October 3 – December 19 | Free
Join the Holocaust Center for Humanity and the Oregon Jewish Museum and Center for Holocaust Education, in partnership with Echoes & Reflections, for a NEW 10-part interactive asynchronous Holocaust educator professional development that begins October 3. Through the platform of EdPuzzle and other web-based interactive services, educators will learn from Sheryl Ochayon, Project Director of Echoes & Reflections at Yad Vashem, in conjunction with Yad Vashem and Echoes & Reflections educators and scholars about essentials of Holocaust education. The experience will allow educators to learn with and from each other at their own pace and will include 2 live sessions.
*Educators earn up to 20 clock hours (Washington) or PDUs (Oregon), plus more for attending one or both live sessions!
Weekly Offerings
Week 1: October 3 – Introductions and Pedagogy
What is the Holocaust? How do we define it? How do we teach the Holocaust so that students can go beyond the history to understand prejudice, make ethical choices, and respond to injustice? What are the important elements that must be included in our lessons? This session will present pedagogical suggestions on how to approach the teaching of the Holocaust in the classroom. We will explore the rich array of classroom content provided free to teachers on the Echoes & Reflections website, including visual testimonies, photographs, our new timeline, primary source documents, literature, and art.
Week 2: October 10- Antisemitism
Antisemitism did not begin when Adolf Hitler came to power in January 1933. Antisemitism had long been entrenched in Germany and other European countries, and Jews for many centuries had been victims of widespread hatred and suspicion. We will discuss the roots of antisemitism and its different forms in order to better understand the historical context of the rise of racial antisemitic ideology in Nazi Germany. We will also discuss stereotyping and propaganda, and how to support students in understanding them in order to combat prejudice and racism.
Week 3: October 17 – Nazi Germany
This session will look at the fragile democracy that existed in Germany between 1918 and 1933 and the historical events that allowed for the complete breakdown of this democracy. We will listen to the voice of the victims and investigate primary source materials to understand how anti-Jewish legislation, terror, and propaganda isolated German Jewry from the greater German society. We will refer to antisemitism as the roots of the ideology that led ultimately to the Holocaust, and we will discuss Kristallnacht, the Night of Broken Glass, as reflecting the “social death” of the German Jews.
Week 4: October 24 – The Ghettos
The ghettos were one phase in the continuum of Nazi racial policies that sought to solve the so-called “Jewish problem.” We will discuss the conditions in the ghettos and their impact on the Jews trapped inside them, focusing on the Lodz ghetto as a case study. Using primary sources, including a teenage diary, we will discuss how Jews grappled with dilemmas in the ghettos and attempted to maintain their humanity and traditions despite severe overcrowding, starvation, diseases, and grief.
Week 5: October 31 – Using Movies to Teach the Holocaust
How can we use movies in the classroom to teach about the Holocaust effectively? Are some movies better than others? Are there movies that shouldn’t be used? We will discuss all these questions as we watch clips.
Week 6: November 14 – The Final Solution
This session will explore the unthinkable and the unspeakable – the systematic mass murder of the Jews that came to be known as the “Final Solution of the Jewish Question.” We will use different resources including testimony, memoir, literature, and poetry. We will listen to the voice of the victim/survivor as reflected in these various forms. If time allows we may look at the perpetrator and the choices he made.
Week 7: November 21 – Spiritual and Armed Resistance
Contrary to popular belief, throughout the Holocaust Jews fought back. Sometimes this was done by taking up arms, but more often resistance was spiritual and cultural, including such acts as writing diaries and poetry, producing artwork, attending secret schools, and praying. Teaching about resistance can serve as inspiration and empowerment in the classroom. Through the deeply evocative medium of art, we will explore different forms of resistance showing the human spirit at its most resilient. This session will be led by Liz Elsby, a veteran Holocaust educator and an accomplished artist in her own right.
Week 8: November 28 – The Righteous Among the Nations
This session will focus on the types of rescue that occurred in Nazi-occupied Europe. We will consider the moral and ethical choices that non-Jews made in order to help Jews survive in the face of great danger, and discuss stories of the rescuers recognized by Yad Vashem as “Righteous Among the Nations”. We will consider the price of apathy and indifference in the face of injustice. Can one person make a difference? This session lends itself to a discussion of our ability, as human beings, to make choices and decisions for the good of others in the face of prejudice, racism and intolerance.
