Centre for Holocaust Education and Scholarship

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Centre for Holocaust Education and Scholarship

Teaching the history and legacy of the Holocaust, in the Ottawa region.

08/24/2026

When David Moskovic arrived at Auschwitz-Birkenau, he tried twice to follow his mother. An SS guard stopped him and sent him toward his father.

David remained with his father and older brother. His mother and two younger sisters were sent to the gas chambers.

Those few moments separated his family forever.

Listen to David's full testimony and other first-hand accounts here: https://chesatottawa.ca/ottawa-holocaust-survivors-testimonials-full-length/

08/21/2026

The new school year will be here before we know it.

If your school, community organization, or faith community is planning fall programming, now is the time to book a speaker through the CHES Speakers’ Bureau.

CHES speakers include Holocaust survivors and descendants who share personal stories that help students understand the Holocaust through lived experience and family memory.

These presentations create opportunities for meaningful learning, thoughtful questions, and conversations about the consequences of antisemitism, prejudice, and indifference.

Bookings are available for Ottawa-area programs taking place from September through December. We encourage you to submit your request early before the fall calendar fills up.

Request a CHES speaker through our form here: https://chesatottawa.ca/speaker-bureau/

08/19/2026

In January 1945, David Moskovic was forced to leave Buna as Soviet forces approached.

After marching for days without food, he was loaded onto an overcrowded open train. He remained there for several days, exposed to the winter cold as prisoners around him died.

David pulled a body over himself for protection from the snow. He kept his mouth open to catch snowflakes, trying to get enough moisture onto his dried lips.

When the train reached Buchenwald, he was so weak that he could no longer walk. He crawled from the train into the snow.

Find David’s full testimony and more first-hand accounts here: https://chesatottawa.ca/ottawa-holocaust-survivors-testimonials-full-length/

08/17/2026

What happens in the time between knowing and acting?

In August 1942, Gerhart Riegner, the World Jewish Congress representative in Geneva, received information from a German industrialist about a N**i plan to systematically murder Europe’s Jews.

On August 8, Riegner sent the warning to British and American diplomats, asking them to relay it to Jewish leaders in London and New York.

The U.S. State Department initially blocked the message from reaching Rabbi Stephen Wise. When Wise eventually received it through British channels, he agreed to delay making it public while officials sought confirmation.

For nearly three months, the warning remained out of public view.

On November 24, after the information was corroborated, Wise held a press conference. In December, the Allied governments publicly condemned the systematic murder of Europe’s Jews.

The Riegner Telegram was not the first report of mass killing to reach the Allies. But it helped bring broader public attention to what was happening.

Its history leaves us with a difficult question: What does it mean when a warning reaches those positioned to act, and what is lost in the gap between knowing and responding?

Find resources for deeper learning and classroom reflection here: https://chesatottawa.ca/for-educators/

08/14/2026

What can an ordinary, personal record reveal about history?

Anne Frank, her family, the Van Pels family, and Fritz Pfeffer had spent 761 days hiding in the Secret Annex.

On the morning of August 4, 1944, German police led by SS-Hauptscharführer Karl Josef Silberbauer raided the hiding place.

All eight people were arrested, along with helpers Victor Kugler and Johannes Kleiman.

Anne’s last diary entry was dated August 1, only three days earlier.

When the police emptied Otto Frank’s briefcase to collect valuables, Anne’s papers fell to the floor. Helpers Miep Gies and Bep Voskuijl later recovered them.

What began as one girl’s personal account of daily life, fear, conflict, and hope became one of the most widely read first-person records of the Holocaust.

Anne could not have known how many people would one day read her words.

Her diary reminds us that history is also preserved through individual voices and ordinary moments recorded as they were lived.

𝐴𝑛𝑛𝑒 𝐹𝑟𝑎𝑛𝑘: 𝑇ℎ𝑒 𝐷𝑖𝑎𝑟𝑦 𝑜𝑓 𝑎 𝑌𝑜𝑢𝑛𝑔 𝐺𝑖𝑟𝑙 is included on CHES’s recommended reading list. Explore this title and more educational resources here: https://chesatottawa.ca/for-educators/

08/12/2026

What does resistance look like when escape means 𝑎𝑙𝑚𝑜𝑠𝑡 𝑐𝑒𝑟𝑡𝑎𝑖𝑛 𝑑𝑒𝑎𝑡ℎ, but staying means 𝐜𝐞𝐫𝐭𝐚𝐢𝐧 𝐝𝐞𝐚𝐭𝐡?

Treblinka II was built as a killing centre. Nearly everyone deported there was murdered shortly after arrival.

Only a small number of Jewish prisoners were temporarily kept alive and forced to help operate the camp. By early 1943, they understood that they, too, would eventually be killed.

They began organizing an underground resistance.

On August 2, 1943, prisoners entered the camp armoury using a copied key, took weapons, set buildings ablaze, and fought toward the fences and gate.

