Telling kids about the Holocaust
A 70-year-old Holocaust survivor talks to children about life and death in a concentration camp so that they never forget the inhumanity
When you're in grade seven, it's hard to grasp what life might have been like for those interned in a concentration camp during the second world war. It's even harder to fully understand the horrors of the Holocaust.
But Joanna Millan is determined to help today's children understand. She was a speaker recently at Carmel School Association's Elsa High School, answering questions about the darkest days of the 20th century.
"How do you feel about being adopted?" "Do you have regrets in your life?"
Millan, 70, offers warm smiles and encouraging words, but she's no ordinary grandmother. Her memories are those of a childhood that has left a mark on her life. As an infant, she survived being interned in a concentration camp during the Nazi persecution of the Jews, which took place between the 1930s and 1945.
Millan is visiting a dozen schools over a week, telling youngsters the facts about that period of fanaticism.
"People see films and read books about the Holocaust, but most of it is not accurate," she says. "People who were not there don't know what's true and what's is not. Some of the books children are given to read are totally inaccurate."