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What’s New at the International School for Holocaust Studies?
European Department - ICHEIC program
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The first annual ICHEIC International Forum took place at Yad Vashem in February, with participants from 12 European countries. An important meeting of European educators and coordinators from government offices and NGO’s from Austria, the Czech Republic, Croatia, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Lithuania, Poland, Romania, Russia, UK, and Ukraine, the Forum was organized within the framework of the ICHEIC Program for Holocaust Education in Europe.
The successful Forum provided a framework for participants and Yad Vashem staff to take part in an exchange of ideas and to enhance
cooperation on a bilateral and European level as well as to learn about educational activities in other countries. During the four-day program a wide
range of topics pertaining to Holocaust education were examined including the importance of teacher-training seminars in Israel and in Europe, and the
creation of educational units by Yad Vashem and its partners for use in a variety of European countries. Participants also discussed the importance of creating a European
network of educators, and specific methods to encourage post-seminar
cooperation.
For further information on the ICHEIC-Program,
click here.
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Educators from Yad Vashem were invited for the first time to visit The Republic of Srpska in Bosnia - Herzegovina in January, 2006. The purpose of the visit was to examine the possibilities for cooperation in joint educational and cultural ventures, and to participate in seminars with local teachers and educators - a number of whom have completed Yad Vashem teaching courses in recent years. The invitation was extended to the Yad Vashem staff by the Republic’s Government Secretary of Religion-Related Issues, Mr. Dusan Antelj.
Upon arrival, Yad Vashem representatives visited Donja Gradina, part of the former Jasenovac concentration camp complex and today in the area of Bosnia-Herzegovina. The mayor and the director of the site provided a guided tour. In addition, a Serbian Jasenovac survivor, who lost her family at the camp, gave a brief testimony.
Yad Vashem is currently exploring how it can work together with the Bosnia-Herzegovina Ministry of Education to organize teacher-training seminars for additional local educators. In addition, talks were held with representatives of the Serbian Orthodox Church about the possibility of organizing Holocaust education seminars for their teachers.
The visit was well covered in the local media. The Yad Vashem staff held workshops and lectures that were well attended, especially by local people who had never heard of the work of Yad Vashem. Local participants displayed interest in the Central Database of Holocaust Victims’ Names, giving suggestions for organizing a similar project for Serbian victims.
As a result of this visit, The International School for Holocaust studies at Yad Vashem plans to continue to expand its contact with Bosnia-Herzegovina in 2007.
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The International School presents a new online course
on the Holocaust: "At the Edge of the Abyss: The Holocaust of
European Jewry". The course, written by experts from the
International School for Holocaust Studies at Yad Vashem, provides
an extensive introduction to the subject of the Holocaust. It is
modular, consisting of 5 independent, stand-alone sub-courses. The
topics of these are: Jewish life before the Holocaust; Nazi Germany
and the Jews; Ghettos; the “Final Solution” and Holocaust survivors
and remembrance. The course makes use of a variety of sources from
the Yad Vashem archives, as well as photographs, documents,
testimonies, existing lesson plans, links to our online resource
center and more.
For more information, and to register to the first course,
click
here.
Internet Department
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Online Photo Gallery
The International School for Holocaust Studies website features an online photograph gallery of events which took place at the School. The photo gallery documents a variety of events from the ongoing activities at the School, including: seminars for foreign educators, exhibits on display at the School, visits by foreign delegates, lectures, conferences and workshops. The gallery appears in English, Hebrew, German Czech and French. Past featured galleries included photos from the seminar for survivors of the Tutsi Genocide in Rwanda, the staff exchange with representatives of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, art works exhibit by Czech children, the ICHEIC International Forum and more. More galleries, in various languages, are due to be uploaded in the near future.
To view the album, click here.
"Between the Worlds" – Social Circles in the Theresiendstadt Ghetto
In March 2006, The International School for Holocaust Studies launched the “between the Worlds” website, designed to accompany the similarly titled educational CD-ROM. The innovation of this CD-ROM, and of the website, is in its focus on daily life in the Theresienstadt Ghetto, and on the social circles that existed within it. Using these educational tools we become acquainted with the various groups that lives in the ghettos – adults, children, parents and others, and the relationship between these. This difficult journey tries to trace the feelings of these people in those days of loss, chaos and sudden partings. Yet this challenges us to observe the individual in the Holocaust, his or hers struggle with extreme hardships and the indelible scars they left.
