Waterloo Record, Canada
March 27 2010
`We need to educate ourselves to the signs that lead to harm and violence’
March 27, 2010
By Liz Monteiro, Record staff
KITCHENER ` `Hate is dangerous, prejudice is destructive and it’s
these actions that lead to the genocide of a people, Barbara Pressman
told more than 300 students gathered at Kitchener City Hall Friday.
`Imagine when one group wants to kill one group because of their
colour, religion, or sexual orientation,” said Pressman, long-time
president of the Waterloo Region Holocaust Education Committee.
`That’s what genocide is . . . when one group wants to kill another
group that is different from theirs,” she said.
Pressman reminded students gathered to commemorate the UN
International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination at the
city rotunda that as a society we must remember the past so we can
ensure it’s not repeated.
But history has shown that murder of a people continues, she said,
naming other groups that have faced genocide of their people. They
include the death of one million Armenians in 1914, six million Jews
during the Second World War, the Cambodian people in the 1970s,
Muslims in Bosnia and the mass killings of Rwanda’s Tutsis and Hutu
moderates in 1994.
The day-long event is sponsored by Cross Cultures and the Social
Planning Council of Kitchener-Waterloo/Community Information Centre of
Waterloo Region.
Pressman stressed that as individuals we should not rejoice in the
suffering of a human being even if they were the oppressors.
`I have never heard a (Holocaust) survivor talk about hatred of their
captives because this would be a natural feeling,” she said.
Pressmen told the story of listening to a Holocaust survivor tell her
story in which she lost her entire family in a concentration camp at
the hands of the Nazis.
When she was asked if she hated the Germans, she said: `To hate the
Germans, I would have to hate the children.
“Who can hate a child,” Pressman recounted.
Pressman said that the murder of a group starts with an idea ` that
the other is not as good, that they are evil, or that they are vermin.
`We need to educate ourselves to the signs that lead to harm and
violence,” she said.
Pressman told the students to embrace diversity and that difference is
a gift, not something to be feared or hated.
`Diversity gives a richness of life,” she said.
Simone Morrison, a Grade 12 student at Waterloo Oxford District
Secondary School, said the idea of forgiveness stands out for her
especially when she hears the stories of Holocaust survivors who don’t
hate their oppressors.
`When we listen to their stories we get angry. How can someone have so
much hatred and do this to someone else,” said the 18-year-old
student.
Morrison said it’s important to remember forgiveness and she recalls
the anecdote related to hate that her mother often reminds her of.
`My mom says carrying hate is like carrying a heavy garbage bag of
hate on your back,” she said.
You need to get rid of it for yourself, for your peace of mind, Morrison said.
Aziza Mohamed, who came to Canada from Ethiopia in 2008, said she’s
glad students are encouraged to attend the race relations event.
`It’s important to talk about peace,” said the 15-year-old Eastwood
Collegiate Institute student.
Sara Abshir, who came to Kitchener from Kenya last August, attends
Forest Heights Collegiate Institute, a diverse school where she feels
welcome.
But Abshir said talking about racism must continue. `This event shows
there are a lot of issues that need to be addressed.”
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