JNS
“You do not need to be a Jew to stand against antisemitism,” one of the attendees, many of whom fled persecution abroad, told JNS.
Some 40 non-Jewish Canadians—among them those of Iranian, Ecuadorian, Indian, Venezuelan and Cuban ancestry, as well as Muslims and Christians—visited the Royal Ontario Museum exhibit “Auschwitz. Not long ago. Not far away” in Toronto on Jan. 26, on the eve of International Holocaust Remembrance Day.
The group opted to go to the show to demonstrate its dedication to “Never again,” Canadian activist Salman Sima, who organized the museum visit, told JNS.
The group aimed to “learn more about the Holocaust, and to honor and respect the victims,” Sima, founder and executive director of International Coalition Against Racism Everywhere and a former Iranian prisoner, told JNS.
“Now, at a time where Jews are being persecuted again, it is more important than ever to remember history so that it is not repeated,” he said.
Ardeshir Zarezadeh and Bahman Sadeghi Noor, who were also former political prisoners of the Islamic Republic, attended, as did the human-rights activist Shermine Esmati. Mehrzad Zarei, whose son Arad Zarei was killed in the Iranian regime’s attack on Ukraine International Airlines Flight 752 on Jan. 8, 2020, and Reza Amin, whose brother Mehdi Amin was killed by the regime in October 2021, also participated.
“The rise of antisemitism and hate crimes in Canada is a serious and growing threat to the country’s democratic values and human rights,” Zarezadeh told JNS.
“To deal with these issues, Canada and other countries need to make it a priority to fight antisemitism, stop hate crimes and cut off support for terrorist organizations,” added Zarezadeh, who leads the International Centre for Human Rights, based in Canada.
Other attendees told JNS that they learned a good deal from the exhibit, which is on view until Sept. 1.
Alessa Polga, founder and director of a nonprofit and a communications and political adviser for Canada’s Cuban, Nicaraguan and Venezuelan communities, told JNS that the exhibit taught her that the Jewish community “proved resilience, endurance and resolve even in the face of annihilation.”
Sangita Iyer, who is of Indian ancestry, found the exhibit “deeply emotional.”
“What struck me most were the survivors’ testimonies. Despite enduring unimaginable suffering, they continue to share messages of love, peace and acceptance,” she told JNS. “As a Hindu, I believe in the sanctity of all life, and it is our collective duty to honor the memory of those who suffered and ensure such atrocities are never repeated.”
Estrella Medina, a political refugee from Cuba who has lived in Toronto for 23 years, told JNS that she was “disappointed to see that, almost 80 years later, many people are still unaware of and even deny the existence of the Holocaust.”
A photo in the show of bunk beds that Nazis used in concentration camps impacted Medina, who is part of Cuban Canadian groups, “deeply.”
“I couldn’t help but think of the conditions in Cuban prisons,” she told JNS, “The difference is that the Nazis carried out mass extermination over a short period of time,” while Communists have been killing people slowly over the past century, she added.
Among the more than 700 artifacts in the show are children’s shoes, buttons and a baby dress.
“These humanize the victims and make the scale of the tragedy more tangible,” Sima told JNS. “These everyday objects, once belonging to individuals with hopes and dreams, now serve as silent witnesses to unspeakable atrocities.”
The displays demonstrate the “meticulous planning and bureaucracy” behind the Holocaust, including architectural plans for gas chambers and crematoria, according to Sima. That underscores the “cold, calculated nature of the genocide,” he said.
“When I saw the clothes of prisoners in Auschwitz, I was shocked,” he said. “Oh my God, it reminded me of my time in Evian prison in Tehran.”
“Now that I am free, I have to fight more,” he said. “Today, I learned a lot. You do not need to be a Jew to stand against antisemitism. It was really educating, and it touched my heart. I left the exhibition while I was fighting with myself not to cry.”
‘Dark time in history’
Scarlett Grace Armstrong, who was part of the group, told JNS that she learned from the show that there was one doctor whose sole job during the Holocaust was to murder people with mental handicaps.
“Something I noticed about the people attending was that many were wearing the ‘bring them home’ dog tags, as well as yellow ribbons,” she told JNS. “There were lots of people with tears in their eyes.”
The exhibit included designated “crying zones” with chairs, she told JNS.
“It gave me hope to see the diversity of people that came there and were trying to learn about this very dark time in history,” Sima, the organizer, told JNS.
