International Seminar for Teachers

The 16^th annual seminar ”Holocaust in Education“, attended by 53 Czech schoolteachers, took place in the Terezín Memorial between November 24 and 27, 2016. While only Czech lecturers teach at the first level of the whole educational cycle called ”How To Teach About the Holocaust“, lecturers from foreign institutions (Israeli Memorial Yad Vashem, Poland’s State Auschwitz-Birkenau Museum in Oświęcim, the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Germany´s Wannsee Conference House, the Anna Frank House in the Netherlands) are invited to its October program. The purpose of these seminars is to introduce Czech schoolteachers to the methodology and perspectives used in teaching about the Holocaust in the above institutions. Still, in keeping with traditions, there were also some domestic lecturers involved; officials of the Jewish Museum in Prague, the Terezín Initiative Institute or the organization People in Need participated, too; Mr. Petr Lhotka spoke about the Roma Holocaust, while lectures were also given by historians from the organizing institution – the Terezín Memorial, namely Jan Roubínek and Vojtěch Blodig.

An inspiring section of the whole program was an exhibition from the works of pupils of the Trmice elementary school near Ústí nad Labem, who worked, under the guidance of their teachers Jindřiška Waňková and Jitka Löblová, on the research within the project “Neighbors Who Disappeared” (The Langweills Who Disappeared). In addition to the presentation of research results, two short cartoon films ensuing from the work on this topic were also screened.

Evenings were devoted to art connected with the Holocaust, and not only works created locally. Apart from the screening of Alfréd Radok´s classical movie Daleká cesta (Long Journey) (1948), mention should be made of Thursday’s performance of the Disman Radio Children’s Ensemble, with Michal Macourek´s piano accompaniment, presenting the children’s opera Brundibár by Hans Krása and Adolf Hoffmeister. On Saturday, Czech actor Jaroslav Achab Haidler from the Činoherák Theater in Ústí nad Labem appeared in a one-man performance entitled Mr. Theodor Mundstock, based on the book of the same name written by Ladislav Fuks.

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