News
The Holocaust in the European Perspective
From the 18th until the 23rd of September, a second seminar was held in Poland for Polish and Dutch educators taking part in the project “Holocaust Education in European Perspective”.
During the seminar, the participants visited the site of the former Auschwitz-Birkenau Concentration Camps and during their visit to the Collections Department, they were better able to get to know the artistic works created by inmates of the camp. They also visited the Jewish Center in Oświęcim, where the participants attended a workshop, visited the Synogogue, and Jewish Cemetary.
As part of the program that took part in Kraków, the group visited, among others, the exhibit “Kraków Under Nazi Occupation 1939-45” that is found in the building that was Oskar Schindler’s factory during the War; as well as the International School in Kraków. A part of the visit to the school consisted of a tour conducted by students of the exhibit, “Anne Frank – a history for today”.
The participants, working in smaller groups, have continued the project begun in March at the first meeting in the Netherlands. Each of the teams is working on a different task, and these include: the preparation of a textbook based on the concept of peer education for use with the traveling exhibition entitled, "Anne Frank - the story today"; development of a guidebook to prepare young people for visits to Auschwitz as well as other memorial sites; the creation of teaching materials to accompany the story of the Polish edition graphic novel, entitled "The Search"; and the preparation of an educational traveling exhibition devoted to the subject of Auschwitz.
The seminar is funded by the Government of Holland, and made possible by the cooperation between the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum and the Anne Frank House in Amsterdam.
About project
The three-year project, entitled, “Holocaust Education in European Perspective” has been conducted in cooperation with the Anne Franke House in Amsterdam since 2010. Taking part in the program are teachers, instructors, educators, and methodologists as well as employees of educational departments of memorial sites connected with the history of World War II. During the seminar, the participants from Poland and Holland provide examples of good practices in teaching about the Holocaust and World War II in their given countries. Particular emphasis is placed on education at the Memorial Site and Museum in preparing young people to visit this place, its educational exhibitions, and innovative teaching methods used in educating about the Holocaust.
Participants are able to choose to do one of the following tasks:
- Preparation of a textbook based on the concept of peer education for use with the traveling exhibition entitled, "Anne Frank - the story today".
- Preparation of an exhibition about Polish minorities.
- Development of a guidebook to prepare young people for visits to Auschwitz as well as other memorial sites.
- Creation of teaching materials to accompany the story of the Polish edition graphic novel entitled "The Search".
- Preparation of an educational traveling exhibition devoted to the subject of Auschwitz.
The project entitled "Teaching about the Holocaust from a European perspective" is funded by the Dutch Ministry of Welfare, Health and Sport. Among the organizers of the Polish group, there are specialists from the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum (Dr. Piotr Trojański, Alicja Białecka, Marta Berecka), the Jewish Historical Institute (Edyta Kurek) as well as the State Museum at Majdanek (Jolanta Laskowska). Members of the working group from the Netherlands are Karen Polak, Levien Rouw from the Anne Frank House in Amsterdam, Annemiek Gringold of the Hollandsche Schowburg and Rob van Otterdijk of Fontys University.
