The Holocaust Centre of Toronto

Thursday, November 2nd, 2006

9:00AM
Increasing Awareness About the Holocaust

10:00AM
My Personal Testimony

12:NOON
Never Again, Again! Darfur, the First Genocide of the 21st Century. Can Canada Make a Difference?

1:00PM
Paper Clips (FILM)

1:00PM
Fateless (FILM)

1:30PM
Hana's Suitcase (FILM)

1:30PM
My Personal Testimony

2:00PM
Watermarks (FILM)

4:00PM
Digital Terrorism and Hate 2006 - Holocaust Denial on the Internet

4:00PM
Polish-Jewish Relations in Post-Communist Poland: Old Bigotries, New Attitudes

6:00PM
The Ninth Day [Der Neunte Tag] (FILM)

6:30PM
The Ransom of the Jews: How Romania Sold it's Jews During the Communist Regime

7:00PM
The Void (FILM)

7:00PM
Watermarks (FILM)

7:30PM
The Expulsion: The First Holocaust?

7:30PM
My Persaonal Testimony

7:30PM
My Persaonal Testimony

7:30PM
The Gold Train

7:30PM
My Persaonal Testimony

8:00PM
Sophie Scholl - The Final Days [Sophie Scholl - Die Ietzten Tage] (FILM)

Admission to all programs is free unless otherwise noted.
However, to ensure that the highest caliber of Holocaust programs may be perpetuated in future years, a voluntary donation of at least $3 per person per event would be appreciated. Donation boxes will be available at all events. We thank you for your generosity.

For program changes visit this website frequently or call our hotline at 416-631-5689.

9:00AM
Peel District School Board
H.J.A. Brown Education Centre
5650 Hurontario Street, Mississauga
Contact: 905-890-1010 x2853

INCREASING AWARENESS
ABOUT THE HOLOCAUST

The Peel District School Board will present a panel discussion focused on the role education plays in increasing awareness about the Holocaust.The panel will include Holocaust survivors who will share their experiences, a teacher who has successfully and actively engaged students in learning about the Holocaust and two students who will share how their increased awareness has shaped who they are and how they respond to the issue of genocide. This discussion will be broadcast live to all secondary schools in the Peel District School Board and participating students will be invited to ask questions.

Survivor ELLY GOTZ, born in Kovno, Lithuania, spent his teenage years in concentration camps and eventually in Dachau, where he was liberated in 1945 by U.S. troops. Later he was reunited with his parents. Elly came to Canada in 1964 and is now a volunteer speaker and educator at the UJA Federation Holocaust Centre of Toronto. HELEN SCHWARTZ was born in Bialystok, Poland. After surviving the Bialystok Ghetto, she was later deported to Majdanek, then to the Blishjen slave labour camp, to Auschwitz-Birkenau and finally to the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp. Liberated on April 15, 1945 by the British Army, she came to Canada in 1948.

10:00AM
North York Public Library
5120 Yonge Street, Toronto
Contact: 416-395-5784

MY PERSONAL TESTIMONY

ROMAN ZIEGLER was born in Dombrowa, Poland. He spent 31 months in four slave labour and concentration camps. The youngest of eight children, he is the sole survivor of his family. Liberated on May 8, 1945 by the Soviet Army, he came to Canada in 1948 and married in 1958. He is the author of Voice From the Heart. A question and answer period will follow.

12:00NOON
St. Michael's Hospital
Paul Marshall Lecture Theatre
30 Bond Street, Toronto
(Queen Street Entrance, Queen Wing, Ground Floor)
Contact: 416-864-6060 x2373

NEVER AGAIN, AGAIN! DARFUR, THEFIRST GENOCIDE OF THE 21ST CENTURY. CAN CANADA MAKE A DIFFERENCE?

