Some Poetry from Alicia Dobrzanski (Father Bressani)

Branded with the Star of David

Off cracked dawn
Chastised by the whip
Its golden fires were lost
Engulfed in the whirl of those around me
Stampeding hooves
Caused heaven and Earth to quake
For heaven too wailed for my fate
Hell.
There He stood
With a child by his breast
An elderly woman
A corpse
Even life fled the inferno
Abandonment.
I longed for the shadow
Who day-by-day pranced a happy gait
Yet he hid
Like when the flame is doused
Tyranny.
And although their cries
Tore into my chest and ripped open my heart
My agony bore no lips
For I too like the shadow lay hidden
Hope.


I Always Lie

It slept soundly
In the ridges of its abyss
Endowed by a promise
It swore to keep.
They bore a brightly beaming heart
Though sometimes
They would flee
And when they did I cried
Knowing that they had been broken along the way
But this one was different
I nurtured it like my little angel
Who too slept soundly
In the ridges of her abyss
Upon her awakening
It would be hers.
The promise of a haven
Would be hers.
If only I knew
That its eyes did not see
That its ears did not hear
That it cared not to deliver my promise
I’d have broken it myself
Before it broke the heart
Of my little angel.

Some Poetry from Alex Pak (Father Bressani)

The Past

The Past often haunts us, lost dreams preying on our sleep.

The Past often shadows us, like a hunter earning his keep.

If we feed the Past, the Past consumes us.

If we forget the Past, the Past devours us.

The Past is a fickle thing, with teeth as sharp as its wit.

And if we become food for the Past’s hunger, we will never escape its insatiable need.

The Past would whisper in our ear, reminding us about our failures.

The Past would murmur our joys, our happiness, our love, and crush them with its steel-toe boot.

But only if we allow the Past to reign like a king with a clever, will we be ruled.

Taking Past’s hand in ours, knowledge once lost will become apparent;

For we will no longer be dwelling, but instead learning;

The Past will act as an oracle, guiding the way

To freedom.


Never Again

Sorrow is shed as six million souls are slaughtered;

Society sinks deeper into a semblance of what it once showed.

Jewish are mocked and transformed into less than slaves, as civilization shows its true sadistic shades.

War-torn streets strewn with bodies of soldiers,

Who struggled to save our sickened hearts.

Who are we to shut our eyes to the senseless slaying of the innocent?

Who are we to shut our eyes to the suffering of the innocent?

Never again shall screams of the separated be ignored.

Never again shall sadness be felt.

Desire For Change: The Day in Pictures

I tried to capture as many images as I could. What a fantastic day!

Desire For Change In Pictures

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Reflections on Poland and France: Beth

Sacred Heart student, Beth Way Skinner, reflects on the lesson she learned while on this excursion:

It started with a "them" and an "us".

The survivors of the Holocaust all have very moving, similar stories. They have been through a lot of rough spots in their life, yet keep on going and have lots of hope for the future.

It wasn't only Europe. Some of the survivors were rejected by their home country, the rejected by Canada. This is just one quote from Jean Vanier: "We hide behind our insecurity and fear of diversity and become exclusive of the other." On this trip, I learned what I have to do now in order to take just a step on this long journey of inclusion of EVERYONE!

Reflections on Poland and France: Samantha

St. Maximilian Kolbe student Samantha Franko shared her message of remembering the lives and stories of Holocaust survivors with students, teachers and special guests at the symposium:

This summer I had the opportunity to meet some very inspiring people who have forever influenced the course of my life. Prior to leaving for Poland, each of us were given a letter from a survivor to take to Auschwitz. The letters were intended to give us an idea of what the survivors went through during the Holocaust. They told about how their humanity was stripped away day by day and by the time they were being herded like animals inot the airless cattle cars, they thought they were going some place where life could only get better. Few suspected they were going to their death. Many just didn't make the journey to Auschwitz. Those who did make it watched as their family members were "selected" to go directly to the gas chambers. Imagine being our age and torn from your family and left to survive this hell ... alone. The life expectancy at Aschwitz-Birkenau was an hour and a half. Most entered through the gates but never got the chance to walk back through them to freedom.

