Seminar Holocaust in Education for Czech Teachers in the Terezín Memorial.
The Terezín Memorial, in cooperation with the Czech Ministry of Education, Youth, and Sports, hosted the twenty-second annual teacher training seminar for secondary-level educators entitled Holocaust in Education from November 28 to December 1, 2024.
Thirty-four Czech schoolteachers had the opportunity to explore various methodological approaches shared by lecturers and experts from renowned institutions. The participants engaged in workshops prepared by the Jewish Museum in Prague, the Israeli Yad Vashem Memorial, the Polish State Museum Auschwitz-Birkenau, and the German House of the Wannsee Conference, among others. They also attended a series of lectures focused on this subject.
The evenings featured cultural programs related to the Holocaust. On Friday evening, children from the Disman-Čáry-Um ensemble performed the children’s opera “Brundibár,” directed by Mr. and Mrs. Flégl, with piano accompaniment by Andrea Mottlová. On Saturday evening, the Clarinet Society performed in the attic of the Magdeburg Barracks, paying tribute to the Ghetto Swingers orchestra. Historian Petr Koura provided context during an online presentation.
In addition to gaining new methodological insights and didactic materials to apply in their classrooms, participants also had the chance to share their experiences with fellow educators.
Jana Švarcová
Czech-Polish Teacher Training Seminar in Terezín 2025
The first chapter of the traditional Czech-Polish teacher training seminar was held at the Terezín Memorial in early February of this year. The second part will take place at the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum in Poland in September.
These courses are designed to improve collaboration between schoolteachers from the Czech Republic and Poland, along with their respective schools. The event in Terezín was attended by twelve selected Czech teachers, all of whom had participated in at least three levels of teacher training seminars organized by the Memorial and other partner institutions, with financial support from the Czech Ministry of Education, Youth, and Sports. An equal number of teachers from Poland also attended the course.
The seminar got underway with presentations that helped its participants share information about their respective home regions, helping them to connect with one another.
The next two days were filled with tours, expert lectures, and workshops. Some sessions were attended by both Czech and Polish teachers, while others were held separately. The Polish teachers were visiting the Terezín Memorial for the first time, so the basic tours were more appropriate for them. In contrast, the Czech schoolteachers explored normally inaccessible areas that focused on the history of the former Terezín Ghetto and the Gestapo Prison. During their visit, the Czech teachers toured the interiors of the Vrchlabí (Hohenelbe) Barracks, which once served as a military hospital and also recalled the fate of Gavrilo Princip, the famous Terezín prisoner. At the Small Fortress, they accessed the watchtower above the Fourth Courtyard and examined the water reservoir on Bastion III. They also learned about the issues related to sewerage and water supply that negatively impacted life in the Gestapo Prison.
The participants also tried out the roles of students and pupils during various workshops (The Bystander Effect, In the Footsteps of Memory, Schoolchild in the Protectorate), which are offered to school groups coming to the programs of the Department of Education, and together they listened to a lecture by the historian of the Terezín Memorial, Tomáš Fedorovič, on the topic of psychiatry and its patients in the Terezín Ghetto. The program also included a visit to the depository of the Department of Collections, where the teachers learned not only interesting facts about the work associated with the acquisition and preservation of exhibits, but also engaging stories related to them.
A valued aspect of the seminar is the presentation of projects that individual teachers are developing with their pupils and students as part of their educational agenda in schools. The Czech teachers presented their projects in Terezín, while their Polish colleagues will showcase theirs in the second part of the seminar.
Jan Kaňa
