Teaching 20th century European-Jewish HerStories. Using Berlin as a 3D Classroom

Centropa held a three-day training seminar for 35 teachers from Israel, Poland and Germany on "Teaching about European Jewish HerStories“. The seminar was a part of the EU-funded HerStories project, which portrays the stories of seven Jewish women from seven European countries. During the training seminar we discussed and shared best practices on teaching about 20th century Jewish history, and paved the way for future international projects between the participating educators.

We want to thank our supporters; the European Commission, the Konrad Adenauer Foundation and the LOTTO Foundation, for making this seminar possible.

The teacher training seminar for the HerStories project in Germany invited 30 teachers from all over Germany, Poland and Israel to Berlin. The seminar took place at the Academy of the Konrad Adenauer Foundation as well as all over the city of Berlin. During the 3-day seminar program, the teachers - some of them long-standing Centropa teachers, some of them new to the Centropa universe - were introduced to the rich Jewish history of Berlin as well as different approaches to Holocaust education through walking tours on Jewish life and memorials to the victims of National Socialism, a visit to the House of the Wannsee Conference and Memorial Track 17. In several workshop slots, the participants were asked to discuss ways of integrating Jewish history through biographies - using the life stories of the seven protagonists of the HerStories project - into their teaching and then presenting their findings to the group.

Through the activities, participants’ familiarization with the Jewish history of Berlin was increased, putting a special emphasis on Jewish women’s history and gender-specific approaches to education. The participants reflected on concrete ways of teaching about Jewish history using materials developed within the HerStories project and came up with specific ideas for lesson plans. Furthermore, they were given a space to develop transnational student projects between schools in Germany, Israel and Poland.

More information about Centropa: www.centropa.org
For more information on HerStories, a project in partnership with the Jewish Museum of Greece, Galicia Jewish Museum Krakow, Jugend- und Kulturprojekt e.V., Mozaika Spain, and Centropa Hungary, please visit: https://her-stories.eu/