DR. NORMAN EPSTEIN, founder and Co-Chair of CASTS (Canadians Against Slavery and Torture In Sudan), will describe the history of human rights violations in the Darfur region of Sudan. CASTS is a coalition of 19 organizations and hundreds of activists across the country advocating and lobbying on behalf of Sudanese of African descent who have suffered oppression, slavery and genocide at the hands of the Khartoum regime. CASTS was a facilitator of a larger coalition of diverse groups called Canadians for Action in Darfur and sits on the steering committee of the Save Darfur Coalition in Washington, D.C.

1:00PM
Barbara Frum Library
20 Covington Road, Toronto
Contact: 416-395-5455

PAPER CLIPS (FILM)

In 1998, the students of Whitwell Middle School in rural Whitwell, Tennessee, embarked on a classroom project aimed at teaching about cultural diversity in a small community almost exclusively white and Christian. The school's principal and several teachers created the "Paper Clips" project to help their students grasp the enormity of human suffering during the Holocaust. The idea was to collect six million paper clips - one for each of the six million Jewish victims of the Holocaust. Ultimately, the project generated an international outpouring of support and encouragement that none of the students and teachers - nor the citizens of Whitwell - had ever envisioned. Following the screening of this documentary, SID ROCHWERG, Co-Chair of an event organized by The Yidden on Wheels (YOW) Motorcycle Touring Club, will describe how on May 5, 2006 members of the Jewish Motorcycle Alliance participated in an historic "Paper Clip Ride to Remember" and visited Whitwell Middle School.

1:00PM
Cineplex Entertainment LP
Sheppard Grande Theatre
4861 Yonge Street, Toronto
Contact: 416-590-9397

FATELESS (FILM)

This award-winning movie is based on Nobel Prizewinner Imre Kertesz's novel. Set in 1944, it is a semiautobiographical tale of a 14-year-old Jewish boy from Budapest who finds himself swept up by cataclysmic events beyond his comprehension during and after the Nazi occupation of Hungary. His father is taken by the Nazis and he himself is deported to a series of distant concentration camps where survival becomes a daily goal. When he finally returns home after Liberation, he misses the sense of community experienced in the camps. He feels alienated from both his Christian neighbours who turned a blind eye to his fate, and the Jewish family and friends who avoided deportation and want to put the War behind them. Hungarian and German with subtitles. Free, but pre-registration required. Please contact Sherri by e-mail at srotstein@ujafed.org or call 416-398-6931 x359 to reserve.

Generously co-sponsored by Judy & Eric Breuer, in memory of Hungarian Jews murdered in the Holocaust. With the generous support of ThinkFilms & Thornley Fallis Communications.

1:30PM
York Woods Library
Theatre Lobby
1785 Finch Avenue West, Toronto
Contact: 416-395-0724

HANA'S SUITCASE (FILM)

In March 2000, a suitcase arrived at the Children's Holocaust Education Centre in Tokyo, Japan. On the outside, in white paint, were the words: Hana Brady, May 16, 1931, Waisenkind. Japanese students were full of questions: Who was Hana? What sort of girl was she? What happened to her? A screening of Hana's Suitcase will be followed by a discussion with Holocaust survivor JERRY KAPELUS. Born in Lodz, Poland in 1929, Jerry and his parents and two siblings were driven from their home to the Lodz Ghetto in 1939. The family was transferred to Auschwitz-Birkenau in 1944 and, except for Jerry, were all murdered. He became a slave labourer on a farm run by the SS and in 1945 was on a death march to the Buchenwald concentration camp. He was liberated by the U.S. Army on April 11, 1945 and, along with many of the orphans from Buchenwald, was sent to an orphanage in Paris. Jerry moved to Canada in the early 1950s. Register in person or call 416-395-5980.

1:30PM
Thornhill Community Public Library
7755 Bayview Avenue, Thornhill
Contact: 905-513-7977 x2182

MY PERSONAL TESTIMONY

Child survivor CLAIRE BAUM was born in 1936 in Rotterdam, Holland. She and her younger sister survived in hiding from 1942-1945 with a Dutch Christian family who brought them up as Christians. At the end of World War II, the young sisters were reunited with their parents. Claire credits her survival not only to this family but to the courage and heroism of her parents and the members of the Resistance. A question and answer period will follow.