Before we stepped through the gates at Auschwitz, the group got together and said a prayer written by Max Eisen, a survivor. It wasn't till Auschwitz-Birkenau that we got the chance to open our letters. We had chose to read our letters on the selection platform, where our survivors once stood 65 years before. Already this was starting to become overwhelming. When it was time, I took my letter and went to sit far from everyone. When I sat down I was facing the women's barracks, but then I turned to have my back to the group and I was facing the entrance. Reading this letter was probably the hardest moment of the trip so I chose to sit apart from everyone else. I didn't want to hear other voices, I didn't want to hear their papers making the noise paper makes. I wanted silence and the whole time I was reading the letter, I was in my own world, my own space, my own bubble, and no one could disturb me. The envelope contained a letter by Amek Adler and three pictures. as I read my letter, I realized Amek chose not to belabour the details of his ordeal, but his words were powerful enough to make my insides crumple and I felt myself feeling the urge to cry in a way I have never felt the need to cry before. I read it over and over, probably at least 7 times more, each time a new piece of the letter clicking into my brain. There was so much to take in, I had to take it in one bit at a time. When I met Amek in person, he told me that he saved the details of his story to share with me face-to-face. The letters were a great gift to us because the survivors had to relive the experience and pain of the Holocaust to write their stories down for us.

The letters my group and I received are very precious and actually getting to meet our survivors and talk to them one-on-one has made us witnesses to the Holocaust. No one is on Earth forever and sadly, the Holocaust survivors will eventually leave us. That's why it's up to our generation to pick up the torch that they have passed down to us and to help them to forever keep it lit, just like their stories.

Reflections on Poland and France: Ryan

Ryan Duffy of St. Maximilian Kolbe really gave symposium-goers a strong sense of who his new school's patron was and why it is important to remember his story:

Imagine you are separated from all of your family and all of your friends. You are alone but you are surrounded by people. You are in Auschwitz and you are going to die. You slave for hours everyday and if you complain or fight back, you will die. Now, imagine that you see people being dragged to their deaths. You see them pleading with people to save them, to help them, to talk to them. You see a man being dragged away and he looks at you, you see the terror in his eyes and now you are moving. You go to this man who you have never seen before and you volunteer to take his place. You are one of the people who are now going to the starvation chambers but you go willingly, you chose to sacrifice your life for this strange man. Everything I have just described to you is an actual story about a man named Maximilian Kolbe. He was a priest, a martyr and a saint.

St. Maximilian Kolbe grew up in Poland. He was an average rebellious boy but one day he had a vision. He saw Mother Mary, she was holding two crowns - a white crown and a red crown. White symbolized purity and red was for martyrdom. She told him to choose one. He decided to take both. That was when he became a very religious person. Later in his life, he showed a great brilliance toward many aspects of his studies. He had originally decided to be a teacher, but instead he was called to the priesthood. He was ordained in 1918. His mission in priesthood was to be a spiritual soldier. By 1927, he had establish the city name Niepokalanow, the City of the Immaculate. It was to be a self-sustaining village centred on faith in God and devotion to Mary. It originally had 18 priests there but by 1938, there were 650 priests, making it the largest Catholic religious house in the world.

St. Max spent the last part of his life in a concentration camp, Auschwitz. He worked all day and he slept in a bunk made of wood with four other people. Everyday he would only be fed enough to keep him working. One day, another person that St. Max spent time with was chosen to go to the starvation chambers to die. St. Max volunteered to take the man's place because the man had a wife and kids. The S.S. guards did not object and the man escaped death. While St. Max spent many torturous days without food, he still continued to resist. While St. Max was in the chamber, he sang with all the other people condemned to die there. They sang and fought the Nazis by not allowing their spirits to be broken. Not only did St. Maximilian keep those people's spirits alive, he also gave them a sense of hope. After two weeks, St. Max amazingly survived his sentence in the starvation chamber and it had still not broken his spirit. The S.S. guards and the commandant took him into a cell and injected him with a lethal dose of carbolic acid.

St. Max was a great man but why would we go and spent time to learn about him? Our group wanted to learn about one of the inspiring cases where one person defies evil for the greater good. St. Max defied the Nazis by giving hope to hundreds of people through his actions. Today, St. Maximilian's work continues throughout the world through the members of the Militia of the Immaculata. His work continues to bring Catholics together. His greatest lesson is that we should put others before ourselves, and in his own words: "never forget love".

Reflections on Poland and France: Olivia

Olivia Williams, student at Father Michael McGivney CHS who also participated in the excursion to Poland and France, left symposium participants with a powerful message:

The Jewish uprising that we learnt about in Warsaw started because of the Nazi Germans taking away people who they had forced into a ghetto and onto trains to the Treblinka extermination camp. The people did not want to go as they had heard about the many people who were being killed in cold blood. The Jewish people who lived in the ghetto began to rebel against the Germans. Another critical event that helped some Jews survive in the ghetto of Warsaw during the Holocaust was the escape through underground sewers. These "roads" were made so that many Jewish refugees could escape to safety from the advancing Nazis. Some important facts were that people were not allowed to bring their babies or children along with them since making a sound or the wail of a newborn would endanger the lives of many who travelled those 10-20 km underground. These Jewish people were very determined to have their welfare secured; for this they had to endure crouching in the dark, disgusting and putrid smelling sewers for weeks in order to get to their destination. They had to walk with their hands and feet on the walls so as to not make a splashing noise in the sewers and become discovered by the Nazis roaming along the roads in search of more people to send to the camps.

