This year, fifty teachers attended the annual teacher workshop, Foundations of Holocaust Education. The workshop curriculum was provided by Echoes & Reflections and facilitated by Dr. Logan Greene. Echoes & Reflections is a multimedia professional development program that provides teachers with free and accurate Holocaust education lesson plans and professional development programs.
A special part of the day was “Auschwitz in Front of Your Eyes,” a live online guided tour of the Auschwitz-Birkenau camp. Through Auschwitz in Front of Your Eyes, teachers were guided live from Poland through Auschwitz I and Auschwitz II-Birkenau by a Polish guide from the Auschwitz-Birkenau Memorial and Museum. The experience combined live views of the historic site with archival material and recordings of Holocaust survivor testimony, allowing teachers to encounter historical evidence within the physical landscape where these events occurred. The opportunity to see locations that are not normally accessible to visitors, including Block 10 at Auschwitz I, enriched the experience. For many teachers in the room, the virtual tour transformed Auschwitz from a place they had previously encountered through photographs into a tangible historical site. The combination of the landscape and individual survivor voices created a powerful immersive experience that invited teachers to consider the human stories behind the historical facts and how best to communicate those stories to their students. The virtual tour demonstrated how technology, when grounded in factual evidence can expand access to Holocaust education and preserve voices of individuals who experienced Auschwitz. The experience invites teachers to consider not only what to teach about Auschwitz, but how to teach it.
Everyone at HERC would like to thank the teachers who participated, the volunteers who helped, Dr. Logan Greene for facilitating the workshop, and to Echoes & Reflections for providing valuable curriculum and educational resources.
Thumbnail/Header: Dr. Logan Green
Top left: Teachers in attendance
Top right: Volunteers Wendy Sidlofsky and Susan Harris
Bottom left: Lyssa Oberkreser and Barbara Goldstein
Bottom/Bottom right: Educators watching live guided tour of Auschwitz