The Auschwitz Institute for Peace and Reconciliation, in partnership with the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum, and with financial support from the Task Force for International Cooperation on Holocaust Education, Remembrance, and Research (ITF) and the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany, held its first Raoul Wallenberg Seminar for Advanced Holocaust Education November 3 to November 8, 2008, in Oswiecim, Poland.
Curriculum
The curriculum of the course complied with educational guidelines of the Task Force for International Cooperation on Holocaust Education, Remembrance, and Research (ITF).
The four pillars of the curriculum were as follows:
1) To advance participants' knowledge of the general history of the Holocaust and challenge the lack of information and misconceptions about the Holocaust;
2) To develop an in-depth understanding of the role of government officials during the Holocaust, in particular examining the loss of a society's commitment to democratic values and how this contributed to an environment in which genocide could occur;
3) To increase awareness of the genocidal process by studying other genocides while building on developments in the field of comparative genocide studies, and to enhance participants' sensitivity to prejudice, racism, and anti-Semitism in public policy and the ramifications of them;
4) To achieve a greater understanding of current policy mechanisms of response specific to participants' ministries, and examine how the latest methods of genocide risk evaluation and early warning may improve these mechanisms.
Goals
1. To reflect on current approaches to Holocaust education and memorialization.
2. To exchange best practices based on participant countries' current programs.
3. To encourage collaborative action among participants.
4. To foster an understanding of the responsibility of states to memorialize and educate on the Holocaust and to open their memorialization programs to activism related to current genocides.
5. To form a working-group team that will follow up and remain in contact.
The first Wallenberg Seminar produced a network of scholars committed to enhancing the quality of Holocaust memorialization and education programs developed in their ministries. With their assistance, AIPR serves as depository of a database identifying the programs run and funded by their ministries, which will serve to further cooperation through partnerships in participating countries.
In 2009, the Mémorial de la Shoah from Paris committed to joining AIPR and the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum as a partner in organizing the Wallenberg Seminars. The Mémorial de la Shoah promises to be an important partner because of its specific approach to memorialization and the outstanding experts it offers as instructors for the program. Their commitment is a welcome step forward in AIPR's commitment to making its programs truly international.
Participants
The Raoul Wallenberg Center for Advanced Holocaust Education targets its training at mid-level policymakers with the following characteristics:
1) intellectual capacity;
2) proven leadership skills;
3) a passion for the subject of human rights and the rule of law.
The first Wallenberg Seminar featured 21 participants from 13 countries: Argentina, Austria, Azerbaijan, Belgium, Bosnia, Croatia, Cyprus, Hungary, Macedonia, Poland, Romania, Serbia, and the United States.
1. Rauf Pashayev, Azerbaijan
2. Wouter Brauns, Flemish community, Belgium
3. Nico Wouters, Flemish community, Belgium
4. Karina Chabowska, Poland
5. Alberto Sileoni, Argentina
6. Federico Lorenz, Argetnina
7. Christoph Bazil, Austria
8. Ildiko Laszak, Hungary
9. Mihaly Riszovannij, Hungary
10. Morgan Blum, US
11. Drazen Visnjic, Republika Srpska/Bosnia
12. Dusan Pavlovic, Republika Srpska/Bosnia
13. Ana Barbulescu, Romania
14. Laura Degeratu, Romania
15. Rajka Bucin, Croatia
16. Kristijan Gotic, Croatia
17. Nathalie Nyst, French community, Belgium
18. Milenko Djuricic, Serbia
19. Ivan Manojlovic, Serbia
20. Rahamin Mizrahi, Macedonia
21. Yiannis Economides, Cyprus
Instructors
The first Wallenberg Seminar, designed in cooperation with the staff of the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum, offered an innovative combination of interactive tours, presentations of Holocaust memorialization programs from each country attending, and lectures by leading experts in Holocaust memorialization and education. Using Auschwitz as a central motif, instructors focused on trends during the Holocaust, as well as recurring themes in memorialization, in order to introduce and address key challenges in Holocaust education and memorialization today. Instruction topics were as follows:
"Jews in Contemporary European Memories: The Sociology of Anti-Semitism," lecture and discussion by Prof. Slawomir Kapralski, Warsaw School of Social Sciences and Humanities
"Coming Out of Amnesia in Europe: The Holocaust in Philosophy, Nonformal Education, and Art," lecture and discussion by Dr. Jolanta Ambrosewicz-Jacobs, Center for Holocaust Studies, Jagiellonian University
"Polish Collective Memory of the Holocaust," lecture and discussion by Dr. Annamaria Orla-Bukowska, Institute of Sociology, Jagiellonian University
"The Relevance of Holocaust Studies Today," lecture and discussion by Prof. Michael Berenbaum, American Jewish University
"Structures of Memory: Auschwitz and the Holocaust in Literature," lecture and discussion by Alicja Bialecka, ICEAH, Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum
"The Art of Commemoration," lecture and discussion by Teresa Swiebocka, deputy director, Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum
"Representations of Auschwitz," lecture and discussion by Prof. Marek Kucia, Institute of Sociology, Jagiellonian University
"Auschwitz and the Holocaust in Films: Educational Implications," lecture by Dr. Piotr Trojanski, Institute of History, Pedagogical University of Krakow
"Auschwitz as a Concentration Camp and a Center of Genocide of European Jewry," opening lecture and discussion by Dr. Piotr Setkiewicz, Historical Department, Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum
Program: Raoul Wallenberg Seminar No. 1, November 3–8, 2008
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