2:00PM
Hazelton Place Retirement Residence
111 Avenue Road, Toronto
Contact: 416-928-0111

WATERMARKS (FILM)

Watermarks is the story of the champion women swimmers of the legendary Jewish sports club, Hakoah, in Vienna. It was founded in 1909 in response to the notorious Aryan Paragraph, which forbade Austrian sports clubs from accepting Jewish athletes. The Nazis shut down the club in 1938 and the swimmers managed to flee the country before the War. Sixty five years later, director Yaron Zilberman met with the members of the women's swim team in their homes around the world and arranged a reunion in their old swimming pool in Vienna, a journey that evokes memories of youth, struggle and triumph. Some English, Hebrew and German with subtitles.

4:00PM
Centennial College
Centennial College Residence & Conference Centre
940 Progress Avenue, Toronto
(immediately S. of 401, E. off Markham Rd. on W. side of Progress Ave. which turns N. Free parking.)
Contact: 416-289-5000 x2601

DIGITAL TERRORISM AND HATE 2006 - HOLOCAUST DENIAL ON THE INTERNET

MICHAEL ETTEDGUI, educator from the Friends of Simon Wiesenthal Center for Holocaust Studies in Toronto, will draw on the Center's 2006 CD-ROM report, Digital Terrorism and Hate, to highlight the dangerous trend of Holocaust denial currently circulating on the Internet. He will illustrate how the Internet is increasingly being used by terrorists, racists and extremists to train combatants, advance their views, and recruit for their organizations. This interactive program is a must for law enforcement, community activists, concerned parents, students, teachers and the media. Selected works from Centennial College's John and Molly Pollock Holocaust Collection will be on display during this program.

4:00PM
Polish-Jewish Heritage Foundation of Canada
Wolfond Centre for Jewish Campus Life
36 Harbord Street,Toronto
Contact: 416-882-1572

POLISH-JEWISH RELATIONS IN POST-COMMUNIST POLAND: OLD BIGOTRIES, NEW ATTITUDES

ANDREW RAJCHER, FICM, AIMM, MFIA, the son of Jewish Holocaust survivors from Czestochowa and Sosnowiec, Poland, was born and lives in Melbourne, Australia. In 2003 he co-founded "Dialogue," a private Polish-Jewish group in Melbourne.

Mr. Rajcher is an Executive Member of the World Society of Czestochowa Jews and Their Descendants and a promoter of the exhibit "The Jews of Czestochowa." A frequent traveller to Poland, he will address the topic of Polish-Jewish relations. He is currently working with young Poles to establish Poland's first national Catholic-Jewish youth dialogue organization. This lecture is targeted at Jewish and Polish youth in Toronto, to engage them in mutual discussion.

Click here for information about "The Jews of Czestochowa" exhibit.

Generously co-sponsored by Henry & Elaine Melnick, in memory of his brother Josef, who vanished in the Soviet Union during the Holocaust; and by Hillel of Greater Toronto. In cooperation with March of the Living, Polonia for the Future (Polonia Przyszlosci) and the newspaper Gazeta.

6:00PM
Goethe Institute
Kinowelt Hall
168 King Street West, Toronto
Contact: 416-593-5257

THE NINTH DAY (FILM)
[DER NEUNTE TAG]

From the opening scenes set in Dachau, acclaimed German filmmaker Volker Schl�ndorff's new World War II movie does not tell the Holocaust concentration camp story one might expect. In 1942 the priest, Henri Kremer, is released by the Nazis and allowed to return to his family home in Luxembourg - but not for good: he has nine days in which to persuade the intransigent Bishop Philipp to work with the occupying forces. The film explores, in many ways, a philosophically and ethically sophisticated dilemma in which two men - the priest and an idealistic Nazi officer, formerly a Catholic seminary student for the priesthood, do battle with each other and their respective beliefs. For 18 years+.

