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June 14, 2002
Leaving the classroom
Local students visit Holocaust museum in Washington.
PAT JOHNSON REPORTER
Josh Eidelshtein has studied the Holocaust in class, just like
all the other students at Vancouver Talmud Torah high school. But
on a recent trip to Washington, D.C., the reality of the genocidal
horror became more real to him as he walked through a room filled
with bunks from a concentration camp.
"It opened my eyes more," he said. "I actually smelled
the wood on the bunks."
Eidelshtein was in Washington last month as part of a trip that
brought the entire grades 9, 10 and 11 of Talmud Torah to the United
States Holocaust Memorial Museum.
The trip was the first in an annual excursion sponsored for Vancouver
students by the Asper Foundation of Winnipeg. It is generally offered
only to Grade 9 classes but, because Vancouver students had not
participated previously, special arrangements were made this year
only to allow older students to participate.
For Esty Yekutieli, an important moment was walking through a real
railway car that had been used to transport prisoners. Knowing how
many people were forced into each car, Yekutieli was appalled at
its relatively small size.
James Freedman has been to Yad Vashem in Israel, but the museum
in Washington provided a different sort of experience, he said.
"Yad Vashem is trying to approach a different group,"
he explained. "Yad Vashem is a memorial. It's there for the
survivors and their children and their children's children."
The Washington museum is particularly geared toward non-Jewish visitors,
who may not have as much background in Holocaust studies as students
in a Jewish school, some students said. Even so, for young people
who learn about the Holocaust in school and whose understanding
of the events may be reinforced by their own families' history,
the museum provided a deeper context.
"It's good to see things firsthand," said Jeremy Boxer.
Among the artifacts the students saw were tools used by the Nazis
to measure head sizes and to methodically categorize based on eye
color. There was a trolley that had been used to transport the dead,
as well as uniforms inmates had worn and the bowls and spoons they
used to eat their meagre rations.
Eleanor Braude was one of the teachers who chaperoned the trip.
Having taken students to countless museums over the years, she was
impressed at the seriousness with which the Talmud Torah students
took the visit. After several hours at the museum, when students
were summoned to return to the bus, some complained they had not
had enough time there.
Braude said she could see the impact the displays had on the young
people.
"They learn about it theoretically and then they have this
visceral experience," she said.
The Washington trip was part of a larger curriculum developed by
the Asper Foundation. Before the trip, students participated in
16 hours of Holocaust studies, following prescribed material created
specifically for the Asper Foundation participants. Following the
trip, all participants are expected to complete 16 hours of community
service with a Jewish agency in the Lower Mainland, engaging in
some project that parallels the human rights awareness issues they
have studied.
The Asper program is a Canada-wide undertaking. Vancouver students
met up with students from other Jewish day schools across Canada
and toured Washington together – about 100 students in all.
The Holocaust museum was not all the students saw on their four-day
trip. They went to all the major attractions, such as the capitol
building, as well as the Vietnam War, Korean War and Lincoln memorials.
An unexpected highlight occurred at the Washington airport, where
some of the students met Muhammad Ali, who happened to be passing
through.
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