“There are many (teachers) that are hesitant because of the sensitivity of the subjects,” said Kelly Hiebert, an educator at Westwood Collegiate in Winnipeg.

In order to ease that hesitation, educators say the curriculum needs to be carefully curated.

“There won’t be a one-size-fits-all box containing information on the Holocaust that can be shared across grade levels,” said Adam Muller, director of peace and conflict studies at the University of Manitoba.

Educators also hope it will allow for broader discussions on prejudice.

Read here

For decades, the Holocaust educator has made it her life’s work to bolster curriculums and contribute to international resources so that the genocide of the Second World War is never forgotten or repeated.

January 27 marks the anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp in 1945 – a day set aside by the United Nations to commemorate the Holocaust.

UM Today spoke to Jarniewski [BEd/93, CertTrad/02] from her office in Winnipeg about the importance of honouring this day in the face of growing acts of intolerance around the world.

UM TODAY: YOUR PARENTS WERE BOTH HOLOCAUST SURVIVORS, WHICH CLEARLY GAVE YOU AN INTIMATE PERSPECTIVE ON THIS HISTORICAL EVENT. WHEN DID YOU DECIDE TO MAKE IT YOUR MISSION TO HELP EDUCATE OTHERS?

JARNIEWSKI: My undergraduate degree at the U of M was in Education with a minor in Judaic Studies. As I began to work with students, it became very apparent to me that many of them knew very little, if anything, about the Holocaust. In fact, some had never met a Jewish person before encountering me as their teacher. I quickly realized how important it was to promote and engage in Holocaust education.

IS THERE A PARTICULAR LESSON THAT YOU THINK IS CRITICAL FOR PEOPLE TO LEARN?

The most important thing in my opinion is that indifference or silence is equivalent to complicity. Unless we speak out, especially given the rise of extremism and hate today, we risk having history repeat itself. Sadly, “never again” rings hollow.           

THERE’S BEEN A MARKED RISE IN ANTI-IMMIGRANT, ANTISEMITIC, AND NATIONALIST SENTIMENTS AROUND THE WORLD. IT MUST BE PARTICULARLY DISTRESSING FOR HISTORIANS LIKE YOU TO WATCH, KNOWING WHAT SUCH MOVEMENTS HAVE LED TO IN THE PAST.

The rise of populism, nationalism, and hate are very worrisome. Scholars (and even graduate students) in some countries are being harassed and/or threatened for writing or speaking about the complicity of their countries during the Holocaust. Holocaust distortion is becoming as much or more of a problem than Holocaust denial. The intense anti-immigrant sentiment in some countries and the hatred for and false characterisations of certain groups bear chilling parallels to the situation in the 1930s and 1940s. Therefore, it is more important than ever to remind people of what happened in the not-so-distant past and of the importance of speaking out on these issues.

YOU ARE DOING THAT NOW, AS PART OF THE CANADIAN DELEGATION TO THE INTERNATIONAL HOLOCAUST REMEMBRANCE ALLIANCE. CAN YOU TALK A BIT ABOUT WHAT YOU DO?

I serve on the Academic Working Group (AWG) and the Committee on anti-Semitism and Holocaust Denial. Both groups are working very hard to preserve the historical narrative and to fight against attempts to distort it. The Committee on anti-Semitism and Holocaust Denial elaborated and adopted the first intergovernmental definition of anti-Semitism, which has now been adopted by several countries and institutions within those countries. Recently, Western University became the first Canadian campus to adopt the definition. The definition is very important as it provides examples of what anti-Semitism is, and what it isn’t. 

IS THERE A PROJECT THAT YOU’RE ESPECIALLY PROUD TO HAVE BEEN A PART OF?

The adoption by the Plenary in Bucharest in 2016 was a particularly important moment for me – I felt history was being made. This year, the AWG asked its members to participate in a project which outlines anti-Semitic measures and legislation in our 31-member countries since the beginning of the 20th century.  I completed and submitted the research on behalf of Canada, which included the quota system for Jewish students at the School of Medicine in the 1930s and 40s.