German with English subtitles. Tickets may be reserved by phone up to 3 weeks in advance and will be held until 20 minutes before the screening. $5 per film or $8 for this film and the 8:00 pm screening of Sophie Scholl. Tickets also at the door. Limited seating for 85 persons, first come first served.

6:30PM
Hillel of Greater Toronto
Hart House (University of Toronto)
7 Hart House Circle, Music Room
Contact: 416-913-2424

THE RANSOM OF THE JEWS: HOW ROMANIA SOLD ITS JEWS DURING THE COMMUNIST REGIME

PROFESSOR RADU IOANID, born in Bucharest, is Director of the International Archival Programs Division at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C. He will briefly highlight the destruction and survival of Romanian Jewry during World War II; discuss how the Romanian Communist Party came to power after the Holocaust; and focus his talk on Jewish emigration from Communist Romania to Israel. A question and answer period will follow the lecture. Introductory remarks and greetings will be delivered before the lecture by Nicanor Teculescu, Consul General of Romania, on behalf of his government.

In 2003-04 Professor Ioanid served as Vice-President of the International Commission for the Study of the Holocaust in Romania, chaired by Elie Wiesel. He is Doctor of History from �cole des Hautes �tudes en Sciences Sociales, Paris, France, focusing on the destruction and survival of Romanian Jewry during World War II. Professor Ioanid is also Doctor of Philosophy from the University of Cluj, Romania, specializing in the fascist ideology in Romania. He is the author of related volumes of The Ransom of the Jews: Story of the Extraordinary Secret Bargain Between Romania and Israel (2005) and The Holocaust in Romania (2000).

Generously co-sponsored by Edith Sereny, in memory of John T. Sereny; Dr. Theodore Shapero; and the University of Toronto Jewish Studies Program.

7:00PM
Goethe Institut
Baycrest Wagman Centre
55 Ameer Avenue, Toronto
Contact: 416-785-2500 x2271

THE VOID (FILM)

PINCHAS GUTTER was born in Lodz, Poland, but does not know the year. He has lived in the U.K., Israel, South Africa and now in Toronto where he is an active volunteer in the Jewish community, a volunteer chaplain and a chazan (cantor). In May 2002 he returned to Poland with his three children who, for the first time, heard his story in the very places where it occurred. Filmmaker and director of Britain's Holocaust Centre, Stephen Smith, traced the journey of this family and grappled with difficult issues, such as the void of history, of memory and emotion, yet, at the same time, telling the story of a man, his family and his memory. A question and answer period will follow the screening with Mr. Gutter.

7:00PM
Hazelton Place Retirement Residence
111 Avenue Road, Toronto
Contact: 416-928-0111

WATERMARKS (FILM)

7:30PM
Beth David B'nai Israel Beth Am
55 Yeomans Road, Toronto
Contact: 416-633-5500

THE EXPULSION: THE FIRST HOLOCAUST?

The expulsion of the Jews from Spain in 1492 came at the end of a century-long pursuit of Jews and continued with the Inquisition for 300 more years. This lecture will deal with how the heavy hand of the Church was often present in preparing the ideological terrain, though not the instrumentalities of the Holocaust. DR. ARNOLD AGES is Distinguished Professor Emeritus of French Language and Literature at the University of Waterloo. He has published five books and 90 scholarly papers on various aspects of French intellectual history, particularly the Age of Enlightenment.

Co-sponsored by Anita Ekstein and the Ekstein family, in loving memory of Frank Ekstein.

7:30PM
Grace Church on the Hill
300 Lonsdale Road, Toronto
Contact: 416-488-7884

MY PERSONAL TESTIMONY

Holocaust survivor MARTIN MAXWELL, born in Vienna in 1924, witnessed the Kristallnacht pogrom in Vienna in 1938. He escaped to England on the Kindertransport and was adopted by an English couple. He later joined the British Army and took part in the D-Day invasion of Normandy on June 6, 1944. When he fought in the battle of Arnhem, Holland, he was wounded and taken prisoner. Liberated in May 1945, he came to Canada in 1952. Martin took part in the 60th Anniversary Celebrations of the Liberation of Holland. A question and answer period will follow.

