Canada Allocates $800K To Preserve Holocaust Survivor Testimonies

By JTA October 21, 2013

Canada has allocated $800,000 to preserve the testimonies of Holocaust survivors.

The funding from the federal Citizenship and Immigration department will go to four Jewish organizations in Canada to gather video testimony from survivors.

“Canada has been profoundly shaped by approximately 40,000 Holocaust survivors who resettled across our country after World War II,” Jason Kenney, the minister for multiculturalism, said in a recent statement. “As Canadians, it is our responsibility to learn from these brave individuals and ensure that the horrible events of the Holocaust are not forgotten, and ensure that such atrocities never happen again.”

The money will go to the Vancouver Holocaust Education Centre to support the preservation, access and use of Holocaust survivor testimonies in schools; to Montreal’s Holocaust Memorial Centre and Toronto’s Sarah and Chaim Neuberger Holocaust Education Centre, which will partner to digitize existing footage of Holocaust survivors’ testimonies; and to Jewish Federations of Canada-United Israel Appeal of Canada to create a digital archive of survivors’ testimonies gathered during the March of the Living, a program that brings students from around the world to explore the remnants of the Holocaust.

The projects support Canada’s goal as 2013 chair of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance to promote Holocaust remembrance, research and education across the country, the government statement said.

“Federal support will enable these organizations to educate Canadians on what Holocaust survivors went through and to make essential teaching tools more accessible to Holocaust educators,” the statement said.

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