SOME HOLOCAUST SURVIVORS ATTENDED THE U OF M, AS STUDENTS AND PROFESSORS, WHICH YOU CAPTURE IN YOUR BOOK VOICES OF WINNIPEG HOLOCAUST SURVIVORS. WHAT MOTIVATED YOU TO TELL THEIR STORIES?

A local survivor felt strongly that their stories should be preserved in a format that would be widely accessible, especially to local students. We felt that reading about men and women who live or had lived in Winnipeg would make history more “real” to them.

As I was writing the book, it made me so sad to think about the suffering these wonderful people had endured. In many cases I had known them for years. Some provided me with old family photographs and seeing these photos which portrayed what they had lost were in many ways as upsetting as the horrific photos we see of the suffering and destruction.

IN YOUR OPINION, WHY IT IS IMPORTANT TO HAVE AN INTERNATIONAL DAY OF REMEMBRANCE FOR THE HOLOCAUST?

In the Jewish community, we have Yom Hashoah (in the spring) which commemorates the Holocaust. However, an internationally acknowledged day encourages more than just commemoration and reaches a broader audience. Resolution 60/7 of the United Nations, which established International Holocaust Remembrance Day, encourages the development of educational programs to help prevent future acts of genocide. The resolution also condemns “without reserve” all manifestations of religious intolerance, incitement, harassment or violence against persons or communities based on ethnic origin or religious belief, whenever they occur.

While many of the UN member countries continue to engage in Holocaust denial and distortion as well as promoting anti-Semitic rhetoric, the day is observed solemnly and respectfully in many countries. I see this as an important weapon in the fight against Holocaust denial and distortion and a means of preserving the historical record. 

WHAT ARE SOME PRACTICAL WAYS PEOPLE CAN HONOUR THIS DAY?

The Freeman Family Foundation Holocaust Education Centre partners with the Canadian Museum for Human Rights and this year’s theme is “the music of remembrance”. There are free events on January 27 and 28 (visit FFFHEC’s website for more information).  If you can’t get out to an event, I would suggest going online to the Visual History Archive and viewing one of the more than 52,000 testimonies.

In the past few weeks, an important discussion has surfaced in our community, prompted by survivors of the Holocaust.

This conversation asks us to contemplate the significance of our memory of the shared human experience.

Regine Frankel, who hid from Nazis as a young girl in France and survived, has asked us all to think about the need to engage learners in the rise of fascism, the relative ease of the spread of hate, and the propensity of evil-doers to dispel the importance of history and the perpetual argument based on the shared human experience.

It seems appalling that young people today might simply be unaware of the atrocities of the 20th century, which witnessed the most grievous and disastrous genocides, culminating in the Holocaust, the Holodomor and the Armenian genocide. Historian Timothy Snyder documents the millions of Europeans who were systematically slaughtered by Hitler and Stalin only a century ago in his book Blood Lands: Europe Between Hitler and Stalin.

Winston Churchill provided advice to a student before the British prime minister departed from public life: “Study history, study history. In history lie all the secrets of statecraft.”

While this advice might indeed by true, history, and all the humanities, are also critical for cultivating a democratic society that is able to defend itself from short-sighted, undemocratic, bigoted and nefarious forces. 

Education is a public good. Its central purpose, as the philosopher Martha Nussbaum would argue, is the cultivation of humanity. An education system designed for more than just employment preparation is predicated on the notion that being educated “means learning how to be a human being capable of love and imagination,” while gaining an immense amount of knowledge of the world and being able to translate this knowledge into critical thought and action. 

Similarly, Henry Giroux, a philosopher at McMaster University, posits that “At the centre of resistance, politics, and hope is the power of educating people to a more promising reality, one that unmasks the falsehood and fear upon which racism depends.”  

