WORKSHOPS
Our workshops are:
- appropriate for students (grades 5 to 12 as indicated), educators and adults of all ages
- presented by VHEC educators, either in person or online
- subject to availability of our education staff
- scheduled for 60 or 90 minutes, depending on the age of participants and workshops selected
Available Workshops
(Click each item for workshop details)
Age of Influence: Youth & Nazi Propaganda
Grades 8+
Based on the VHEC’s acclaimed exhibition Age of Influence: Youth & Nazi Propaganda, this workshop explores the Nazi regime’s use of propaganda to shape the attitudes and actions of German youth in the 1930s and 1940s. Using primary sources from the VHEC’s collection, participants analyze the tactics used by the Nazis to indoctrinate young Germans and foster unquestioning devotion to the volksgemeinschaft—the Nazi ideal of a “racially pure” national community. Video testimonies from local survivors give voice to the experience of Jewish children who were subjected to Nazi propaganda during the Holocaust. The session emphasizes critical thinking and media literacy skills, encouraging participants to reflect on the relationship between propaganda, censorship, and their own media consumption habits.
Centuries of Hate: Decoding Antisemitic Artefacts in the VHEC Collection
Grades 8+
This workshop educates students about the origins of age-old antisemitic myths and stereotypes. We explore how these myths are reflected in artefacts from the VHEC’s collection and how they can be decoded and debunked. By tracing the evolution and persistence of these myths, students learn to recognize the shape-shifting nature of antisemitism and the various forms these libels take in contemporary society.
Ordinary People: Conformity, Complicity & the Making of Genocide
Grades 6+
Description: Challenging the assumption that a small group of perpetrators was responsible for the Holocaust, this workshop uses primary sources from the VHEC collection to demonstrate the ways in which ordinary people became implicated in processes of exclusion, persecution and violence. Students learn how social conformity, professional compliance and unquestioning respect for authority created the conditions in which moral boundaries were gradually eroded and genocide became possible.
Contested Fields: Football During the Holocaust
Grades 8+
This workshop examines sports as a tool for both inclusion and exclusion during the Holocaust. Using archival materials, testimony and film from the VHEC collection and international archives, we explore how the inclusive nature of athletics was dismantled by the Third Reich and transformed into a platform for promoting Nazi concepts of racial superiority. Participants are encouraged to consider the various roles football played during the Holocaust.
Regina’s Story: A Child In The Holocaust
Grades 6-12
This workshop introduces students to the Holocaust through the powerful, personal testimony of local survivor Regina Feldman. As a Jewish child in Poland, Regina endured life in ghettos, separation from family, and deportation to concentration camps. Through video testimony, photographs, and artefacts, students are guided through her experiences — from persecution and loss to survival, liberation, and her eventual immigration to Canada as a Jewish war orphan. By engaging with Regina’s story, students gain a meaningful understanding of the Holocaust’s stages and its impact on children’s lives, connecting historical events to individual human experiences.
The Basketball Game: A Story of Holocaust Denial In Canada
The Basketball Game is a short film by Vancouver filmmaker Hart Snider. It depicts the real-life encounter between campers at a Jewish summer camp and the former students of convicted Holocaust denier and Canadian high school teacher, James Keegstra. Participants consider the impact of Holocaust denial on individuals and society and how hate and misinformation can be confronted. Using newspaper headlines and media reports of the Keegstra Affair in the 1980s, the workshop explores how three communities came together to combat Holocaust denial and antisemitism and how Canadian law addresses it today. The workshop features survivor video testimony and primary sources from the VHEC collection.
Bystander to Rescuer: Help & Rescue during the Holocaust
Grades 6-12
From ordinary bystanders to courageous rescuers, people responded to the Holocaust in different ways and for different reasons. Through survivor testimonies and original artefacts from the VHEC collection, this workshop explores why some individuals chose to help despite great personal risk while most others remained passive or became complicit. By examining real-life stories of rescue involving Vancouver survivors, students are encouraged to consider how human behaviour during the Holocaust was influenced by individual factors and group dynamics, such as the bystander effect, diffusion of responsibility, pluralistic ignorance and social pressure.
Recipes of Resistance: The Ravensbrück Recipe Book
Grades 8+
This workshop explores the remarkable story of Rebecca Teitelbaum’s secret recipe book, created in the Ravensbrück concentration camp during the Holocaust. Through historical context, family photographs, archival records and survivor testimony, participants learn about the persecution of Belgian Jews, the experiences of women imprisoned in Ravensbrück and the creative acts of defiance that sustained them.
The Power of Objects: An Introduction To The Holocaust
Grades 8+
This workshop offers students a powerful introduction to the Holocaust through an ordinary object from the VHEC’s collection: a small shoe. As they are guided through a close examination of this simple artefact, students make observations about the evidence, draw inferences, and test their ideas against other primary sources — photographs, documents, and survivor testimony. This inquiry-based approach sparks curiosity, develops historical thinking skills, and deepens understanding of the Holocaust. Along the way, students are encouraged to ask their own questions, grapple with the complexity of the past and reflect on the ethical dimensions of the Holocaust.
Art During the Holocaust
Grades 10+
Secret artwork created by Jewish artists during the Holocaust was a powerful form of defiance and resistance against dehumanization and erasure of individuality. In this workshop, participants explore and interpret this body of work to gain insight on struggle of Jewish artists to preserve their dignity, identity and culture through artistic expression.
Serge’s Story: A Jewish Child In Occupied France
Grades 6-12
This workshop introduces students to the Holocaust through the story of local survivor Serge Vanry, who was nine years old when the Nazis occupied Paris. Using his video testimony, photographs, and artefacts, students trace how persecution transformed Serge’s childhood and forced him to confront fear, separation, and uncertainty. During the Vel d’Hiv roundup, Serge was forced to separate from his family and escape into hiding in Vichy France. Though he was later reunited with surviving relatives who endured life in the camps, the family was never whole again. Through Serge’s story, students gain insight into the experiences of Jewish children in occupied France and the enduring impact of the Holocaust on families torn apart by loss and survival.
Workshop Request Form
Please complete this form to request a workshop. Answer all required sections and indicate any special requirements of your group. A member of the education staff will contact you to discuss your request. We will try our best to accommodate all requests, subject to availability of our staff.
