Teacher’s summer trip to Israel helping inform high school course
Study of the Holocaust and other cases of genocide aims to help develop awareness
At Oskar Schindler’s gravesite, at a cemetery on Mount Zion in Jerusalem, Regina teacher Michelle Phair heard the story of Schindler’s youngest survivor.
Eva Lavi, now 81, addressed Phair and about 40 other international educators during a summer seminar in Israel.
Lavi survived the Holocaust thanks to Schindler, a factory owner who conspired against the Nazis to save the lives of 1,200 Jewish people during the Second World War.
Phair heard about Lavi’s mother, a “little petite woman” who would talk back to SS officers: “’You don’t need to shout, I’m here, I can hear you, I’m not afraid of you.’”
This was the second consecutive summer that Phair, an ethics teacher at Archbishop M.C. O’neill Catholic High School in Regina took a trip to learn about the Holocaust.
Last year, she travelled to Germany and Poland with three Regina Catholic School Division colleagues and a group of Ontario students, and attended a four-day course at the Friends of Simon Wiesenthal Center for Holocaust Studies in Toronto.
In July, she spent 19 days at Yad Vashem, the World Holocaust Remembrance Centre in Jerusalem.
Both experiences have taught her the importance of being a witness.
“I think that the Holocaust is something that’s a pretty dark subject, but we keep the memory of what happened and are witness to that so that it won’t happen again,” said Phair.
This is one reason for Phair’s ongoing work in the Regina Catholic School Division developing a new course to be offered in spring 2019.
The Holocaust and Genocide Studies is a 20-level course that will include 30 hours of online work, in-class sessions on weekends, a 15-day trip to Germany and Poland in July, then a final project and symposium.
“The goal of the course, I think, is to help students connect with empathy to the human face of history,” said Phair, who also developed the curriculum for the course alongside fellow O’neill High School teacher Ada Paez and superintendent Kelley Ehman.
“When we go to Germany and Poland, that idea of ‘I am a witness’ is to help students develop an action plan of hope to be lived in daily life, to make a positive impact on the world,” added Phair.
“So through this course, students will be able to face the events of the Holocaust and courageously stand up as witnesses who will never forget, and who will continue to pass along the memory of the Holocaust to the world, so that the world should not forget.”
In Israel, Phair learned about the history of Judaism and antisemitism. She learned about Nazi ideology and racism, and Jewish response to the Holocaust through art, literature and music. She learned about the role of other religions in anti- Semitism.
The new high school course will begin by exploring the Declaration of Human Rights. Students will learn about the 10 stages of genocide. They ’ll learn about other genocides — including Canada’s residential schools — all focusing on the human face of the atrocities.
“That’s something that we all share, whether we’re looking at Holodomor or looking at (the) Holocaust or the Armenian genocide or other things that are happening even today in our world,” said Phair. “Students will be able to make connections with situations that are happening in contemporary society that can lead towards genocide.”
While genocide can be a hopeless topic, Phair emphasized the importance of leaving students with hope — as is maintained by many of the Holocaust survivors she has met.
“The whole idea of safely in and safely out, that you’re not left in that dark space,” said Phair.
“I think we see through the Holocaust, we see the extent of evil and how evil people can be to each other, but it’s important to know that as far as when we’re looking at our own identity and examining who we are, to know that we all have that goodness in us.”
Students in the course will travel to Berlin, Warsaw and Krakow. The credit course’s cost is approximately $5,000, covering most expenses as well as travel, accommodation, teacher time and tour guides.