They Fought Back!

Echoes & Reflections

Contrary to popular belief, throughout the Holocaust Jews fought back. Sometimes this was done by taking up arms, but more often resistance was spiritual and cultural, including such acts as writing diaries and poetry, attending secret schools, and praying. Teaching about resistance can serve as inspiration and empowerment in the classroom. We will discuss different types of resistance and the connection between them.

Liz Elsby is an artist and educator. She studied in the High School for the Performing and Visual Arts, and Bezalel Academy, and was awarded the honor of Presidential Scholar in the Arts. She combines art with Holocaust education at Yad Vashem, the World Holocaust Remembrance Center, as a graphic designer and guide in the Holocaust History Museum.

History Of The Holocaust 101- Virtual History Lesson

Montreal Holocaust Museum

This session will narrate the history of the Holocaust by showcasing key artefacts and survivor testimony videos from the Montreal Holocaust Museum’s permanent exhibition. Students will learn about the experiences of Jewish communities before, during and after the Holocaust, and will reflect on the destruction caused by prejudice, racism and antisemitism.

Monique MacLeod is the Montreal Holocaust Museum's Head of Education. She oversees education partnerships, professional development and resources for educators, as well as Museum-based programming for school and group visitors.

Dignity and Rights 

Canadian Museum for Human Rights

Students will learn about the role “othering” plays in the denial of dignity and rights. By examining three case studies: the genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda, the Holocaust and the Indigenous experience with colonization in Canada. Students will recognize othering as a starting point for many human rights violations, including genocide.

Shannon Foley Martinez - Discussion With A Former White Supremacist

Classrooms without Borders

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Shannon Foley Martinez, a former violent white supremacist, has two decades of experience in developing community resource platforms aimed at inoculating individuals against violence-based lifestyles and ideologies. Foley Martinez has worked in at-risk communities teaching and developing dynamic resiliency skills. She has worked for school systems, nonprofits, and community organizations. She has participated in programs with such organizations as the UN Office of Counter Terrorism, the National Counterterrorism Center, Hedayah, The Center for the Prevention of Radicalization Leading to Violence, UN Women, and the National Academies of Science, Engineering, and Medicine. Her story has been featured globally, including: The TODAY Show, NBC’s “Left Field,” The Atlanta Journal Constitution, the Associated Press, The Washington Post, Marie Claire magazine, Quartz, Al Jazeera America, and Georgia Public Broadcasting’s “On Second Thought” program. She has been a commentator on such news outlets as HLN, CNN, Canada One and BBC Radio. Foley Martinez has also assisted in training law enforcement officers, building programs for educators, and collaborating with tech companies like Google and Twitter. As the mother of seven children, she feels passionately about building empowered families and communities. She believes that we all have the power to enact profound and fundamental change in our lives.

The Search For Humanity Within The Camps - A Virtual Tour Of The Hall Of Camps

Friends of Simon Wiesenthal Centre for Holocaust Studies

Rescuers & Resistors: Leadership During the Holocaust offers students the opportunity to learn about the history of the Holocaust through a multi-dimensional approach to the question of authority and decision-making against the backdrop of the Second World War. The program will highlight three key areas of leadership: Nazi perpetrators and their collaborators, bystanders, and rescuers (Righteous Among the Nations). One of the central goals of the program will be to demystify Adolf Hitler as a leader and help students understand the symbolic power this figure continues to have in our world today. We will also seek to decentralize Hitler in this history, recognizing that our cultural obsession with the infamous dictator has overshadowed important aspects of the Holocaust. One of these aspects is the courage and heroism demonstrated by thousands of Righteous Among the Nations figures who arguably demonstrated an equally important type of leadership, moral leadership, in the face of overwhelming hatred. The program will conclude with a student-led discussion about the qualities exemplified in the various leaders discussed and an overview of proactive leadership strategies students can use in their own lives to work towards building more inclusive Canadian communities.

Elena Kingsbury has taught thousands of students across Canada about the Holocaust, genocide, and other acts of hate and intolerance. Her academic path led her to McGill University for an M.A. in History before teaching at Friends of Simon Wiesenthal Center as a Senior Educator.

The Auschwitz Album

Yad Vashem - The World Holocaust Remembrance Organization​

Students will be introduced to the events occurring at Auschwitz via The Auschwitz Album. The Auschwitz Album is the only surviving visual evidence of the process leading to the mass murder at Auschwitz-Birkenau. It is a unique document and was donated to Yad Vashem by Lilly Jacob-Zelmanovic Meier.

Adina is originally from London where she worked as a high school teacher before moving to Israel in 2012. She has been a guide at Yad Vashem for nearly 9 years and also proofreads and edits manuscripts for Yad Vashem Publications.

From Bystander To Rescuer - Moral Decision Making During The Holocaust

Vancouver Holocaust Education Museum​

Presented by the Vancouver Holocaust Education Centre (VHEC), this workshop explores moral decision making by helpers and rescuers during the Holocaust. The power of upstanders to influence bystanders, perpetrators and victims is examined through real-life examples of help and rescue from primary sources in the VHEC's collection of artefacts and testimonies. Students will consider why some bystanders are motivated to act when others do not; what shared characteristics rescuers possess; and how upstanders can shape the development of events in a moral crisis.

Lise Kirchner is a program consultant with the Vancouver Holocaust Education Centre. She has worked with the VHEC since 1999 developing and delivering educational programs with special focus on the pedagogical use of artefacts and survivor testimonies.