Canada: Toronto Holocaust Museum opens its doors to public, educates with shared stories from survivors

Funded by the federal and provincial governments as well as donors, THM replaces the city’s Holocaust Education and Memorial Centre which was founded in 1985 by local survivors who wanted to share their stories with students.

Comprising four galleries, a 40-seat theatre, a learning lab for school groups (expected to make up 60 to 70 percent of its estimated 80,000 annual visitors), THM has a room of remembrance, with the names of hundreds of Holocaust victims with a connection to Toronto inscribed on its walls.

The four galleries explore Jewish and minority persecution in both Europe and Canada, World War II atrocities and the beginnings of new life in Canada for thousands of refugees.

“What we set out to do from the very beginning was to ensure that this was a place to hear from survivors long after they’re gone,” the museum’s Executive Director Dara Solomon reportedly told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency. “Bringing the Holocaust survivors in to see how we’ve done that, and having them really happy and fulfilled, has been one of the most meaningful experiences of my personal and professional life.”

Holocaust survivors in Toronto have wanted to see such a space become a reality for the last 40 years, said Solomon.

One of the more powerful exhibits in the new museum’s collection is a series of large video screens, populated with the images of more than 70 survivors and inviting visitors to “Explore Our Stories.”

On tapping the screen one can  hear first-hand accounts drawn from almost four hours of recordings. It’s a way to keep history alive even after its witnesses are no more.

95 year old Nate Leipciger, a holocaust survivor of the Nazis’ Sosnoweic ghetto in occupied Poland and several concentration camps, immigrated to Canada in 1948  and has been a force for Holocaust education for decades, and was at a preview of the newly created THM on Thursday.

Images of pre-war Jews engaged in work and play, a reminder of the way things were, were found outside the entrance, and a warning not to take that for granted.

“Our life was like their life is today,” Leipciger said, referring to the many students he encounters as a speaker. “And then suddenly, beyond our control, it all changed.”

Artifacts, images and documents inside the museum tell the story of the Holocaust aimed at making it accessible to modern Torontonians.

While the center tells human stories from a genocide, some materials such as images of mass killings in pits on the outskirts of towns  are stored in drawers that must be pulled out by willing viewers.

The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum (USHMM) has reportedly advised Holocaust educators to use graphic material judiciously to achieve learning objectives and added graphic images and texts can exploit students’ emotional vulnerability instead of encouraging them to think critically in a safe environment.

Along with recorded testimonies, visitors at the new museum can now see artifacts that have never been shared with the public.

Also housed in the museum is a Torah rescued from a burning synagogue in the town of Brand, the night when the Nazis destroyed Jewish homes, businesses and synagogues throughout Germany and Austria in November 1938. The Torah was handed it to young U.S. army chaplain Gunther Plaut, who brought it home in a bazooka case and entrusted the scroll to the future THM before he died in 2012

Ontario Premier Doug Ford reportedly encouraged people both within and outside the Jewish faith to visit the museum to help educate many about the Holocaust.

THM is open Sundays through Thursdays 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. with extended hours (to 8 p.m.) Wednesdays.

Admission for adults is $18 and $12 for seniors, with free admission for those 25 and under, Holocaust survivors, Indigenous peoples, veterans, educators and journalists.

(Reporting by Asha Bajaj)