Carleton University\u2019s Centre for Holocaust Education and Scholarship (CHES), which was established last November, is set to begin recording the stories of local Holocaust survivors for a new and innovative teaching tool.<\/p>\n
\u201cSince the 1990s, survivors have been invited to do presentations in schools and their stories have become an integral part of teaching Holocaust history,\u201d said Mina Cohn, director of CHES.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf we can create something short, that teachers can use in the classroom\u2026 they will be able to hear the voices of the actual survivors telling their own stories, even after they are gone.\u201d<\/p>\n
Cohn said the idea for the project evolved over a period of years, as it became apparent that there would soon be nobody left with first-hand knowledge of what had happened during the Shoah.<\/p>\n
\u201cAt first, we decided to train the \u2018second generation\u2019 to take over, but then we realized that most of them did not know the stories,\u201d she said. \u201cWe had a representative from Yad Vashem in Jerusalem meet with our second generation group so that we could learn from them what is being done.\u201d<\/p>\n
CHES was established with the plan to record the stories of those Ottawa survivors who are still alive, in particular for use in schools and universities. Carleton\u2019s Zelikovitz Centre for Jewish Studies, which houses CHES, is collaborating in this project, which will allow future generations of students, researchers, teachers and others to hear and see the people who experienced and witnessed the horrors of the Holocaust.<\/p>\n