Preview Trailer for the Presentation Video Archive Series
About the School Presentation Video Archive
We now offer a selection of our presentations which have been filmed live at high schools in the province of Quebec. This enables students in areas where we cannot visit in person to watch our presenters share their stories of survival, or the stories of their parents or grandparents, or even great-grandparents.
To access the school presentation video archive,
click on the link to create an account. Your account gives you access to as many presentations as desired for a period of one year. Please note that a one-time minimum donation of $180 CAD is required, which enables our foundation to create new presentations and to expand our program.
Presentation Video Archive Terms and Conditions of Use
Available Video Presentations
Each presentation lasts 50 minutes
Heidi Berger
Holocaust
About Heidi's presentation
Founder and President of The Foundation for Genocide Education, Heidi Berger used her experience in video production to create a presentation about her late mother Ann Kazimirski’s experience in Poland during the Holocaust. Running and hiding in attics and barns, Ann witnessed the machine-gunning of her mother in the ghetto and the rape of her best friend.
Ann and her husband survived the Nazi terror and built a new life in Canada. For the past ten years, Heidi has shared her mother’s incredible story in high schools across Quebec to educate students about the dangers of hate and intolerance.
Jodie Kanenstenhawi Norton
First Nations
About Jodie's Presentation
Jodie Kanenstenhawi Norton is a Haudenosauee mother of two, embarking on a healing journey through reconciliation with a colonized world. She shares the stories of her great grandfather, Thomas Aronhiakens Lahache, and her great aunt, Anna Kahwenniosta Lahache, who were taken from their homes and placed into residential schools when they were just 7 and 9 years old The impact of this deliberate attempt to cut off Indigenous children from their families, language and culture was devastating, affecting not only Jodie’s great grandfather and great aunt, but their children, and the generations to follow, including Jodie.
Aviva Rosenfeld Ptack
Holocaust
About Aviva's Presentation
Aviva Rosenfeld Ptack is a Holocaust survivor who shares her inspirational story of resilience and survival to students. She recounts her childhood in Lithuania after the Nazi invasion. During a time that brought out both the best and worst in humankind, Aviva counts herself as one of the lucky ones.
Aviva Ptack, born Leba Deitch, was not yet a year old when the Nazis ordered the Jews of Kovno, her hometown, to relocate to a nearby ghetto. Her parents, realizing that a baby would never survive there, made the impossible decision to send their only child away to hide with a Christian family for safety. “Lovingly [my parents] gave me life and lovingly they saved my life. Yet I have no memories of them.” Aviva would be moved four times before her fifth birthday. After the war ended, Luba Schmidt and Pinchas Rosenfeld, who had both also lost their families in the Holocaust, raised Aviva as their own; together, they would create a new life in Canada.
There are not many Holocaust survivors with us anymore. This is an amazing opportunity for your students to witness a moving, firsthand account from a survivor.
Barbara Cieply
Holocaust
About Barbara's Presentation
As the eldest daughter of a Holocaust survivor, Barbara recounts the heart-wrenching and extraordinary story of survival of her late mother, Regina Kleinberg-Cieply. Regina was just twelve years old when she escaped the Warsaw ghetto. She found refuge with total strangers, assuming various non-Jewish identities in order to survive. Using excerpts of her mother’s testimonial videos and family photos, Barbara encourages students to forge connections between past atrocities like the Holocaust and contemporary instances of hate and intolerance.
Naomi Tencer
Holocaust
About Naomi's Presentation
Using her mother’s vivid video testimonials of her experiences during the Holocaust and photos of artifacts she kept from that time, Naomi Tencer shares the story of Sonia Smolnik Tencer. Sonia was a young newlywed in Vilna, Poland, when the Nazis invaded in 1939. Along with her family, she was forced to live in unbearable conditions in the Vilna ghetto, and she later endured four labour/death camps and a death march. Sonia miraculously survived and immigrated to Canada with her concentration camp uniform in a bag and painful memories to share with the world. Growing up as the daughter of a Holocaust survivor, Naomi always felt the weight of her mother’s trauma. She made it her mission to share Sonia’s story, in order to teach future generations about the suffering and pain that continue to happen today.
MERILEE WEITZMAN
Holocaust
About Merilee's Presentation
Merilee Calderon Weitzman presents the extraordinary story of survival of her late father, Leon Calderon, one of the few survivors of Auschwitz originating from Salonika, Greece. With the number 120826 tattooed on his arm, her father’s pride slowly crumbled as he was stripped of his humanity. Leon watched as Jews, including his own family, were violently forced into gas chambers and later burned in crematoriums. Leon survived death marches and slave labor to finally find a better future for his family in Montreal.
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Contact
8180, ch. Devonshire, Suite 206
Montreal, QC, Canada H4P 1K4
Montreal, QC, Canada H4P 1K4
(514) 503-3559