A powerful program for Holocaust Education Week
On November 14, the Jewish Law Students’ Association (JLSA) hosted the first-ever Holocaust Education Week event at the law school, called “Lessons of the Holocaust.” The event was co-sponsored by the Faculty, the Canadian Society for Yad Vashem, and the Hart House Good Ideas Fund. The afternoon was very well-attended, filling the Moot Court Room, with many additionally tuning in to the live stream, and the program was both moving and pertinent to today’s tumultuous climate.
Holocaust Education Week consists of a series of programs scheduled to coincide with the anniversary of Kristallnacht, which occurred November 9-10, 1938. Kristallnacht, a large pogrom which killed at least 91 Jews and saw every major synagogue in Germany defaced, is considered to be the beginning of the outright violence that characterized the Holocaust. Kristallnacht marked the transition from discrimination to genocide.
The evening began with a land acknowledgement and opening remarks by Dean Iacobucci, followed by a powerful opening speech by JLSA Co-President Samantha Rosenthal (2L). The audience was reminded starkly of the fact that in the Holocaust, one-third of the Jewish population was wiped off the face of the earth, and the Jewish population has not yet rebounded to pre-war levels. Citing rising anti-Semitism as the context for the afternoon’s program, she reminded the audience that the eighty years since Kristallnacht was “the lifespan of a person, enough time for memories to fade,” to make clear the responsibility of the audience to bear witness to the Holocaust and to anti-Jewish sentiments today.
Josh Hacker, of the Canadian Society for Yad Vashem, then introduced the first keynote speaker, Holocaust survivor Hedy Bohm. Hedy was born in modern-day Romania and was deported to Auschwitz with her family in 1944, where her parents perished. It was chilling to hear Hedy describe that “they could not believe that this could be true in the 20th century,” in reference to her family’s incredulity at the rumours of rights violations and mass murder that were creeping slowly to her hometown in the months before their deportation. The majority of the audience cried when they heard her describe the last time she saw her parents at the platform where they disembarked at the notorious death camp, Auschwitz-Birkenau. The auditorium listened, spellbound, as she told how she lived out the rest of the war as a slave labourer in a munitions factory, and that she survived the war—only to find out that her parents had been murdered in Auschwitz.
Hedy has also testified several times against Nazi war criminals, including Auschwitz bookkeeper Oskar Groening, and shared with the audience the renewed trauma of returning to Germany. Her testimony against him, and his trial, are recorded in the documentary “the Accountant of Auschwitz.” Hedy’s overwhelming message for the audience was to “never, ever take it for granted” that we are Canadian citizens and live in a free, democratic, and diverse society. An overwhelming standing ovation followed her touching and sobering story.
JLSA Co-President Lily Chapnik Rosenthal (2L JD/MSW) then introduced the second, and final, keynote speaker, human rights lawyer and former Minister for Justice and Attorney General of Canada, the Honourable Professor Irwin Cotler. Former counsel to several high-profile political prisoners, including Nelson Mandela, Professor Cotler has had a stunning career in academia, litigation, and politics. He spoke in his capacity as the Chair of the Raoul Wallenberg Centre for Human Rights.
Professor Cotler organized his speech, which was itself titled “Lessons from the Holocaust,” into twelve discrete lessons that we, as law students and professionals, must take from the Holocaust and apply to our lives and practice. A highlight from these lessons was his stark reminder, in the context of exploring state-sanctioned hatred, that “the Holocaust did not begin in the gas chambers; it began with words.” He then compared this to the world’s failure to intervene in the Rwandan genocide, boldly calling out the world’s leaders for staying silent in the face of evil. Another highlight was his plea that we should take interest in the plight of political prisoners, and lobby for their release. The overarching message of his speech was that everyone should strive to make the difference of which they are capable.
The Jewish Law Students’ Association is grateful to the Faculty for their support of this event, and hopes to execute and collaborate on similar events in the future.
*Lily Chapnik Rosenthal is Co-President of the JLSA. She helped organize the event.
