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A new educational website developed by 7th Floor Media at Simon Fraser University in partnership with the Vancouver Holocaust Education Centre demonstrates how events such as the Olympics are more than just games.

Using original interviews and historical documents the website, More Than Just Games: Canada and the 1936 Olympics, looks at the 1936 Olympic Games in Berlin—a watershed moment in the rise of Nazi Germany and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 site’s resources, lessons and learning materials give students and teachers of Canadian history an opportunity to explore the issues faced by Canada’s athletes and politicians as they wrestled with the question of whether or not to participate in the 1936 games.

The website connects these issues with controversies around contemporary events including last summer’s Beijing Olympic Games and the 2010 Olympic Winter Games in Vancouver.

“In addition to telling some compelling and little-known Canadian stories, the exhibits 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 website is based on an exhibit currently on display at the Vancouver Holocaust Education Centre examining the controversies, achievements and consequences arising from Canada’s participation in the Olympics held in Nazi Germany.

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