Yorkregion.com - Thornhill - Students learn stark reminder of dark past
Students learn stark reminder of dark past
Dr. Frank Dimant, vice president of B’Nai Brith, speaks of the horrors inflicted during the Holocaust during a ceremony at Yorkhill Public School.
Thornhill
May 08, 2008 10:25 PM
By: David Fleischer
Hundreds of Yorkhill Public School students sat in the school’s gym Tuesday, not for a sports event or pep rally, but for a sombre morning of remembrance.
Teacher Harriette Fleising organized the Holocaust ceremony at her school. It is the fifth event of its kind, but last year was the first she expanded to include an “adopt a survivor” component. The ceremony also included a Rwandan who survived genocide in his own country.
“I’m a child of survivors. I guess in a way, it’s something I feel I have to do,” Ms Fleising said.
“This is the youth, this is the future and I’m in the right place where I can give over some very powerful messages to these children.”
It was the culmination of three-and -half-weeks of work by grades 4 to 8 students and the survivors spent the afternoon visiting their classrooms.
“They feel very empathetic ... they’re very tuned to it and very sensitive,” Ms Fleising said of the students.
This year, students adopted three survivors with unique stories.
Irena Sendler saved 2,500 children from the Nazis, smuggling them in bags and through sewer systems. She was arrested and tortured by the Gestapo before escaping and hiding for the rest of the war.
The Stermers, a family from the Ukraine, fled to a cave when the Germans came. After being discovered, Esther Stermer stalled soldiers so others could escape.
The survivors, 38 people in total, found a sinkhole called The Priest’s Grotto and hid underground for a year, beginning in April 1943.
Ruth Richter-Antfleck, daughter of one of the cave survivors, told the story while a Today Show segment on the cave played in the background.
Benny Turk was an orphan by 12 when he fled to the forests and fell in with a partisan group.
Shira Koperwas stood beside her grandfather, reading his story. His message, she read, was a simple one:
“Family is very important. Do not be angry with one of your family members. Work hard to stay together ... Never forget about the Holocaust, it should never happen again to other people,” she said.
“We see it in Cambodia and we see it in Rwanda and we see it in the Sudan, and we don’t seem to learn the lessons,” Frank Dimant said, B’nai Brith Canada executive vice-president.
“We talk about racism and bigotry and anti-Semitism and they’re words, but somewhere in the world they’re not just words. They’re terrible acts of hate and murder,” he said.
Mr. Dimant used a hypothetical story to try to bring home for students how easily what happened in the scenes in black and white pictures they have studied could become a reality.
Among the dignitaries on hand was Ted Chudleigh, the MPP whose private members bill lead to the creation of a provincial Holocaust Memorial Day.
Students, including Johanna Suku, Maya Starets and Sonja Svetkovic read poems while violinists Alec Levin and Timmy Shin provided musical accompaniment.
At the conclusion of the ceremony, memorial candles were lit by the survivors and dignitaries.