Several hundred escaped, though many were later captured and murdered. Only a small number survived the war.

The uprising severely disrupted operations and accelerated the dismantling of Treblinka.

𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐩𝐫𝐢𝐬𝐨𝐧𝐞𝐫𝐬 𝐤𝐧𝐞𝐰 𝐡𝐨𝐰 𝐮𝐧𝐥𝐢𝐤𝐞𝐥𝐲 𝐞𝐬𝐜𝐚𝐩𝐞 𝐰𝐚𝐬. 𝐓𝐡𝐞𝐲 𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐢𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐝 𝐚𝐧𝐲𝐰𝐚𝐲.

Their actions remind us that resistance can take many forms, even in circumstances designed to make it impossible.

08/10/2026

At Buna, a forced labour camp within the Auschwitz complex, David Moskovic learned that survival depended on staying together.

A small group of boys protected one another and shared what they could. When another prisoner took David’s father’s bread, David confronted him. The next day, it was returned.

Hear David’s full testimony and other first-hand accounts at https://chesatottawa.ca/ottawa-holocaust-survivors-testimonials-full-length/

08/05/2026

August marks several significant moments in Holocaust history, including acts of resistance, warnings that went unheeded, arrests, and mass deportations.

Remembering these events helps us understand not only what happened, but how persecution escalated and how individuals responded in the face of unimaginable circumstances.

Swipe through for a look at this month in Holocaust history.

08/03/2026

𝗞𝗼𝗻̌𝘂𝘀̌, 𝗖𝘇𝗲𝗰𝗵𝗼𝘀𝗹𝗼𝘃𝗮𝗸𝗶𝗮, 𝟭𝟵𝟮𝟵. David Moskovic was born in a small mountain farming village where about 10% of the 250 families were Jewish.

He grew up in a close-knit community shaped by faith, family, and tradition.

After Hungary annexed the region, life degraded quickly. Jewish children faced harassment, young men were taken for forced labor, and food was confiscated.

Eventually, a town crier ordered every Jewish resident to gather at the synagogue with only what they could carry. David’s family was held in a brickyard near Uzhhorod before being forced onto an overcrowded train.

After days of travel, they arrived at 𝗔𝘂𝘀𝗰𝗵𝘄𝗶𝘁𝘇-𝗕𝗶𝗿𝗸𝗲𝗻𝗮𝘂.

David remembered seeing piles of shoes and a large smokestack. Families were immediately split; David tried to follow his mother, but an SS guard forced him toward his father. His mother and two younger sisters were sent directly to the gas chambers.

David, his father, and his older brother were sent to 𝗕𝘂𝗻𝗮, a forced labor camp within Auschwitz, where David carried bricks and cement. To survive, a group of boys protected one another and shared what they had. David also protected his father, bringing him extra food whenever possible.

In January 𝟭𝟵𝟰𝟱, prisoners were forced on a death march ahead of advancing Soviet forces. Separated from his father and brother, David never saw them again.

He was transported in an open train car to 𝗕𝘂𝗰𝗵𝗲𝗻𝘄𝗮𝗹𝗱, doing whatever he could to stay alive until American soldiers liberated the camp on 𝗔𝗽𝗿𝗶𝗹 𝟭𝟭, 𝟭𝟵𝟰𝟱.

David returned to his village, where only a handful of young people had survived, and was reunited with his older sister. In 𝟭𝟵𝟱𝟬, he immigrated to Canada, settling in Ottawa. He built a successful business, married, and had three children and eight grandchildren.

For decades, he kept quiet about the camps, focusing on building the life denied to so many in his family.

David Moskovic’s story is preserved in CHES’s survivor testimony archive. Watch the full interview here: https://chesatottawa.ca/ottawa-holocaust-survivors-testimonials-full-length/

08/02/2026

On August 2, we honour the memory of the Roma and Sinti people persecuted and murdered by N**i Germany and its collaborators.

On the night of August 2 to 3, 1944, the N**is liquidated the so-called “Gypsy Family Camp” at Auschwitz-Birkenau.

Approximately 4,300 Roma and Sinti children, women, and men, the last prisoners remaining in that section of the camp, were murdered in the gas chambers.

This was part of a much broader campaign of persecution and genocide. In Romani, this genocide is known by terms including the 𝐏𝐨𝐫𝐚𝐣𝐦𝐨𝐬, meaning “the Devouring,” and the 𝐒𝐚𝐦𝐮𝐝𝐚𝐫𝐢𝐩𝐞𝐧, meaning “the Mass Killing.”

Across N**i-occupied Europe, Roma and Sinti people were stripped of their rights, forcibly displaced, imprisoned, subjected to forced labour and medical experiments, and murdered.

Their experiences were overlooked for decades after the Holocaust. Many survivors received little recognition or compensation, and the genocide remained largely absent from public remembrance.

Remembering means ensuring their stories are seen, heard, and carried forward.

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http://chesatottawa.ca/

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