Education is more than merely producing cosmopolitan citizens. It is a tool to defend ourselves against the spectre of fascism that rears its shadow in the likes of Trump, Erdogan, Duterte and Ader, to name just a few.

Read the full CBC article here. 

At war’s end, six million Jewish people were dead along with millions of other victims of Nazism. Among the survivors were children – many war orphans – who became graduates of the U of M.

This week, we reflect on the stories and accomplishments of these alumni in the face of tremendous adversity and tragedy.

GEORGE RUBENFELD [BPed/60]

Born in Belfort, France, Rubenfeld was 17 when Germany invaded the country in 1940. Although the roads were bombed as civilians fled the northern cities, Rubenfeld was able to escape south with his family. They relied on the kindness and bravery of many strangers who hid, housed and fed them as France surrendered and anti-Jewish legislation was enforced.

His family was forced to register as Jewish and assigned a residence to live so they could be tracked and – when the time came – round up easily for deportation. That time did come, but the Rubenfelds were warned by a friend and were able to escape.

While his sisters and parents fled to separate farms to hide, Rubenfeld joined the underground Resistance. Based out of a cabin in the woods, he helped plan and sabotage German military operations. More skilled with a violin than guns, Rubenfeld once participated in a benefit concert to help French prisoners of war. Like the Von Trapp family from The Sound of Music, he and his sisters performed in front of 25 Nazi officers, and were then immediately whisked away to safety.

The entire family survived the war, immigrating to Canada in 1953. Rubenfeld obtained his bachelor’s degree at the U of M and later served as an assistant professor in the Faculty of Education for 17 years. He died on Jan. 23, 1991, aged 67.

Stefan Carter's immigration visa, circa 1948. // Photo courtesy Belle Jarniewski, Voices of Winnipeg Holocaust Survivors

STEFAN CARTER [MD/54, MSc/56]

Carter was imprisoned in the Warsaw Ghetto in 1940, aged 12. After his mother was sent to the Treblinka death camp, two cousins smuggled him out; his father is suspected to have died in the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising. 

For two years, Carter hid in several Polish Christian homes. He was once betrayed by a neighbour to police, but escaped arrest when the officers asked him to drop his pants and saw that he was uncircumcised – an anomaly for Jewish boys. He proceeded to further hide his identity by undergoing surgery at a local clinic to alter his nose. By obtaining false Aryan papers and learning Catholic prayers Carter was able to live freely in Warsaw and its countryside until war’s end.

At 20, Carter immigrated to Canada where he became a renowned vascular specialist and participated in Manitoba’s first open-heart surgery in 1959. He was a professor in the Max Rady Faculty of Medicine for over 40 years.

Now in his 90s, Carter regularly speaks about his experience at high schools, universities and the Canadian Museum for Human Rights. He is the author of From Warsaw to Winnipeg.

Arnold Frieman at the grand opening of Advance Electronics in Winnipeg, 1967. // Photo from Advance Electronics

ARNOLD FRIEMAN [BA/60, LLD/18]

Frieman was a teenager studying in Budapest when Germany occupied Hungary in 1944. He rushed home to find his parents, grandfather, and five siblings had been sent to Auschwitz. Only two sisters, Elizabeth and Edith, survived.

He spent months on the run, then in a forced-labour camp before making a miraculous escape. After the war, Frieman received medical treatment in Norway and studied electronics – skills he put to immediate use with the Israeli Air Force.

In 1951, he immigrated to Winnipeg and pursued a university education thanks to a $1,000 gift from a friend, supplemented with money he earned fixing and reselling car radios. This talent eventually inspired Advance Electronics. Initially a two-person operation, it burgeoned into the largest independently owned electronics store in Western Canada.

Frieman was a prolific philanthropist; his generosity made possible the premiere of I Believe, a Holocaust oratorio that encourages awareness, understanding and peace. He received the Order of Manitoba in 2006 and was conferred an honorary degree from the U of M in 2018. Frieman died on Apr. 5, 2019, aged 90.