The accompanying website includes a lesson plan that introduces one of the chapters, focusing on the world and the lives of children in the ghetto, and their relationship with various social circles in the ghetto. The lesson plan demonstrates how the teacher can work with the CD-ROM and incorporate the materials and ideas it presents.
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On March 8, 2006, a videoconference took place at Yad
Vashem between Israeli teachers and representatives from the US embassy and
Colonel Willis B. Scudder (90), a World War II veteran. The videoconference was
the result of cooperation between Mr. Efraim Cohen, the Cultural Attaché from
the US embassy to the State of Israel, and the International School for
Holocaust Studies at Yad Vashem. The videoconference, part of our outreach
activities, enables School staff to work with educators worldwide.
During the war, Colonel Scudder’s unit – the 89th
Infantry Division - liberated the Ohrdruf labor camp, thus becoming one of the
first within the ranks of the US military to physically encounter the horrors of
the Nazi camp system. Scudder talked of his memories from that period, on the
discovery of the camp, meeting the survivors and about his visit, together with
members of his unit, of the campsite in 1999.
Scudder described the utter surprise at finding the camp,
which his unit essentially discovered by chance. His account echoes the feelings
that Holocaust survivors have described from their own liberation: the lack of
any real joy, crying, feeling shock and often, apathy. Years later, the sights
and smells of the bodies strewn about the camp and the inmates wandering, as he
described, “like ghosts”, remained etched in his memory.
Scudder returned to the campsite of the camp in 1999 as
part of a tour of remembrance, in which surviving veterans from the 89th
Infantry Division retraced the invasion route through Europe. A German military
camp occupied the site and, much to their dismay, no monument or other testament
to what had transpired there existed. None of the soldiers in the camp knew
about the atrocities that had occurred there 55 years earlier. Colonel Scudder
noted that the local population’s attitude toward the veterans’ visit was
suspicious, even bordering on hostile.
The videoconference proved very emotional for Scudder and
for the participants alike. The shock of Scudder’s first encounter with the camp
and its survivors proved so difficult and traumatic that he did not speak of it
for sixty years. He only began telling his story in 2004, out of a feeling that
future generations must be told about the horrors of the Holocaust.
In the ensuing discussion, the Israeli teachers asked
several questions, touching on the similarities between Scudder’s reaction and
those of Holocaust survivors, the influence of the events on his world view, and
the educational importance of his message.
In summing up the meeting, Scudder stated, "our children
and grandchildren should know there was a time when man failed in his
responsibility to other men and, perhaps more importantly, in his responsibility
to himself”.
International Project Department
Suggestions for Holocaust Memorial Days
On January 27 in Brussels, Belgium, Yad Vashem and the Organization for Strategic Cooperation in Europe launched suggestions geared for educators on how to prepare Holocaust Memorial Day. These suggestions, including numerous examples from OSCE member states, have been developed by Yad Vashem and the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights in an effort to help support educators who are interested in developing programs, ceremonies and lesson plans connected with Holocaust Remembrance Days in their respective countries. This provisional version of the guidelines, including various examples and educational strategies, is now available in English, French, Flemish, Italian and Russian on the
Yad Vashem website. Additional languages of this document are currently being prepared
The Department for International Seminars in English and the Jewish World
The 5th International Conference on Teaching the
Holocaust to Future Generations
The Department for International Seminars in English and the Jewish World is responsible for the international conferences on Holocaust education that are held once every two years. Presently we are completing the preparations for the 5th International Conference on Teaching the Holocaust to Future Generations. Educators from around the world will gather at Yad Vashem from June 26-29, 2006 to hear some of the outstanding speakers and educators in the field of Holocaust education. The list includes Professor Lawrence Langer, Professor Irwin Cotler, Dr. Steven Feinstein, Professor Yehuda Bauer, Professor Colin Tatz, General Romeo Dallaire (ret.) among others. Afternoon workshops will allow the participants to present their research and classroom work in 45 minute sessions designed to promote an on-going dialogue among those who find this work so important.
Information on the conference can be accessed on this website or at www.teachingholocaust.com
For more information on the department,
click here.
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