Centre for Holocaust Education and Scholarship

Directions Website

Centre for Holocaust Education and Scholarship Teaching the history and legacy of the Holocaust, in the Ottawa region.

What happens when antisemitism reaches something as ordinary as kindergarten?Dr. Agnes Klein was removed from her Montes...
10/16/2026

What happens when antisemitism reaches something as ordinary as kindergarten?

Dr. Agnes Klein was removed from her Montessori kindergarten in Brașov because she was Jewish. Her mother then brought the Jewish children together and taught them at home.

Agnes later recalled that after completing Grade 1, she did not return to school until Grade 4.

Her testimony records how antisemitic discrimination affected an ordinary part of childhood: going to school.

Hear Dr. Klein’s full testimony: https://chesatottawa.ca/aiovg_videos/ottawa-holocaust-survivors-testimonial-2016-agnes-klein-full/

On October 14, 1943, Jewish prisoners at the Sobibor killing centre carried out an organized uprising.Prisoners had form...
10/14/2026

On October 14, 1943, Jewish prisoners at the Sobibor killing centre carried out an organized uprising.

Prisoners had formed a resistance group inside the camp. On the day of the revolt, they killed 11 German personnel and attempted to escape through the camp's fences and surrounding minefield.

About 300 prisoners escaped. Many were recaptured and murdered. Approximately 50 survived the war.

The uprising took place inside a killing centre built as part of Operation Reinhard. Studying how the uprising was organized gives students a specific example of Jewish resistance within a killing centre designed to control and murder its prisoners.

Looking for lesson plans and resources that help place Jewish resistance within the wider history of the Holocaust? Visit https://chesatottawa.ca/for-educators/

How do you help students connect what they see at the National Holocaust Monument to the history behind it?CHES's biling...
10/13/2026

How do you help students connect what they see at the National Holocaust Monument to the history behind it?

CHES's bilingual iWalk adds historical context and recorded testimony from Holocaust survivors who settled in Canada. It can be used during a visit to the Monument or accessed virtually from the classroom.

Educators can also use the accompanying materials before and after a visit to support further learning.

Access the iWalk and educator materials: https://chesatottawa.ca/iwalk-app-national-holocaust-monument/

10/11/2026

In Brașov, Dr. Agnes Klein attended a Montessori kindergarten until her mother was told to remove her because she was Jewish.

Her mother then brought the Jewish children together and taught them at home. Agnes recalls that after completing Grade 1, she did not return to school until Grade 4.

Her testimony shows how anti-Jewish discrimination reached into an ordinary part of childhood: going to school.

Hear Dr. Klein’s full testimony: https://chesatottawa.ca/aiovg_videos/ottawa-holocaust-survivors-testimonial-2016-agnes-klein-full/

October 1943 saw both rescue and resistance as the Holocaust continued across Europe.Thousands of Danish Jews escaped to...
10/05/2026

October 1943 saw both rescue and resistance as the Holocaust continued across Europe.

Thousands of Danish Jews escaped to Sweden after plans for their arrest became known. That same month, Heinrich Himmler spoke explicitly to senior N**i officials about the mass murder of Europe’s Jews, while prisoners at Sobibor organized an uprising and mass escape.

One year later, members of the Sonderkommando at Auschwitz-Birkenau revolted and set fire to Crematorium IV.

Swipe through to see how these events unfolded across the same month.

Brașov, Romania, 1937. Dr. Agnes Klein was born into a Jewish family.As anti-Jewish discrimination intensified, it enter...
10/03/2026

Brașov, Romania, 1937. Dr. Agnes Klein was born into a Jewish family.

As anti-Jewish discrimination intensified, it entered ordinary parts of her childhood. Agnes was removed from her Montessori kindergarten because she was Jewish. Her mother then brought the Jewish children together and ran a kindergarten at home.

Her testimony also records her father going into hiding, the family's search for safety during the war, and their departure from Romania after 1945.

In 2016, Dr. Klein recorded her testimony with CHES as part of the Ottawa Holocaust Survivors' Testimonial Project.

Swipe through for a brief chronology of her life. Hear Dr. Klein's full testimony: https://chesatottawa.ca/aiovg_videos/ottawa-holocaust-survivors-testimonial-2016-agnes-klein-full/

On October 8, CHES's annual Teachers' Workshop will look at how children's personal stories can be used to teach Holocau...
10/02/2026

On October 8, CHES's annual Teachers' Workshop will look at how children's personal stories can be used to teach Holocaust history in the Grade 10 classroom.

Lisa Biton of Yad Vashem will lead Teaching the Holocaust Through the Eyes of Children: Practical Resources for Grade 10 and Beyond, sharing classroom-ready strategies and lesson plans connected to Ontario's Grade 10 curriculum. Resources will include material on the MS St. Louis and the Jewish War Orphans Project.

📅 Thursday, October 8, 2026
🕓 4:00 p.m.

Register for the workshop: https://www.zeffy.com/en-CA/ticketing/teaching-the-holocaust-through-the-eyes-of-children-practical-resources-for-grades--10

Holocaust history doesn’t end with the generation that lived through it.Through Their Eyes brings descendants of Holocau...
09/29/2026

Holocaust history doesn’t end with the generation that lived through it.

Through Their Eyes brings descendants of Holocaust survivors into classrooms to share their family histories and speak about how those experiences have been carried forward. For students, it adds an intergenerational perspective to the history they’re already studying and gives them another way to connect individual lives with the broader events of the Holocaust.

If you’re planning Holocaust education this school year, you can request a Through Their Eyes speaker for your class at https://chesatottawa.ca/through-their-eyes.

Address

Ottawa, ON
K1Z0A4

Website

Alerts

Be the first to know and let us send you an email when Centre for Holocaust Education and Scholarship posts news and promotions. Your email address will not be used for any other purpose, and you can unsubscribe at any time.

Shortcuts

Sponsored

Share

Category