Week 9: December 5 – Liberation and Return to Life
Liberation was not the “happy ending” that we tend to think it was. There were complex emotional ramifications for the Jewish survivors as well as for the Allied soldiers who liberated the camps following the Nazis’ defeat. We will discuss liberation and the survivors’ “return to life,” including the physical, emotional and psychological obstacles they still had to overcome. We will also discuss the liberators’ reactions, and the displaced persons camps established after the war.
Week 10: December 12 – Social Justice and Racism/ Conclusions
The Holocaust occurred 80 years ago and decimated the Jews of Europe. It is an unprecedented example of extreme genocide fueled by hatred and racism. What are the lessons to be learned from this violent and barbaric episode in history? How do we apply these lessons to modern day society to ensure a more equitable environment for people of all religions and race?
Speakers May Include:
Sheryl Ochayon is Project Director of Echoes and Reflections for Yad Vashem: The World Holocaust Remembrance Center in Jerusalem. As an expert in women and the Holocaust and a dynamic educator, Ochayon speaks at seminars and international conferences. She has presented most recently at the Holocaust Memorial Miami Beach. She earned her law degree from Harvard University and practiced law in New York before making aliyah.
Dr. David Deutsch holds a PhD in sociology and anthropology at Ben Gurion University in Beersheba (Israel) and an MA in European studies from the Hebrew University in Jerusalem (Israel). Dr. Deutsch is the author of several journal articles including, “The Politics of Intimacy: Nazi and Hutu Propaganda as Case Studies” in Journal of Genocide Research (2016) and “Immer mit Liebe –Models of Empathic Violence in Nazi Euthanasia Trials” in Holocaust Studies: Journal of Culture and History (2016). In 2014, Dr. Deutsch presented his paper “Rereading Euthanasia Testimonies: The case of Prof. Heyde” at the Workshop for Advanced PhD Candidates, USC, Los Angeles. He is currently a historian at Yad Vashem.
Lori Gerson is an Educational Coordinator in Yad Vashem’s Overseas Education and Training Department where she lectures, coordinates seminars, develops curriculum and guides educators in best practices. After graduating from Barnard College in New York, Lori worked for many years in the field of education in the United States. In 2005, Lori moved to Israel with her family and then joined the Yad Vashem team as a guide for educational groups. She took on her present role in 2016.
Yoni Berrous was born in France and made Aliyah with his family in 1992. He has a MA in International Relations from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. In 2007, Yoni began working as a guide for students and Israeli security personnel at Yad Vashem. Currently he is the Head of the European Jewish Programming in the International School for Holocaust Studies at Yad Vashem. He is responsible for Holocaust educational training for formal and informal educators from Jewish communities in Europe. He also leads day study programs in Jewish schools and communities around Europe. These tools are adapted especially for different age groups and for a Jewish learning environment.
Liz Elsby has worked at Yad Vashem since 2006 as a Holocaust Educator and museum tour guide. She guides educational groups in Poland, Prague, Terezin and Berlin, as well as teaching about the Holocaust to teachers in the USA through Yad Vashem and Echoes and Reflections. Liz is also an artist, illustrator and graphic designer and lives with her family in Jerusalem, Israel.
Jesse Tannetta is a former high school teacher and is now the Program Manager for Echoes & Reflections specializing in providing professional development to middle and high school educators focused on Holocaust education throughout the United States. He holds bachelor’s degrees in History and Catholic Theology from Emmanuel College as well as a master’s degree in Holocaust and Genocide Studies from Gratz College. He is a current Ph.D. student who is just beginning his dissertation analyzing the life of concentration camp guard Hermine Braunsteiner Ryan.
Jennifer Goss is a Program Manager for Echoes & Reflections. A 19 year veteran Social Studies teacher, Jen taught until 2021 at Staunton High School in Staunton, VA. She had previously taught for 10 years in Pennsylvania. It was there that Jennifer, her colleagues and her students worked to create the award-winning, Emmy-nominated documentary film, Misa’s Fugue. In addition to her classroom teaching, Jennifer is a USHMM Teacher Fellow ‘10. She holds a Master’s degree in Holocaust and Genocide Studies from West Chester University of Pennsylvania and a Master’s degree in American History from Pace Univeristy. Recently, she authored a chapter in the University of Wisconsin Press’ release, Teaching and Understanding the Holocaust.