A "teachable moment" captured online
VANCOUVER February 2, 2010
Should countries send their athletes to events such as the Olympic Games when they are used as propaganda vehicles by unethical regimes? Should the athletes go? As a new educational website developed by 7th Floor Media in partnership with the Vancouver Holocaust Education Center shows, events such as the Olympics are More Than Just Games.
Using original interviews and historical documents, More Than Just Games: Canada and the 1936 Olympics looks at the 1936 Olympic Games in Berlin – a watershed moment in the rise of Nazi Germany, and Canada’s first serious encounter with Hitler’s totalitarian regime. The resources, lessons and learning materials on the site are designed to give students and teachers of Canadian history the opportunity to look critically at Canada’s past, explore the issues faced by athletes and politicians as they wrestled with the question of whether to participate, and connect these issues with controversies surrounding contemporary events such as last summer’s Beijing Olympic Games and the recent 2010 Olympic Games in Vancouver.
“In addition to telling some compelling and little-known Canadian stories, the exhibits are designed to encourage critical thinking about Canada’s past and about the ways that people react to controversial situations,” says Noni Mate, co-director of 7th Floor Media. “The opportunity to integrate the exhibit and teachers guide into an online resource, and extend the reach of this content was extremely rewarding, and we’re very pleased with the result.”
The website is based an innovative exhibit currently on display at the Vancouver Holocaust Education Center. Telling a previously untold Canadian story about a crucial era in world history, the exhibit examines the controversies, achievements and consequences arising from Canada’s participation in the Olympics held in Nazi Germany.
More Than Just Games launches on February 12, timed for the opening of the 2010 Olympics.