Student Reflection: Visiting the Holocaust Museum

Since initially learning about the Holocaust, I have been curious about my family’s experiences. This was always challenging, as it was not an openly spoken topic with the older generation of my family. My parents have always made it clear that there were a large number of both Holocaust victims and survivors in my family, but they did not have a significant amount of information about these people to share with me. A few months ago, when I heard about the new Holocaust Museum opening in Toronto, it didn’t occur to me that I would find a family connection there. Then, my dad sent me a Globe and Mail article about specific artifacts they had on exhibit at the museum, and he told me that they wrote about my great-grandfather: Daniel Zultek. At the top of the article was a photo of a Sugihara Visa with the name Daniel Zultek on it, with a short description of what the visa meant below. I was shocked to read about this for the first time, as I had never known much about him in the past. I started to do a little bit of research on Daniel Zultek, and accumulated some knowledge about his background and journey through the Holocaust. This was a special process for me to research, as I got to share new facts about him to my dad, who is also interested in learning more about our family history. My dad and I were planning to visit the museum to hopefully see the artifact, but it turned out I would be going on a Grade 10 English/History field trip before this opportunity came. I spoke to my teachers about the artifact in hope of seeing it in person, and it turned out to be on display at the time we visited the museum. It was very surreal to see the visa in person. It was much larger than I envisioned, and it had its own display case with a large description.

My great-grandfather, Daniel Zultek, was born in Poland in 1910. He left his home in 1939 when there were signs of Germany advancing the war. He initially fled to Lithuania, where he met Japanese diplomat Chiune Sugihara. Sugihara was secretly issuing visas to Jewish refugees, so that they could escape Europe before being found by the Nazis. He managed to issue a total of 2,140 visas, and therefore saved all of their lives (and their family members covered by the same visa). Chiune Sugihara is considered “Righteous Among the Nations” by Yed Yashem for his aid to refugees in Lithuania. In 1940, Daniel Zultek received a Sugihara Visa, which allowed him to escape to Japan through the Soviet Union, and eventually made it to Canada. He came to Toronto in 1944, where he ended up meeting my great-grandmother. Once married, they moved to a farm in Brampton in 1946. Daniel had three daughters, one of whom is my grandmother. He passed away in 1995. 

I had a very positive impression of the Toronto Holocaust Museum as a whole. All of the staff and volunteers were thrilled to answer any questions I had, and were also interested in my connection to the artifact. The museum had an incredible amount of interactive sources (like a guided virtual tour through a survivor's experience, virtual reality, and more), along with a ton of accurate information and primary source artifacts and interviews. I have never experienced an entire museum that memorialized the Holocaust in such a meaningful way. I feel extremely fortunate to have gotten an opportunity to see my great-grandfather's visa in person, and am excited to attempt to learn more about my family history in the future.