Susan Garfield (centre) with her parents before the war. // Photo courtesy Belle Jarniewski, Voices of Winnipeg Holocaust Survivors

SUSAN GARFIELD [BRS/86]

Garfield (née Loffler) was eleven years old when Hungary was taken by German forces. Her father was sent to a slave labour camp and disappeared on the Russian front while her mother was taken away by Hungarian fascist collaborators.

With the help of an aunt, Garfield was able to obtain Red Cross papers and flee the Ghetto before Jews were imprisoned there. She was shuffled from town to town, hiding with aunts and uncles, narrowly avoiding capture many times.

Garfield immigrated to Canada through the Canadian Jewish Congress’ War Orphans Project. She had hoped to complete high school and attend university, but her foster parents thought secretarial school a more suitable option. In 1954, she married Harry Garfield [BA/49, MD/55]. After raising a family together, she was able to earn her much desired degree at the U of M at age 53. She is the author of Too Many Goodbyes: The Diaries of Susan Garfield.

John Hirsch at the opening of Three Men on a Horse at Toronto's Royal Alexandra Theatre in 1987. // Reg Innell, Toronto Star Archives

JOHN HIRSCH [BA/52]

When Hirsch left his hometown of Siófok, at 14, to study in Budapest, it was the last time he ever saw his family. Germany invaded Hungary in 1944 and his parents and brother were deported to concentration camps. A maid hid Hirsch, then took him to the Budapest Ghetto.

After the war, Hirsch lived in a UN refugee camp where he and a friend staged a production of The Snow Queen for the children there. This theatrical talent was encouraged by his adoptive family when he arrived in Winnipeg at age 17.

Only a few years after learning English, Hirsch earned his degree in English literature from U of M and formed a children’s theatre company. In 1957, with Tom Hendry, he developed Canada’s first regional theatre: the Manitoba Theatre Centre.

He would go on to serve as head of CBC television drama and artistic director of Stratford Festival. He received an honorary doctorate from the U of M in 1966 and was named to the Order of Canada. In the U.S., he won an Obie Award, among others, for his theatre productions. Hirsch died on August 1, 1989, aged 59.

Walter Saltzberg, centre on stretcher, at a Russian military hospital post-leg surgery. // Photo courtesy Belle Jarniewski, Voices of Winnipeg Holocaust Survivors

WALTER SALTZBERG [BSc(CE)/57]

Saltzberg was eight when he escaped from the Warsaw Ghetto in 1940, never to see his family again. The building he hid in was bombed; Saltzberg was the lone survivor. Buried up to his neck, his leg broken, he was rescued by a friend who carried him into a 40-square-foot hiding space behind a public toilet.

They lived there with three other Jewish men until the end of the war, surviving on snow, rain and rotten onions. His broken leg went untreated for nine months. At war’s end, he received surgery in a Russian military hospital, then reconstruction in Sweden, but was left permanently disabled. 

Saltzberg arrived in Canada at age 16 with a grade two education, a book titled 300 English Words, and no money. Ten years later, he graduated from the U of M and eventually became Director of Bridges and Structures for the Province of Manitoba. He was president of the Association of Professional Engineers and Geoscientists and also served as engineer-in-residence at U of M. He often spoke publicly about his war experience to instill tolerance and was awarded a Sovereign’s Medal for Volunteers. Saltzberg died March 8, 2018, aged 88.

Do you have a story about an alumnus who survived the Holocaust? Let us know in the story comments below.

The year 2018 marks 80 years since the events of November of 1938, Kristallnacht, in which well over 1,000 German and Austrian synagogues were destroyed, along with their Torah scrolls, prayer books, and everything else set aflame without protest by the local population.

