Casey Whitfield’s voice cracked and he began to cry as he recalled the children’s drawings — one of which depicts an adult being hanged — on display in Auschwitz-Birkenau.

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Casey Whitfield’s voice cracked and he began to cry as he recalled the children’s drawings — one of which depicts an adult being hanged — on display in Auschwitz-Birkenau.

Casey Whitfield’s voice cracked and he began to cry as he recalled the children’s drawings — one of which depicts an adult being hanged — on display in Auschwitz-Birkenau.

The Winnipeg teacher took photos of the memorial he toured last month to share with his future history classes at St. Paul’s High School.

“I’m always very open and emotional with my students,” he said. “I have no problem wearing my heart on my sleeve.”

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A child's drawing from a display at Auschwitz II-Birkenau Memorial and Museum German Concentration Camp.

A child's drawing from a display at Auschwitz II-Birkenau Memorial and Museum German Concentration Camp.

Whitfield is among 30 teachers who recently travelled to Europe to learn about Jewish life before the 1930s and the human rights atrocities that took place during the Holocaust.

This summer break, for the first time, the Holocaust Memorial Sites Study Tours for Educators organized a 15-day trip for aspiring and working teachers from Manitoba.

The non-profit designed the experiential learning initiative to help participants better understand the history of antisemitism and build confidence to tackle Holocaust denial, distortion and hate.

The group left Winnipeg for Warsaw on July 13, about eight months after Manitoba published its new mandatory Holocaust education curriculum for grades 6, 9 and 11.

Curriculum developer Kelly Hiebert, who is one of the non-profit’s co-founders, said planning the trip for colleagues was a longtime dream come true.

RUTH BONNEVILLE / FREE PRESS
Kelly Hiebert collaborated on the itinerary with a historian who teaches university courses on the Holocaust and antisemitism.

Source: Read the original article on www.winnipegfreepress.com