Eva Kuper

By Joel Goldenberg
The Suburban

Educating Quebec students about the Holocaust is even more essential in the context of surging global antisemitism, said Holocaust survivor Eva Kuper, member of a recent panel on Holocaust education.

The panel discussion at the Gelber Centre was moderated and organized by D’Arcy McGee MNA Elisabeth Prass, along with the Jewish Public Library, and featured Kuper, also a Montreal Holocaust Museum associate; Foundation for Genocide Education communications director Marcy Bruck and Montreal Holocaust Museum assistant executive director Audrey Licop. Also on hand were English Montreal School Board chairman Joe Ortona and commissioner Julien Feldman.

Kuper said Holocaust education is “that much more urgent” now.

“It’s not only to explain and teach about the Holocaust, but it’s very urgent to look at the contemporary issues that we’re dealing with today and to, maybe not compare them, but juxtapose them against what people saw before the Holocaust happened.”

Kuper added that there is a perception, “especially amongst the people who have not had the background and just arrived at the museum, that there was no Holocaust on Monday, but on Tuesday there was a Holocaust.

“That’s not how it happened. There were many, many signs and many of the signs we see today are precursors of what people saw in the 1930s, and that is a very, very dangerous place to be. We have to adapt our teaching, connect the historical context of that time to the context of today in the way we present the material and in the way we tell our story. It emphasizes the lessons of the Holocaust in terms of the hatred and xenophobia, racism — all these things are active today as they were active then.”

Bruck, on the subject of adjusting Holocaust education for today, said that universalizing the Holocaust is important.

“The important thing is to emphasize the Jewish aspect of the Holocaust. Of course, students, when they give us a reaction afterwards, say ‘it’s terrible what happened to the Jews,’ but do they understand that this was specifically targeted to Jews — yes, other groups were targeted as well — but the Final Solution was the Final Solution of the Jews. This is something the students really have to understand, and to [also] be able to understand more what’s happening in contemporary society.” n