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Second “Teaching the Holocaust” Summer School
Once again, teachers interested in the Holocaust are taking part in an intensive five-day program on this difficult subject. The Second “Teaching the Holocaust” Summer School, from July 2-6, 2007, follows up on the success of last year’s course and reflects the undiminished interest in the theme.
The summer school is a cooperative effort by the Jagiellonian University European Studies Institute, the International Center for Education about Auschwitz and the Holocaust at the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum in Oświęcim, and the Holocaust Memorial Resource and Education Center of Florida, with the additional cooperation of the Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies at the University of Minnesota, the Claims Conference, and the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany.
The mission of the “Teaching the Holocaust” Summer School is to build a just, open, and tolerant society through the inclusion of teaching about the Holocaust in the Polish educational system and, to use the words that appear on the logo of one of the sponsoring institutions, The Holocaust Memorial Resource and Education Center of Florida, “preserving the past to protect the future.”
“This joint Polish-American educational initiative is all the more relevant and needed at a time when we are increasingly witnessing the rebirth of nationalistic, and even downright racist slogans,” says Jolanta Ambrosewicz-Jacobs of the Jagiellonian University European Studies Institute and the ICEAH.
“Sixty people are taking part in this year’s Summer School,” says School coordinator Katarzyna Kopff-Muszyńska. “The project is addressed to teachers, students, and trainers and organizers from non-governmental organizations from all over Poland that deal with the Holocaust. The partners have invited outstanding university faculty and experts from Poland and the USA as lecturers. They will share with the participants their knowledge about how to teach the Holocaust and which materials to use.”
“By organizing the ‘Teaching the Holocaust’ Summer School for the second time, we are keeping the promise we made last year to 300 teachers who, because of the limited number of places, could not be invited to the first edition of the course,” said Jolanta Ambrosewicz-Jacobs.
The second “Teaching the Holocaust” Summer School includes lectures, presentations, workshops, films, panel discussions, and question-and-answer sessions with experts. The participants spend one day in Oświęcim, where they could choose from three available options for study visits to the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum. They also took part in scholarly sessions at the International Center for Education about Auschwitz and the Holocaust and visited the Auschwitz Jewish Center and the International Youth Meeting House.
