How is it that people, who are otherwise decent, can do awful things? It is one of the questions that Martin Klein, Professor Emeritus from U of T’s history department, endeavored to answer at a special lecture.

Martin Klein and Rosemary Sadlier

On Monday Ryerson launched its Holocaust Education Week Program with this lecture. focusing on the Holocaust and African slave trade.

During the lecture, Klein said, “I think many of us have dark corners…with absolute power, subject to no law—can you all be so sure that you would have the strength of character to say no?”

Speakers examined the events that played a role in the development of cultures that rewarded brutality during each era.

Klein was joined by Rosemary Sadlier, president of the Ontario Black History Society, and Frank Bialystok a historian, and chair of the Canadian Jewish Congress Ontario Region.

This year is important because it marks both the60th anniversary for the liberation of Nazi death camps, and the 200th anniversary of the abolishment of the Trans-American Slave Trade. 

Rosemary Sadlier, sees this as an opportunity to focus on the one positive aspect, “I think they were both significant points in time that brought about change for two oppressed groups— it was a time of rebirth for both cultures.”

Each of the speakers presented facts from both historical events and compared the two at times. But the message had a universal focus, “I think all of the speeches made many similar points— every group has suffered, so often we forget that we have this commonality, the loss of culture, of land, and or death,” said Sadlier.

Ryerson has been hosting the Holocaust Education Week Program for over a decade. “Though it happens under the auspices of the Holocaust, we always want to address the larger issue of identity based persecution,” said Myer Siemiatycki, the organizer of the event and a professor with Ryerson’s politics department.

Despite the efforts made by events like this one, memorializing such historical atrocities is not without challenges. Earlier this year, Sadlier put forth a request to the government of Canada, to nationally commemorate August 1 as the official day that the Trans-American Slave Trade was abolished.

The Ministry of Culture’s response came as a great surprise to Sadlier and her colleagues. “The letter said they won’t do it, and that the government is supporting other black initiatives— ones which had nothing to do with what I requested,” she said. But the icing on the cake lies in the four words the Minister of Culture wrote, “We don’t have to.”

During the last 10 years Holocaust Education Week has developed ties with many communities. “I wish I could said that since we started, the world has gotten with it, and understands bigotry and racism, but events around the world show that now [this kind of education] is more important than ever,” said Siemiatycki.