Opening Night of Holocaust Education Week  features three remarkable speakers who will explore their various connections to the Holocaust and consider how this family has shaped their identities and inspired their work today. Moderated by prizewinning journalist, author, and Vanity Fair Contributing Editor Nina Munk , the evening explores how descendants - whether of a perpetrator, rescuer or survivor - grapple with their inherited legacy and how they have been compiled to help build a more compassionate and caring world.

The German Nazi concentration and extermination camp Majdanek was operational from October 1941 until 22 July 1944 when it was liberated by Soviet forces. It is only four kilometers from the center of the city of Lublin and was originally known as Konzentrationslager Lublin or KL Lublin. It had various functions including a supply base for the invasion of the Soviet Union, a concentration camp for prisoners of war, a punishment and transit camp for people from the local region and an extermination camp for Jews. It is estimated that during the period of its existence approximately 150,000 were deported to Majdanek including Poles, Jews and prisoners or war of various nationalities. On average it hero 10-15,000 people at any given time with the highest number being 25,000 in May 1943. On 3 November 1943 the Germans shot approximately 18,000 Jewish prisoners hero within Majdanek and neighboring labor camps. In total it is estimated that about 80,000 died at the camp.

This is written as an accompaniment to the podcast on education. As a team we are dedicated to educate about the past so that lessons from history can be used to inform about the world today and create a more tolerant and caring society. We use our links to that time, be they family heritage, contact with survivors of the Holocaust and other genocides, knowledge of the Nazi era and sites of suffering and murder, our professional backgrounds, and our own academic and other levels of research. Armed with these tools we can bring something different to the forum of education, whether it be with adult or child audiences. We are blessed that primarily because of Rainer's status we can gain access to a wider audience through multiple mainstream and lesser known media outlets. We also have the tools or far-reaching social media.

Footsteps will be present at the Holocaust education week in Toronto. Nov 3-10, 2019.The Holocaust and Now, appear to have been “torn from the headlines.” With so much social, cultural and political turmoil occurring globally, we find ourselves discussing the relationship between the Holocaust and what is happening around us today.It is both timely and necessary for HEW to address our current zeitgeist–the rise of global antisemitism, denial, hate crimes, both online and in our own neighbourhoods, a reckoning with difficult aspects of our Canadian past; and conversely, an examination of how the legacy of the Holocaust has inspired positivity, action and change. Through panels, conversations, films, musical performances, theatre and exhibitions–HEW 2019 offers different ways for existing and new audiences to engage with the narratives of the Holocaust.HEW 2019 continues to offer first-person testimony in the classroom and in specially designed programs for students across the GTA. Additionally, our professional development workshop for teachers and high school symposium ensure the next generation is meaningfully learning about the Holocaust through best practices, newly designed Neuberger resources, and engagement with survivor testimony and artefact study. Rainer Hoss will be one of the main speakers during this event.

The Footsteps Team is derived from the hope of building a better future for this and later generations in every part of the world. Our principles are based on the need to share the history and educate students of all ages on the horrors of the Holocaust, not only to remember and respect the victims, but to keep the voices of the silenced alive. Their stories in the hearts and minds of present and future generations are the key to a better future for all mankind.

Hello to all of you,

During the last week, over two separate days, Footsteps members Rainer, Simone and Simon, accompanied by our partner Thea Haimovitz-Kabbalah and other friends, visited the U.K’s National Memorial Arboretum at Arlewas in central England. This is a vast complex covering some 61 hectares in the National Forest. The main memorial commemorates British military personnel who have died in combat since the end of the Second World War. The rest of the site is too big to see in one day. There are memorials to British, Commonwealth and Allied forces from the First World War up to the present day. There are also memorials to fallen police officers, ambulance and fire services, veterinarians, entertainers and many others who died and served during times of conflict. A memorial to the Far East campaign vividly depicts the brutality of the war against Japan, the dreadful conditions of slave labour, torture, suffering and murder, the starvation and the death marches. The Arboretum and all the memorials displayed does not glorify war. It provides a place of quiet, respectful and peaceful remembrance where loved ones can reflect on lost relatives, and visitors can contemplate the inhumanity and occasional necessity of war. All of the memorials – large and small – are impressive, but one in particular moved us all greatly. It is called Shot at Dawn. It commemorates those British and Commonwealth soldiers – often aged only 17 or 18 – who were executed in the First World War for the ‘crime’ of being terrified, mentally or physically unwell, or merely just unable to fight. The main statue is a blindfolded soldier about to be shot. His face vividly depicts his fear. He is surrounded by wooden posts, each of which has the name and personal details of comrades who were also executed in this brutal way. Shockingly, it was not until 2006 – ninety years after the War – that these men were posthumously pardoned. For all those years until then, they were viewed as criminals.