7:30PM
Indigo Books Music & Caf�
55 Bloor Street West, Toronto
Contact: 416-925-3536

MY PERSONAL TESTIMONY

PETER SILVERMAN was born in 1924 in Jody, Poland. He spent six months in a ghetto and in a slave labour camp. After witnessing the massacre of his town's Jewish population, he managed to escape and spent eight months in hiding. He later joined the Jewish-Russian Partisan Brigade and actively participated in armed resistance. He is the co-author of From Victims to Victors. A question and answer period will follow.

7:30PM
Beth Radom Synagogue
18 Reiner Road, Toronto
Contact: 416-636-3451

THE GOLD TRAIN

In mid-1944 squads of Nazis broke into Jewish houses in Hungary and took valuable paintings, other artwork and gold. On May 9, 1945, a Nazi train left Budapest with 29 box cars en route to Germany. The U.S. army seized the train in Werfen, Austria, 60 miles south of Salzburg. What happened to it? Where did that treasure go? In his lecture, PROFESSOR RONALD W. ZWEIG will briefly discuss the Holocaust in Hungary as context for the story of the Gold Train, then elaborate on the development of the myth about the train. He will discuss the immediate postwar attempts to retrieve the property as well as the recent court case and settlement. Photos and maps will illustrate this lecture. A question and answer period will follow. For more information about this subject, click here.

Dr. Zweig is the Director and Marilyn and Henry Taub Professor of Israel Studies of the Skirball Department of Hebrew and Judaic Studies, New York University. He has been a Visiting Professor at several U.S. universities as well as a visiting fellow at Churchill College, Cambridge, Yad Vashem, Jerusalem, and the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum. He is a member of the Historical Advisory Panel to the National Archives in Washington, D.C., and has published three books: Britain and Palestine During the Second World War; German Reparations and the Jewish World: A History of the Claims Conference; and The Gold Train.

Generously co-sponsored by Arthur Birnbaum, Fred Birnbaum, Michael Birnbaum and Nathan Birnbaum.

7:30PM
Indigo Books Music & Caf�
2300 Yonge Street (at Eglinton), Toronto
Contact: 416-544-0049

MY PERSONAL TESTIMONY

Holocaust survivor MORRIS GRUDA has seen the evils of this world. His recently published memoirs, Tricks of Fate, describe his flight through Nazi-occupied Poland and into the Soviet Union, his struggles for survival and eventually his return to Poland at the end of the war. He will talk about the traumas, the disasters but also about the minor triumphs that allowed him to survive. He immigrated to Canada after the war and became a successful businessman, a noted Yiddish writer and poet. He will take questions after his presentation.

8:00PM
Goethe Institute
Kinowelt Hall
168 King Street West, Toronto
Contact: 416-593-5257

SOPHIE SCHOLL - THE FINAL DAYS (FILM)
[SOPHIE SCHOLL - DIE IETZTEN TAGE]

The true story of Germany's most famous anti-Nazi heroine is brought to life in this 2005 multi-award-winning film. Director Marc Rothemund expertly recreates the last six days of Sophie Scholl's life. As Hitler rules and devastates Europe, a group of young university students known as The White Rose choose passive resistance. Sophie joins as an innocent young woman who matures into a committed and fearless anti-Nazi. She and her brother, Hans, are caught and her interrogation by the Gestapo evolves into an intense psychological duel.

For 18 years+. German with English subtitles (117 min.). Tickets may be reserved up to 3 weeks in advance. $5 per film or $8 for this film and the 6:00 pm screening of The Ninth Day Tickets also at the door. Limited seating for 85 persons, first come first served.