After touring concentration camps, Regina teachers bring new history program back to classrooms

High school teacher MilosMenharthas studied the Holocaust for some time, but when he enteredthe remnants of a Nazi concentration campwhere Jews were systemically slaughtered during the Second World War, the impact was still strong.

Menhart was one of four teachers from a Regina Catholic school who made a trip to Germany in July, where they toured four concentration camps. They are environments where visitors need to empathize with what it was like to be held in such a place.

Some Canadian youth who were also visiting the siteswere brought to tears and some of them became numb to what they were learning, Menhart said.

"Some were somewhat disappointed in themselves that they didn't feel more."

Another site Menhartvisited wasthe House of the Wannsee Conference, where the Nazis decided to eradicate the Jewish population a move that later came to be called the Final Solution.

It is estimated more than 11 million people were murdered during the Holocaust, roughly six million of whom were Jews.

"It was very powerful to be in that room, in that building where it was just business-like to deal with people's lives like that,"Menhartsaid.

The tour is an experiencethe teachers will be bringing back to their classrooms, as part of a new history program by the Regina Catholic School Division, Menhart said.

He described the program as being based on being a global citizen, "being a witness to history," and ensuring the Holocaust doesn't "become a footnote in history."

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