In Winnipeg, a ceremony of commemoration was held on Sunday, April 8^th, at the Congregation Shaarey Zedek Synagogue, during which time impassioned remembrances were presented by members of the Winnipeg interfaith community and survivors of the Holocaust.

Belle Jarniewski.

The organizer of the Yom HaShoah memorial is Belle Jarniewski (BEd/93, Cert.Trans/02), herself a child of two survivors of the Holocaust.

“My father was a survivor of six camps,” she says, “and the sole survivor of his entire family. My mother was an Auschwitz survivor and also the Lodz Ghetto.”

Jarniewski is the director of the Freeman Family Foundation Holocaust Education Centre and served as its chair from 2008 to 2018.

Since 2013, she has served on the federally appointed delegation to the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) as a member of the Academic Working Group and the Committee on anti-Semitism and Holocaust Denial. She is also the current president of the board of directors of the Manitoba Multifaith Council.

Growing up in the Winnipeg suburb of River Heights, Jarniewski says she stood out from other children who were second- and third-generation Canadians. Her mother had a strong accent and her father was viewed as so much older than her friends’ parents.

“Back then, no one talked about the Holocaust,” she explains. “It was one of those things that didn’t become part of public discourse until the 1980s.”

In about 2002, Jarniewski was asked to become involved with the transcription of answers to questionnaires given to a series of survivors of the Holocaust who lived in Winnipeg. These had been filled out by hand and required close reading to obtain the data for researchers, but little was done with the data for several years.

One day, a Holocaust Survivor suggested that I turn the information into a book so that the stories of survivors would not be forgotten,” she recalls. “I went back to some of the survivors and was able to get additional information about their experiences, allowing me to document them in detail.”

“I believe that we who live in a free country must do all we can to fight anti-Semitism, racism, and bigotry of all kinds, in order to protect that precious freedom”

The result of this research, her 2010 book Voices of Winnipeg Holocaust Survivors, serves as an important document in the history of 73 local survivors before, during, and after the Shoah.

Because of her awareness of her own family’s experiences and her knowledge of other survivors, Jarniewski has felt compelled to educate students of all ages about the Shoah and other genocides. Among the numerous initiatives she has helped organize and coordinate is an annual symposium for Manitoba high school students at the University of Winnipeg attracting up to 2000 students.

“Today perhaps more than ever, as our world community of first person witnesses to the Shoah grows ever smaller, it is our sacred duty to uphold the memory of those whose voices were murderously stilled,” she explains.

“From the individual Shoah denier to those who seek to revise history in many different ways, there are clear attempts to rewrite the history of our people. We cannot allow that to happen.”

Jarniewski’s deep concern for human rights is not confined to the experiences of those who suffered during the Second World War. She is also one of the original founders of Operation Ezra, an initiative to sponsor and resettle Yazidi refugees, and to focus awareness on this genocide occurring as she notes, “in broad daylight.”

She states passionately: “I believe that we who live in a free country must do all we can to fight anti-Semitism, racism, and bigotry of all kinds, in order to protect that precious freedom. The Shoah – the Holocaust – was an unprecedented tragedy, but not unique. For if we are to use the word unique, that means it could never be repeated. In a world where half a million Syrians have been slaughtered during the past few years, and as the world has done precious little to prevent men, women, and children from being murdered by chemical weapons, we dare not say, ‘Never again.’”

Jarniewski’s passion for tikkun olam (mending the world) led her to pursue postgraduate studies in theology at the University of Winnipeg. Her training helps her put into perspective and answer a perennial question about the Holocaust, namely: “How could God let something like that happen?”

Her answer is more a reflection on the nature of humanity than the nature of God.

“God didn’t have anything to do with it,” she says. “Human beings allowed this horror to happen. God is saying to us: ‘Do something!’ He intends for us to fight oppression, poverty, and inequality wherever it exists in this world.”

“We can’t expect miracles from God,” she adds. “He expects us to do these things. For if God controlled us like puppets, there would be no free will.”