'Jaw-dropping': London students moved by Holocaust survivor's words
Now 96, Elly Gotz shares with students the horrors of Nazi concentration camps
Grade 8 Westmount Public School student Ivan Almemou thought he knew about the Holocaust.
He'd read books on the subject and learned how six million Jews perished at the hands of the Nazis in the Second World War.
But it wasn't until he heard Elly Gotz, now 96, tell his story last week to London students that Almemou came to truly understand the horror of what happened, and give some thought to how it might be prevented from happening again.
"It was jaw-dropping," said Almemou about Gotz's one-hour talk, delivered to some 3,000 Thames Valley District School board students via video conference. "You don't really have words for it."
Gotz was plucked from a Jewish ghetto in Lithuania and thrust into a life of forced labour in the concentration camps of Germany. After the war, he lived in a handful of different countries before settling in Canada where he spends much of his time speaking to people, young people in particular, about what he experienced during the war.
One detail that stuck with Almemou was Gotz's description of hiding with his family in a basement and, in a moment when capture seemed imminent, preparing to commit suicide rather than fall into German hands.
"He was in hiding and his family was contemplating killing themselves with injections," said Almemou, who was emotional when recalling the details of Gotz's story to CBC News.
'Eye-opening'
The talk had a similar impression on Emily Tennant, also a Grade 8 student at Westmount.
"It was really eye-opening," said Tennant. "It sounded horrible, to imagine going through that. It was really scary."
Tennant was struck by the cruelty Gotz endured and the sheer numbers of Jews who perished.
"No amounts of books or reading can really put it into perspective," she said.
Toward the end of his hour-long talk, Gotz moves away from his personal story and onto the issue of hatred. In the years after the war, he felt hate toward Germans and was at times overcome with thoughts of retribution. However he had an epiphany realizing that his hate, if left to fester, would only consume him.
"One of the most important messages I seek to impart is that hate is poison to the hater," he wrote in a piece for his website, paraphrasing a quote often attributed to The Buddha. "As the saying goes, 'To hate is like taking poison and hoping the other person will die.'"
That message stuck with Tennant.
"I've always loved when people say hate has no place in the world, because it doesn't," she said.
'Now I know more about the Holocaust'
Keaton Flick, also in Grade 8, said he won't soon forget Gotz's talk.
"It was crazy the Holocaust was in our world, that people were getting killed just because of their religion," he said. "Hearing from Mr. Gotz it really struck me and now I know more about the Holocaust then I did a week ago."
Gotz's talk is the result of a more than decade-long relationship between the board and Jewish London. Max Eisen and Hedy Bohm are other Jewish Holocaust survivors who've spoken to London students through the collaboration.
Mathew Sereda is the equity learning co-ordinator with the TVDSB.
He said as the years pass and fewer Holocaust survivors remain, the talks from Gotz and other survivors become more valuable.
"This is the third time that I've heard his speech and I take away something new every time," he said.
The talks shifted to a video chat format during the COVID-19 pandemic. Sereda said one upside is that more students can take in Gotz's message.
"Having students be able to connect directly with a Holocaust survivor and his message of peace is important so that we don't repeat the horrors of the past," said Sereda. "Elly's message really does resonate."
