The Vancouver Holocaust Education Centre was proud to host its 47th Annual Symposium on the Holocaust, welcoming more than 600 high school students from across the Lower Mainland to attend two sessions.

Held annually, the Symposium brings together students, educators, historians, and Holocaust survivors to explore this complex history through personal testimony and critical conversation. This year’s theme— Jewish resistance—invited students to consider how individuals and communities resisted Nazi persecution during the Holocaust, both in everyday acts and through extraordinary courage.

Attendees heard from three remarkable Holocaust survivors: Amalia Boe-Fishman, René Goldman, and Michel Silver in conversation with VHEC Director of Education, Lise Kirchner, and Education Manager, Ellie Lawson.

Each survivor shared their deeply personal story of survival, loss, and resilience, helping students understand the Holocaust not only as a historical event but as a lived experience. Their testimonies brought history to life and offered powerful insights into the many forms resistance can take—from maintaining dignity and identity in the face of dehumanization to acts of defiance against tyranny.

The symposium opened with an engaging presentation by Professor Kristin Semmens, an expert in modern German history and the Holocaust. She offered a broad historical framework for considering Jewish resistance, helping the students contextualize the testimonies they later heard from the survivor speaker.

Together, they helped students explore different dimensions of resistance during the Holocaust—armed and unarmed, spiritual and cultural—and how those stories continue to shape our understanding of justice, human rights, and moral courage today.