Professor and National 3M Teaching Fellow, Department of English, Director, Institute for Literacy and Transformative Learning, The Global College, University of Winnipeg.
Voices of Winnipeg Holocaust Survivors accomplishes the near impossible. It rescues from oblivion the stories of people who themselves were rescued from the oblivion of the Holocaust in which hundreds of thousands families like their own were exterminated. The moving photos and documents that richly enhance this beautifully produced book take us into a world that is lost but still intimate, tangible yet sadly remote. The stories of these Holocaust survivors are told in their own words, carefully transcribed from questionnaires and interviews. Their survival, recovery and rebuilding of their lives in Canada is a significant chapter in Canadian history, superbly chronicled in Voices of Winnipeg Holocaust Survivors.
Lionel B. Steiman
Professor and Senior Scholar
Department of History
University of Manitoba
Kristallnacht
In November, the HEC was pleased to co-sponsor the visit of Dr. Harold Troper, along with the Holocaust awareness committee of the Jewish Federation of Winnipeg and the Jewish Studies Research Circle. Dr. Troper spoke on the subject of Canada’s participation in the 1936 (Hitler) Olympics.
Rededication of the Freeman Family Holocaust Education Centre
The rededication of the Holocaust Education Centre took place on Sunday, August 30th, 2009 at the Berney Theatre with a near capacity turnout. We were honoured by the attendance of his Worship Mayor Sam Katz, the Honourable Anita Neville, Member of Parliament, Winnipeg South Centre, and the Honourable Christine Melnick, Minister of Water Stewardship, Manitoba Legislative Assembly, all of whom brought both greetings and their own words on behalf of Holocaust education and the importance of ensuring that the world remembers. Barbara Goszer, a local survivor and one of the founders of the HEC, provided a history of the HEC. Certificates were awarded to all of the original founders of the Holocaust Education Centre. Belle Millo, Chair of the HEC, spoke about the continuing importance of Holocaust education in today’s world with the global resurgence of anti-Semitism. Rabbi Peretz Weizman, a pillar of the Winnipeg Jewish community for some 58 years, honoured us with his words of wisdom, a bittersweet moment for the audience, knowing that he would be leaving us shortly for Toronto. The Rabbi Weizman Holocaust Museum Showcase was formally unveiled. This showcase was funded by the money raised from the Rabbi Peretz Weizman Tribute Dinner, which took place a week earlier, chaired by Laurie Mainster and Joe Riesenbach. The funds raised will serve to establish the Rabbi Peretz Weizman Holocaust Education Endowment Fund at the Jewish Foundation of Manitoba. The proceeds from this fund were used to establish the Holocaust education display showcase named in Rabbi Weizman’s honour at the Holocaust Education Centre, to maintain it, and to display new artefacts in it as they become available. At the end of the rededication ceremony, the audience was invited to tour the newly renovated Holocaust Education Centre with its entirely new exhibits and then proceeded to a garden reception.
Mina Rosner Human Rights Essay Contest
The Jewish Heritage Centre of Western Canada is proud to sponsor the Mina Rosner Human Rights Award. The $400 prize is awarded annually to a Manitoba student in grade 9-12 who produces the best essay on the theme of the Holocaust or other important human rights issues. The winning essay should exemplify the message that Mina Rosner brought to schools and the general public. Mina Rosner was a Winnipeg mother, grandmother, businesswoman, author, educator and Holocaust survivor. She grew up In Buchach, now in the Ukraine and saw her friends, family and community exterminated by the Nazis. She would later write a book about these experiences titled “I am a Witness.” The sole survivor in her family, she moved to Winnipeg in 1948.
Mina Rosner devoted many hours to educating people about the horrors of the Holocaust. In addition to her book, she spoke to hundreds of students on the importance of combating racism and discrimination and defending human rights.When she died in 1997 at the age of 84, her family and friends decided to keep her memory and life’s work alive by designing this essay contest and creating an endowment fund in order to ensure the annual prize.
Essays will be judged for proficiency in conducting research, presentation of issues, sincerity, coherence, and writing skills. Students are encouraged to visit the Freeman Family Foundation Holocaust Education Centre Asper Jewish Community Campus, 123 Doncaster Street to learn more about the Holocaust. Essays should be 1000 -1500 words in length, typed double-spaced and neatly presented.
Please send entries to the Mina Rosner Human Rights Award, c/o The Jewish Heritage Centre of Western Canada (Attention: Belle Millo), C140-123 Doncaster Street, Winnipeg, Manitoba, R3N 2B2. Entries can also be submitted electronically to . Please note “MIna Rosner Essay Competition Entry” in the subject line and use Microsoft Word format or PDF format. Please ensure that you provide an email address, name and phone number where you can be reached. Any questions can be submitted to the same email address with “Mina Rosner Essay Competition Question” in the subject line.
The deadline for all submissions to this competition is April 30, 2011
Be Inscribed On Our Wall
In Memorandum --- In Tribute
We will never forget.
We strive for brotherhood
amongst nations.
"Tikun Olam" - to repair the world.
"Tikun Olam" is our name for our Centre's Outreach Program. The volunteers of the FFFHEC Outreach Program really are trying to repair the world by showing how to take a moral stand in the face of hatred, racism and prejudice.
Our small, dedicated core group of volunteers has achieved remarkable results. The outreach program makes presentations to over 2100 students from 35 different schools or groups in a single year.
How do the students respond? Often their silence speaks volumes, as usually rambunctious teenagers sit quietly for a few hours, learn and reflect. Days or weeks later, many send thank-you letters which sum up how big an impact the presentation had on them. "You taught me a lot about stereotyping and prejudice," writes a grade 9 student from Holy Cross School. "You have shown me ways I can stop this from happening around me."
Please Fill Out our Petition
Petition in favour of a permanent Holocaust gallery at the Canadian Museum for Human Rights
Within the context of the 20th century, the Holocaust is unfortunately the ultimate prototype for the study of human rights violations. As the defining event that prompted the birth of the modern human rights movement, it stands out among the horrors that humankind has inflicted upon itself by virtue of the systematic nature employed by the Nazis and their collaborators to eradicate the Jewish people - from political oppression, judicial and economic discrimination to the use of scientific, racial, and cultural theories and arguments which required the mobilization of every institution of Nazi Germany’s political and civil society. The inclusion of a gallery specific to the Holocaust will in no way detract from the histories of other human rights violations; we believe that the opposite is in fact true – that learning about the Holocaust will allow one to acquire greater insight into other human rights violations.
We the undersigned firmly believe that there should be a permanent Holocaust gallery in the Canadian Museum for Human Rights.
So far 4264 have been submitted. Please help. Add your name. Thank you.
