Toronto Holocaust Museum aims to keep survivors' memories alive

Toronto's Jewish community is marking the opening of the city's only dedicated Holocaust museum, created to help keep survivor stories alive and educate current and coming generations on the horrors of genocide and antisemitism.

Museum executive director Dara Solomon says not only will a trip to the museum help people learn about the struggles Jewish people went through during and after the Second World War, but the "vibrancy of Jewish life" that came before and eventually after it.

"Despite the tragedy of the Holocaust, Jewish life thrives in this city," said Solomon.

"We encourage visitors to come to the museum and learn this history, do a deep dive into the study of the Holocaust so we can understand how important it is to stand up to hate."

According to Statistics Canada, over half of police-reported hate crimes motivated by religion in 2021 were against Jewish people. The group represents roughly one per cent of Canada's total population.

Holocaust survivor and educator Nate Leipciger says he hopes the museum helps to combat rising hate not only against Jews, but also against the millions of people fleeing their homes and struggling against oppression and persecution, such as Ukrainians fleeing their homeland due to Russia's invasion.

"And it is important to remember because it can happen again, and it's happening today," said Leipciger.

The galleries feature personal accounts from 70 survivors, including Leipciger. He says the museum's opening was a "landmark" in his life, and applauds its use of interactive audio, video and augmented reality technology to help reach the younger generation.

"It's very important for the young people to remember what happened or to learn what happened because they don't have the memory," said Leipciger.

The museum, created by the United Jewish Appeal (UJA) Federation of Greater Toronto, highlights four main galleries: Jewish and minority persecution leading up to Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party's control of Germany, community devastation once millions of Jews were brought under German control after the start of the Second World War, the survivor aftermath once the war ended and the eventual journey tens of thousands of survivors took as they came to Canada, in search of a new beginning. 

Along with the interactive galleries, the museum features original artifacts donated by Canadian survivors, including letters from death camps, prisoner uniforms and family heirlooms — many of which took about four years to curate, says Solomon. 

Visitor Michelle Rose visited the museum Friday in honour of her grandmother, Anita Ekstein, a child survivor of the Holocaust. Ekstein came to Canada in 1948 with her surviving aunt Sala. Her mother was taken to the Belzec Killing Centre while her father was killed by other German authorities. Ekstein later went on to marry and have three children. 

"It is incredibly humbling to see my grandma's artifacts here — to see her fake papers, to see her fake identity, to see her rescuer's papers, to see her diploma here. It is amazing," said Rose.

"We have been learning about the Holocaust through my grandmother since we could talk, and to have a facility here where we could come and you could actually interact with her without her being here is phenomenal."