Author of the article: Andrew Duffy
This article was originally published by The Ottawa Citizen on Apr 17, 2023
Two Holocaust education groups say they hope to take advantage of the “untapped potential” of Ottawa’s National Holocaust Monument by developing a phone app that will offer visitors a curated, guided tour of the site.
Ottawa’s Centre for Holocaust Education and Scholarship and Toronto-based Liberation75 announced Monday they have been awarded a $109,000 federal grant to develop the interactive IWalk app.
The Canadian Race Relations Foundation and Maspik!, an anti-semitism coalition, have also made grants toward the development of the app.
The app, which is being designed with the help of the USC Shoah Foundation, will take visitors on a guided tour of the monument, offering both historical information and first-hand Holocaust testimonies.
“There is a need to educate people about what this monument is all about,” said Mina Cohn, chair of the Centre for Holocaust Education and Scholarship (CHES).
Cohn said a Heritage Canada study, conducted last summer, found the monument is underused and that visitors often leave the site feeling that their knowledge of the Holocaust has not been enriched.
