DDSB students discuss the importance of human rights and dignity for everyone
“It starts with words, and ends in a horrible place.” Those were the words spoken by Holocaust survivor Max Eisen, as he opened the Human Rights Student Conference at the Education Centre in Whitby.
Approximately 200 Durham District School Board (DDSB) students in Grades 6-8 gathered in the boardroom of the Education Centre on January 25th to hear Eisen’s powerful story.
He detailed the events of his life starting before the Second World War, leading to how and when he and his family were taken to Auschwitz, and ending with his liberation and post-liberation life.
“I was incarcerated for one year by the Nazis, but every second felt like 1,000 years,” recalls Eisen. He was just 15 years old when he was imprisoned by the Nazis.
Eisen says the main takeaway he wants students to learn from his story is that, “There is no freedom without responsibility.” In other words, be accountable for what you see happening around you now, never be a bystander. He adds, “Bad things happen when good people stand by.”
After hearing Eisen’s moving story, students rotated between various human rights-oriented workshops.
The Tour for Humanity Bus provided by the Friends of Simon Wiesenthal Center for Holocaust Studies was parked outside the Education Centre. Students climbed aboard the bus and received a lesson in Canadian history in relation to human rights with The Canadian Experience workshop.
“I hope by connecting the Holocaust with other past injustices in Canada, that students empathize and take action in their own schools and communities,” says Elena Kingsbury, Workshop Facilitator for The Canadian Experience.
Other workshops included: Me to We – Walk for Water, Get Real Movement, That’s Not Fair, and Indigenous Leaders.
Students also tested their creative skills in the Human Rights Sensory Space. Located in the atrium, students drew, wrote, and shared what an ideal world looks like to them.
Charlotte, a Grade 8 student at Maple Ridge PS says she’s learned, “we shouldn’t assume how a whole race of people will act just because a few people aren’t kind. Everyone is their own individual with their own thoughts, and the ability to make positive change.”
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