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Memorial sites and their importance for the future of education
“Memorial Sites as a Key for the Future Education” is the title of a seminar for Polish and Lithuanian educators, which was held on 9-14 July 2012. The training, which took place in Lithuania, was attended by 25 people: teachers and employees of departments of education at memorial sites throughout Poland who implement the theme of World War II within their work with youth.
During this week in Lithuania, Polish participants had the opportunity to become familiar with the activities carried out by the organisers, listen to lectures (i.e. the course of the Holocaust in Lithuania) and visit places associated with the commemoration of the tragic events of World War II. Educators learned about the history of Fort IX in Kaunas, which during the German occupation was the site of mass executions of Jews brought here from various ghettos in Lithuania, and the place of mass murder in Ponary. They also visited Kėdainiai, the Czesław Miłosz Museum in Šeteniai, Vilnius and Trakai.
“The Lithuanian organisers made great effort to ensure that the programme was interesting and contained a number of cognitive content,” said Andrzej Kasperek, one of the participants, a Polish teacher in the secondary school in Nowy Dwór, Gdańsk. “Of particular value to me was the meeting with Lithuanian teachers and the opportunity to exchange experience and the knowledge of projects implemented in schools in Lithuania,” he added.
“The seminar was attended by teachers working with secondary school students and post-graduates in various regions of Poland, as well as employees of memorial sites and academic lecturers,” Marta Berecka, the ICEAH coordinator, announced. “These are people who implement many projects, who care for the better perfection of their work techniques. The opportunity to exchange experiences and explore various innovative methods will result in joint initiatives in the future. This is an additional, very valuable result of this seminar,” added Berecka.
The seminar was organised by the Secretariat of the International Commission for the Evaluation of the Crimes of the Nazi and the Soviet Occupation Regimes in Lithuania, and the entire project was financed by the European Commission programme, “Europe for Citizens”. In Poland, the project was coordinated by the ICEAH.
