Between 14
and 18 September the short term joint staff training event was held in Poland.
32 teachers from eight partner countries participated in lectures, workshops,
meetings with survivors, gaining knowledge and skills necessary to fulfill a
task that we have set ourselves at the beginning of the project – creating
innovative lesson plans for teaching about the Holocaust and the II World War.
Participants
of the meeting:
Greece
Mrs Anna
Doiranli
Mrs
Despoina Demiri
Mr Anestis
Chatziioakeimidis
Mr George
Papageorgiou
Spain
Mr Darío Martínez Montesinos
Mrs María Salud
García Zamora
Mrs Ana María
Ibañez Lopera
Mrs Carmen
García Alarcón
Mrs María Belen
Delgado Chaparro
Finland
Mrs Silja
Kärjä
Mrs Mari
Toivanen
Mr Lauri Simpanen
Mr Petri
Hokkanen
Slovakia
Mrs Sabína
Blažová
Mrs
Štefánia Nádaská
Mr Jozef
Žilinek.
Mrs Marta Fialková
Italy
Mrs Paola
Perotto
Mrs Franca
Ameli
Mr Ilenio Celoria
Mrs Maria
Laura Franchi
Mrs Laura
Catalano
Poland
Mrs Joanna
Janas-Sajdak
Mrs Joanna
Hojda
Mrs Joanna Popławska-Kozłowska
Mrs Anna Badek
Lithuania
Mrs Teresa
Segalienė
Mrs Jelizaveta
Lichtinšain
Mrs Ela
Pavinskienė
Ms Sofija
Pavinskaitė
Turkey
Mrs Sibel
Turk
Mrs
Katarzyna Atmaca
14th September
We began
our training in Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum in Oświęcim. Unfortunately, we
weren’t able to meet prof. Długoborski as planned, for reasons we had no
influence over. Instead, we were able to spend some time in the Reflection Room
in the Block 27, where all participants could draw inspiration for further work
listening to answers by famous people, survivors to such questions as: Where
was God during the Holocaust? What happened to the notions of good and evil
after the Holocaust? Can the same person be a victim, a perpetrator and a
passive observer?
After lunch
we went on a study tour of KL Auschwitz, during which we could visit blocks
that are not usually available for visisting. During this 4-hour tour two
wonderful guides, Mrs Kasia and Mr Łukasz told us the story behind Auschwitz.
15th September
We spent the second day of training in
Oświęcim. First, we attended a lecture by dr. Piotr Trojański, the employee of
the Pedagogical University in Kraków. The title of the lecture was: “Teaching
about the Holocaust in Poland and other countries. Opportunities and
obstacles”. We learned about the history of the museum, about international
conflicts related to the place itself and about methodology of teaching about
the Holocaust. Later, we participated in the multimedia presentation: “Memory
and Identity. The meaning of Auschwitz in the historical education.”, which
gave us cues concerning teaching about the Holocaust.
After lunch
we set out on a study tour around KL Auschwitz II –Birkenau. Many of the
participant of the meeting claimed it was one of the most important experiences
of their lives.
16th September
On that day we moved to Kraków in order to
visit Galicia Jewish Museum located in the former Jewish district – Kazimierz.
We bagan training with an introductory lecture and a workshop: “Rescuers,
passive observers, collaborators – the analysis of attitudes of Polish society
towards the Extermination”. During the workshop, working in groups with
biographies of people who experienced the war, we could find out that the
distinction into victims, rescuers and collaborators is usually blurred, when
we take into consideration the situational and historical context. Apart from
that all participant gained interesting cues and materials for working in the
classroom.
After the
workshop we had an honour to meet Mrs Lidia Maksymowicz, rescued from the
Birkenau camp. She told us the story of her difficult childhood in the camp.
The meeting was a unique experience that we shall long remember.
17th September
Thursday was another hard-working day. By
participating in a 3-hour workshop “Geography of extermination” we gained
another innovative tool to teach about the Holocaust. We created maps of places
related to the heritage and the Extermination of Jews in a chosen region, and
then described the map using two types of narration. It is clearly visible in
the photos that all participants were genuinely engaged in the activities:
In the
afternoon we took part in another workshop, during which we summed up the most
important issues related to teaching about the Holocaust with the help of the
museum education department employee. We have also learned how to use
biographies properly and finally used all the knowledge we had gained to create
innovative lesson plans based on the biographies of people who experienced the
Holocaust.
18th September
On the last day of the training we returned to
Auschwitz- Birkenau State Museum in order to participate in the workshops: “The
fate of children and youngsters” and “The history of a single transport”.
No comments:
Post a Comment