Holocaust Education Symposium

Calgary Jewish Federation's Holocaust Education Symposium is one of our flagship Holocaust Education initiatives.  It generally takes place during the 1st or 2nd week of May over the course of 3 days and is for students in grades 11 & 12.  Symposium touches the lives of over 3,000 students and teachers per year. 
 

There is no cost associated with the program although we do encourage attendees to complete a short survey to help us make our program better and to insure that this program is of value to the community. 
 

For those Gr. 11 & 12 teachers who wish their first-semester students to have access to Holocaust Education, arrangements can be made to bring a Survivor or 2nd Voices presenter to your school in the Fall.  Contact our Human Rights and Holocaust Education department.

General Outline of a typical day at Symposium 

9:00 am: Buses pick up students 
9:30 am:  Greetings from Mount Royal University
9:40 am: Guest Historian – Overview of the Holocaust
10:00 am: Screening of Holocaust Education film 
10:40 am: Break 
10:50 am:  Holocaust Survivor Testimony followed by Q & A
12:15 pm:  Return to Buses

Note:  Federation offers Holocaust Education Symposium to schools free of charge.

Click here to view a copy of a recent Holocaust Education Symposium program​.

To request an invitation for your school to attend the Holocaust Education Symposium or to learn about other Holocaust & Human Rights Education resources, please contact our Human Rights and Holocaust Education department. 

“When you listen to a witness, you become a witness.”

 Elie Wiesel

For over 35 years, local Holocaust Survivors and 2nd Generation Voices have shared their stories with tens of thousands of high school students at Calgary Jewish Federation’s annual Holocaust Education Symposium in cooperation with Mount Royal University. Despite the difficulty in sharing their painful memories, brave Survivors have been recounting their unspeakable and complicated experiences while consistently leaving students with a message of hope for the future. Started in the mid-80’s as a response to Holocaust denial spread by an Alberta teacher, these stories are gifts that help us spread the concepts of acceptance, understanding and peace and stand as memorials to those who were silenced by the Holocaust.