Asper Foundation Human Rights and Holocasut Studies Program - For Grade 9 Students

The Asper Foundation is working towards educating the youth of Canada to preserve the memory of those who suffered under the Nazi regime. The six million Jews, three million Polish Christians and two million others (physically and mentally disabled individuals, Jehovah’s Witnesses, homosexuals, Roma and Sinti (Gypsies), Soviet POWs and dissidents) who were murdered must never be forgotten, lest history repeat itself.

The Holocaust and Human Rights Studies Program was developed for grade 8 and 9 Jewish students and has been expanded to include non-Jewish students who wish to participate. Almost 3,000 Canadian students, from over 30 communities spanning Vancouver to Halifax, have participated since the program’s inception in 1997. The intensive 16 hours of training sessions cover a variety of topics, from the history of the Holocaust to an examination of current human rights issues in the world.

The program’s mission is to promote the education of Canada’s youth in the history of the Holocaust and human rights in order to disseminate knowledge, raise the moral and spiritual questions of these events in human history, and generate change for the benefit of society.

The program culminates in a visit to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C. As students tour America’s national institution for the documentation, study and interpretation of Holocaust history, the issues they have studied come to life and are indelibly imprinted in their minds. In addition, they hear from survivors and from individuals such as Congressman Tom Lantos, himself a Holocaust survivor.

Graduates of the program were presented with a Memorandum for Personal Responsibility which was then signed by each student and Israel Asper. The memorandum certificate is, in essence, an oath to share the lessons of the Holocaust with others and take personal responsibility for the world community. The Asper Foundation was presented with the Human Rights Award by the Nova Scotia Human Rights Commission. The award was presented “in recognition of their (The Asper Foundation) creative means of advancing and protecting human rights and working to address racism in our communities.”