The Shrewsbury Biscuit Podcast Episode 38 Ft Rainer Hoess:

It's been a busy and uplifitng few days for us. Rainer and Simon did a podcast interview in the English town of Shrewsbury; Simone, Rainer and Simon also did a BBC Radio interview (links to be shared when they are received). We joined forces with the talented, enthusiastic and wonderfully dynamic Thea Haimovitz Kabbalah who conducted the livestream interviews and gave us so much in the way of inspiration and ideas. And, to cap it all, Jessica Clark, one of the four original Footsteps team members, has rejoined us after three years of travelling and working overseas. Jess has a great knowledge of the Nazi medical experiments, a passion for history, a strong desire to promote tolerance and has many techological skills, which, in combination with Simone, will improve our options to spread our reach further. Please read her profile in the 'who we are' section of our website. We are very excited that we have turned a corner that will help us, and those who follow Footsteps, to make more of a difference.

Many followers of this page will have read Thomas Harding's 'Hanns andRudolf: The German Jew and the Hunt for the Kommandant of Auschwitz.' Itrelates the story of Lieutenant Hanns Alexander, who was tasked by theBritish War Crimes Investigation Team to hunt for senior Nazis. He and histeam eventually captured Rudolf Höss. Hanns Alexander was a German Jewish refugee who arrived in the UK in the late 1930s and would eventually see military service with the British army. In early 1940 the British introduced a policy of mass internment of newly arrived refugees. This had an impact on the family of Hanns Alexander and provides a somewhat tenuous link between his family and the Höss family. Erich Hirschowitz (by then calling himself Harding) was the brother-in-law of Hanns Alexander. On 19 July 1940 he was arrested at his home in London and the next day he was transferred to an internment camp near the town of Whitchurch in Shropshire, England. A few days ago Rainer was taken by Simon to explore the perimeter of where the tented camp once was. It is somewhat hidden from view, with no markers indicating its existence. Only a few derelict military buildings remain, but it was fascinating to look around this place, knowing that it had a connection to the past of the man who captured Rudolf Höss.

A view weeks ago Ben Lesser, survivor of Auschwitz and Rainer Hoss joint hands in Paris. They gave lectures and presented the translated version in French of Ben's Book: Living a life that matters. 

Another incredible meeting, this time in Paris ....

An open-air bookshop for 3 days with readings, theatrical performances, numerous meetings and a virtual walk in the Paris of 1941...For the third edition of its Book Fair, the Shoah Memorial is hosting three days of activities for writers, researchers, actors and musicians around recent publications that highlight the different forms of memory transmission.Once again, witnesses are central: stories of life or survival, essays and literary works, but also poetry as resistance and overcoming disaster. The new technologies are also put at the service of memory and the duty of transmission, questioned in a play and implemented during a virtual 3D walk, which plunges the spectator into occupied Paris.

This is one of the most heartbreaking of images (from the Auschwitz Memorial Twitter page). A group of Hungarian Jews in Birkenau circa May 1944. The little boy is showing or giving a flower to an older child. Minutes later everyone pictured would die. Two photographs depict more vividly than any words why we must stand against the politics of hate.

Footsteps Team member Simon today spent a fascinating couple of hours in the company of author Natlaie Cumming, whose book The Fiddle tells an incredible story of survival.

One day later than planned, but sometimes it takes a little while longer to find the rights words for what you actually want to say. Especially in this case where feeling transcends words.While entering the lobby of the Figi Theater in Zeist I’m already stunned by they amount of people I see. Later I will hear that it was 500 man and women who had even travelled from as far away as Hungary and Ireland to be there. Then it is time, the music starts playing and with a smile on her face and in her eyes Dr. Edith Eger walks up the stage in The Figi Theater, Zeist. One hand holds her daughter Audrey and the other holds Jacob van Wielink’s hand. After a loud applause filled with respect Dr. Edie takes a sit on the couch standing on the stage. She survived Auschwitz together with her sister Magda. Now she is a highly recommended psychotherapist living in San Diego and author of “ The Choice”. I brought a notebook to make notes for later, but my focus stays on the stage where dr. Edith speaks. Her narrative gives all her psychological learnings a deeper message. She talks about trauma, professional guidance and the importance to express the emotions.“ It is not what comes out that makes us ill. It is what stays in what makes you ill”, she says. Edith herself thinks is a pity she hasn’t got the time to talk more about PTSD. Which she thinks is not the right abbreviation to begin with. Of course her own trauma comes to pass several times. It is her own scar in life which she has accepted even though it has cost her over more than 40 years. She still experiences triggers. “ This morning when I arrived and I walked across those tiny tiles some sidewalks here are made of, I was back in Auschwitz, back in that line”.The band starts playing again, Edith Eva Eger is dancing again……Afterwards a handful of people were allowed to get their book sighed and speak to Dr. Eger. I was one of those people. I also had a very nice chat with her daughter Audrey. Although it was just 10 minutes, it stays with me as more than special to meet a person like Edith. Humbling and life changing.