Today, the city of Warsaw is actually very new because it was completely destroyed by the Nazis in 1944, but it was later rebuilt by the Soviets of Russia. While on our tour of Warsaw with our guide, we were given the opportunity to see many different statues symbolizing different events that took place. One particular statue that was prominent was that of a child soldier; our guide told us that the statue symbolized all the children who fought and died in the Warsaw uprising. These children could not stand to see their country being taken over, and so they decided to become soldiers who sometimes fought with the rebels against the Nazis. Mostly, the children were used to take messages from one underground group to another so that the adult rebels could plan attacks without being under too much suspicion. On this trip I learnt that was itself can be a horrible thing and if we don't take the right precautions or try to help in whatever small ways we can, the tragedy may just happen over again.

An example that I was taught on the trip which inspired me was that when all the Jews were being taken away by the Germans to the concentration and labour camps, the King of Denmark thought it was wrong. To protect the citizens of Denmark, he set an extremely intelligent example: he wore a yellow star on his clothing. Gradually, all the citizens of the country did the same. When the Nazis came to Denmark to capture the Jews and take them away, they could not take anyone because they couldn't tell people apart from each other. This created much conflict for them and they ended up not taking anyone at all. In this way, the people of Denmark were able to resist Nazi capture and took a stand at the same time. The small act of sewing a golden star onto their clothing made such a big difference. It made me wonder... if every other person would have done the same thing, would as many men, women and children of Jewish origin have been captured? Just goes to show what a difference a small act can make and what impact it can or may have on others around you.

Reflections on Poland and France: Zachary

St. Maximilian Kolbe student, Zachary Wheeler, left us with a profound message after relaying his experiences in Poland and France this past summer:



Auschwitz - these are the images that are etched in my mind. Auschwitz - a place where it smells like burning flesh. The rain is only black ashes and terror. Stranded in the middle of nowhere, impossible to escape; all life hangs by a thread. But yet people still hold their heads up high and pray for hope.

When the Jewish people arrived at Auschwitz on the trains, they were nearly starved to death. They were put on a selection platform where the Nazis would select people who could work. The people who couldn't, most of them would unfortunately be sent straight to the gassing chambers. The ones that were forced to work were put under intensive labour and many died.

Now I'd like to share a little more of what I learned at Auschwitz.

Yes, Auschwitz is all of those things I mentioned before. But despite all of the death, some pople did survive and many others sacrificed themselves to save others in trouble (like St. Maximilian Kolbe). I learned in school that there were underground schools and activities. They did everything they could to maintain their humanity and identity. Everyone helped each other out when they were in need. The underground schools were a great source of educating Jewish children to learn about the world they used to live in peacefully. If they were lucky, they were taught by Jewish teachers or volunteers who were sent to Auschwitz earlier. This was the first sign of hope for this precious race to survive. These little things such as teaching and making new friends boosted their confidence and gave them hope. Any little bit of happiness was used to drive them to move on. Many poems found in Auschwitz hardly talk about how their best friend died that day or that they were whipped, or even assaulted. They wanted to keep the good memories so they could refer to them when they felt down and out. It's like the Beatles' song, "Hey Jude ... take a sad song and make it better."

In Auschwitz there were places called death walls, and it doesn't take much to know what that means - but it is a wall where Jews were lined up against and shot. Now I couldn't imagine what the people in line were thinking.

The Nazis were very cruel to the Jews. They tortured them everyday they were in the camps. The Nazis even thought of games that they thought were funny, like when the Jewish people were told to go pick weeds beside the electrical fence. They were supposed to turn off the fence but sometimes for amusement, they would turn it back on and watch them get electrocuted JUST FOR ENTERTAINMENT. It shows how crucial it is to never let this happen again.

There is a spot at Auschwitz that we visited earlier and it was probably one of the most disturbing things I have ever seen in my life. It was and still is a pool of human ashes. For the rest of the day, I couldn't stop thinking about it.

The main way the Germans killed the Jewish people was by gas chambers. They stuffed people in this cramped, air-tight room and poured toxic gas on top of them. I though this was probably one of the most horrific ways to die (choking to death). And yet, the Germans got the protection of wearing a gas mask. The bodies were burned in a large crematorium. They killed thousands of Jews this way everyday.

