Waterdown District High School, sandwiched between Toronto and Hamilton in Southern Ontario, is home to the Waterdown Museum of Hope. Run and guided by students from the Grade 11 Genocide and Crimes Against Humanity Course, it has hosted hundreds of student and community visitors. Since its opening in fall 2013, the museum has expanded to occupy three classrooms with over 1,200 artifacts. Important historical artifacts range from found missile shells, medals, letters and uniforms donated by war veterans, to carefully collected artifacts from the Holocaust such as survivors’ stars and hate propaganda currency from the Third Reich.
“This is the authentic learning that should happen every year with history.“
Rob Flosman, WDHS Teacher and Founder of Waterdown Museum of Hope
The museum is a way to reflect history and the way it impacts our community today. History is placed into the hands of students, and they become engaged on a community level. Students are immersed in a study of their own family history and they learn the connections between history with identity, they study the morality of choices individuals made, they ask complex questions, and encounter personal testimonies from some of humanity’s darkest moments.
Visit us at our new location at the Waterdown Legion!
Admission is free, although donations are most welcome. Our next larger opening with Semester 2 students will be in June, to celebrate the 80th Anniversary of D-Day. Please follow our social media to keep up-to-date with museum news.
