The mission of the Holocaust and Human Rights: Remembrance and Education department of Calgary Jewish Federation is to promote acceptance, social justice, and human rights through education and remembrance of the Holocaust. As the primary leader in Holocaust education for Southern Alberta, our department engages thousands of students annually. In addition, we present, partner, and sponsor numerous public cultural and commemorative events to memorialize those who perished and honour those who survived.
For more information on any of the programs and services offered, contact department Co-Chairs Marnie Bondar and Dahlia Libin.
Our community commemoration for The Night of Broken Glass
The Enemy from Within: The Impact of Internalized Racism
Education Programs and Services
Calgary Jewish Federation’s Holocaust and Human Rights: Remembrance and Education department offers a variety of education programs to schools in Calgary and surrounding area. With options for both in-person and virtual learning, we provide dynamic opportunities to increase student knowledge about Holocaust history and antisemitism today. We also empower teachers to identify and respond to antisemitism in schools. Many of the programs listed in this brochure can be modified to fit unique classroom needs. All programs, with the exception of those offered virtually from Yad Vashem, are free.
Here to Tell: Faces of Holocaust Survivors
(Classroom Presentation)
Holocaust Series for Teens: Tour of Yad Vashem for Teens
Yad Vashem, the World Holocaust Remembrance Centre, is the ultimate source for Holocaust education. Explore the history of the Holocaust with one of Yad Vashem’s expert guides on a one-of-a-kind virtual tour of the Holocaust History Museum. Suitable for teens ages 15 to 18 years.
Holocaust Series for Teens: Last Letters
Virtual, interactive program to review the final letters sent from Holocaust victims to their loved ones. Each archival letter and postcard reveals the inner world and fate of Jews in the Holocaust. For many recipients, these were the last greetings from the home and people they left behind. Suitable for teens ages 15 to 18 years.
Holocaust Series for Teens: How was it Humanly Possible?
Human choice and human-made circumstances led to the murder of six million Jews and millions of others. This virtual interactive program looks at both the historical discipline and moral concern regarding the perpetrators and bystanders of the Holocaust. Suitable for ages 15 to 18 years.
The Auschwitz Album
Through photographs, actual letters from prisoners, to survivor testimony, this virtual presentation gives participants an important piece of visual documentation of the workings at the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration and extermination camp. Participants will have the unique opportunity to explore Auschwitz, depicting the arrival and selection, and what it really meant to be a prisoner inside the camp. This program also includes a pre-recorded tour of Auschwitz Block 27 (the Jewish block).
Calgary Jewish Federation has access to a number of full and partial video testimony from survivors in and connected to our community. In 2022, we also produced a series of videos: Through Their Eyes in partnership with the government of Alberta, featuring testimony from survivors and their descendants. Access the database and submit video requests.
Study of the Holocaust underlines that genocide is a process which can be challenged or perhaps stopped rather than a spontaneous or inevitable event. The Holocaust demonstrated how a nation can utilize its bureaucratic structures, processes, and technical expertise while enlisting multiple segments of society to implement policies over time ranging from exclusion and discrimination to genocide. For those interested in award-winning, easy-to-follow curriculum and lesson plans on the Holocaust, we invite you to visit Echos and Reflections.