Before the war was over and Germany was about to fall, Hitler ordered his men to get rid of any evidence of what was going on in the death camps. All must be destroyed so all the crematoria and gas chambers were taken out. The only gas chamber that survived was used as a military bunker for the Germans.

Now when I hear Jewish jokes coming out of my friends' and random peoples' mouths, I just don't get why and what is so funny about them. Is it because you just don't like them or is it that you're afraid THAT THEY ARE PEOPLE JUST LIKE US?! They deserve to be treated equally and not unjusly. Think about the things you hear today before you try to be funny. Never say or do anything against another person.

Reflections on Poland and France: Samson

Read the words of Samson Jeyakumar, a student from Father Michael McGivney CHS, who participated in the excursion to France and Poland this past summer:

I would like to bring to your attention the unforgettable experience I had at the Holocaust Centre this summer. The centre enlightened me with knowledge about the Holocaust and the discrimination that the victims of the Holocaust were forced to face. The doors to the museum that opened were marked with Jewish letters and with fire and smoke, and it represents a tragedy that some don't even want to believe existed. It was starting of the experience of a lifetime.

The metal doors opened and the darkness revealed images of famous Jewish people and explained how they helped the society. There is a room with the names of the families that had died in the Holocaust. In that room I was able to see a Torah that had not been burnt during the Holocaust and was brought to North America by an American soldier. I was also able to learn about a loving and caring teacher who died during the Holocaust along with his students. The teacher wasn't of Jewish background but was teaching Jewish children. He was offered a chance to leave but he chose to stay with these children and was killed. I watched a video explaining the attrocities that were done to the Jewish people and I saw a map that showed the population of Jewish people that lived in each European country. This centre is a museum that reveals the Holocaust and it's a great place to learn about the horrific events that took place in Europe. During the Holocaust, not only six million Jews were murdered, the Nazis also murdered five million Christians, Muslims, Romans, political people and others.

I am now a witness to what happened to the victims of the Holocaust and I am here to advocate about what had happened to those who don't believe and don't have any understanding of these events and their impact on the world.

Desire For Change, Day One

What an incredible day! No doubt, we all saw and heard things that challenged us and made us think about how we can make a difference in our school communities.

In reflecting on the day, please respond to the following:
1. What part of the symposium had the greatest impact on you personally? Why?
2. What general comments/feedback do you have about the event?

Thanks so much to all administrators and teachers for working with our very talented students to make this unique event such a success!

Desire For Change

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Voices From The Past ... Impacting the Present

Voices From The Past

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The Desire for Change...

Welcome to the official blog of the York Catholic District School Board's first board-wide symposium, The Desire for Change. Many people having been working behind the scenes to bring this wonderful event to its fruition. What an amazing opportunity for students and educators to work side-by-side to discover what our school communities can do to truly make this world a better place.

It is no coincidence that this two-day event falls in such close proximity to Remembrance Day. The reality is that the nature of remembrance, especially on November 11th is changing as time goes on. While we must never forget the valiant effort of the brave men and and women who so bravely gave and continue to sacrifice of themselves for our freedom, we also remember those whose lives were so innocently lost due to deliberate acts of persecution, discrimination and genocide. These countless, and often nameless victims of war must also be remembered.

At this year's two-day symposium, we remember the victims of the Jewish Holocaust during the Second World War. On November 4, students from all 15 high schools are invited to listen to first-hand accounts of what it was like to be a child hidden during this horrific event. Students who travelled abroad to Poland and France during the summer will share their experiences of what it was like to visit Auschwitz and reflect on the life of St. Maximilian Kolbe who was martyred there. Schools will be preparing creative interpretations of the acclaimed novel, And the Rat Laughed. On November 10, the same group of educators and students will attend the opera, which is based on the same novel.

This event promises to be powerful and transformational. This blog was established so teachers and students can reflect on their experiences. After the symposium, pictures will be posted as well as a follow-up activity for the symposium. We ask that everyone try to respond. As well, if anyone takes pictures during the symposium, please email them to Christine Cosentino at christine.cosentino@ycdsb.ca and they will be uploaded to this blog. This blog will remain active indefinitely. Individual schools are encouraged to contact Christine Cosentino with updates on current efforts within the school communities. This site can serve as a central resource to get ideas about can be done. With the dedication and creativity that staff and students possess, the possibilities are endless. Share your ideas and stories with everyone!

Please note - this blog is not available on any public listing and cannot be located through any online search engines. This is a secure site and only staff and students of the York Catholic District School Board are invited to participate.