In memory of Philip Weiss

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 10/05/2016 (3587 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

There’s nothing like a story to capture people’s attention. And there is no one like a good storyteller to leave you with a sense of having “been there,” in a place, at a time, when things that should be remembered took place. This is how individuals find meaning in their roots, in their family, their land and their world.

Philip Weiss, who moved to Winnipeg from Poland in 1948, knew this. He knew how to connect people, particularly the young, with their collective past, local and global.

Weiss was a Holocaust survivor. Born in Drohobycz, Poland, in 1922, he was forcibly moved into the ghetto by the Nazis and during the Second World War, worked as a slave labourer in various camps before being liberated from the Mathausen concentration camp in Austria on May 5, 1945.

Weiss made his life about helping the world remember the atrocity that was the Holocaust. For more than two decades, before his death in 2008, this Winnipegger told his story of loss and personal pain, and shared his reflections about human rights with the public, academics and thousands of school students.

His stories are why so many of us now have a good understanding of the lingering effects of genocide and human rights tragedy.

On Tuesday, Winnipeggers from a wide range of cultural and religious backgrounds will be gathering at the Canadian Museum for Human Rights for a dinner and presentation of the fifth annual Dr. Philip Weiss Award for Storytelling for Peace and Human Rights. This annual event occurs on the eve of the Winnipeg International Storytelling Festival. The festival, which takes place in many locations across the city, starts Wednesday morning and concludes at St. Paul’s College at the University of Manitoba Fort Garry campus on Saturday evening. Now in its 11th year, the festival has grown to serve more than 10,000 attendees, including adults and schoolchildren who come seek the experience and richness of storytelling. (Readers can find a schedule at http://umanitoba.ca/storytelling/.)

Both the festival and the Philip Weiss Award dinner are organized by staff and volunteers at the Arthur V. Mauro Centre for Peace and Justice at St. Paul’s College. This year, the Canadian Museum for Human Rights has graciously opened its doors and its Buhler Hall where, for the first time, both the dinner and components of the storytelling festival will be held.

Weiss was also a leader in having the Holocaust memorial built and located on the grounds of the Manitoba Legislative Building. He was given a special citation by film director Stephen Spielberg for his work in providing free screenings of the movie Schindler’s List to many thousands of schoolchildren. At the age of 85, Weiss’s speeches, essays and reflections were published under the title Humanity in Doubt.

Today, the Philip Weiss Award is being given to Maureen Hetherington, who accepted an invitation from the Mauro Centre to come to Winnipeg from the city of Derry/Londonderry, Northern Ireland, a region with a long history of political violence. In her work as the director of the Junction, a resource centre that promotes peace, she draws on the power of storytelling to find ways forward in the aftermath of loss, political violence and trauma. Hetherington has worked with others to establish peace-building programs based on storytelling and the promotion of dialogue.

I think Philip Weiss would be pleased with Hetherington’s selection. She, like he, shares stories to help the world heal.

Christopher Adams is the chairman of the board of the Arthur V. Mauro Centre for Peace and Justice and rector of St. Paul’s College at the University of Manitoba.

 

http:\umanitoba.castorytelling