The Toronto Star

November 3, 2007 Saturday

Pain of Holocaust felt by many groups;
Cultural and religious organizations share grief during Holocaust
Education Week

Nicholas Keung, Toronto Star

"First they came for the Communists, but I was not a Communist so I
did not speak out. Then they came for the Socialists and the Trade
Unionists, but I was neither, so I did not speak out. Then they came
for the Jews, but I was not a Jew so I did not speak out. And when
they came for me, there was no one left to speak out for me." – Pastor
Martin Niemoeller, a church leader who opposed Hitler
Some people take part because it relates to their own sufferings,
others as a form of penitence. The bottom line is, no one wants the
Holocaust to be forgotten and repeated.
That’s why various cultural and religious groups are championing
Holocaust Education Week as an opportunity to share their own painful
experiences of internment, enslavement and persecution – and to speak
up for one another as "one human race."
The 10-day annual commemoration, featuring more than 150 educational
and cultural programs, kicked off Thursday night. Some events are
being hosted by the African, Armenian and Japanese Canadian
communities, who have also known discrimination and racism.
"It’s just a natural fit," said Rosemary Sadlier, president of the
Ontario Black History Society and co-presenter of a Monday session on
racism and anti-Semitism. "Our experiences are very similar in terms
of enslavement and transmigration, all negative treatment a result of
our physical, cultural and racial characteristics."
James Heron, executive director of the Japanese Canadian Cultural
Centre, was thrilled to be approached by the UJA Federal Holocaust
Centre to host Monday’s screening of Chris Tashima’s Visas and Virtue,
which tells of Chiune Sugihara, a Japanese diplomat in Lithuania who
in 1940 ignored orders and issued hand-written visas to Jews fleeing
the Nazis. The film will be followed by a dialogue with Holocaust
survivor Solly Ganor on his encounter with Sugihara.
"Both the Jewish and Japanese communities realized the need not to
forget the past," said Heron, who recalls the generous support Jews
provided to resettled Japanese Canadians after World War II. "We both
would like to translate our tragic experiences (of internment and
discrimination) into lessons for our present and future generations,
to save other communities from the experience."
This year marks the first time Toronto’s Zoryan Institute will take
part. Founded in 1984 to study the Armenian genocide in the Ottoman
Empire, it has branched out to study other crimes against humanity. It
will host two sessions titled "Nazi Germany: The Armenians and the
Jews," with University of Minnesota professor Eric Weitz.
"The Holocaust is the best-known genocide in the world. It offers a
rich ground to study how genocides take place," said the institute’s
George Shirinian, pointing out that the Armenian tragedy and the
Holocaust heralded an era of atrocities where "ethnic cleansing" takes
place among citizens of the same country, whether Rwanda, Cambodia,
former Yugoslavia or Sudan.
Milton Barry, a priest at Grace Church on-the-Hill, will host a talk
by Sarah Niemoeller von Sell, widow of Martin Niemoeller, originator
of the oft-quoted thought at the top of this story.
For more on Holocaust Education Week, visit