Seminars Held for Croatian Educators at Yad Vashem and Mémorial de la Shoah

In the period from July to October 2013, Croatian educators had the opportunity to attend seminars at Yad Vashem in Israel and Mémorial de la Shoah in Paris.

The first seminar was held at at Yad Vashem from 1-8 July 2013, on the basis of The Agreement on Cooperation in the Field of Holocaust Education between the Ministry of Science, Education and Sports of the Republic of Croatia, the Education and Teacher Training Agency of the Republic of Croatia, and Yad Vashem - the Holocaust Martyrs' and Heroes' Remembrance Authority in Israel. The Agreement was signed on 2 June 2013 as a formalization of the previous more informal cooperation existing since 2005, which included more than 200 educators, opening to them possibility  to improve their skills and deepen their knowledge related to the history of antisemitism and Holocaust.

This year’s program involved 24 Croatian educators, and covered  topics such as Jewish life before the Holocaust, antisemitism in the 19th and 20th centuries, Jewish reactions towards discrimination in the 1930’s, teaching about the struggle for life during the Holocaust, Jewish traditions and the Holocaust through art, and a discussion with Holocaust survivors and the aftermath of the Holocaust including the lecture “Prosecution of Nazi War Criminals” held by Dr Efraim Zuroff from the Wiesenthal Institute.

The second seminar was held at the Mémorial de la Shoah in Paris from 21-24 October 2013 as a joint project of the Croatian and French institutions. It was organized on the basis of the Agreement on Cooperation in the Field of Holocaust Education between the Ministry of Science, Education and Sports of the Republic of Croatia, the Education and Teacher Training Agency of the Republic of Croatia, and Memorial de la Shoah, signed in 2012. The seminar involved 18 Croatian educators and embraced topics such as the evolution of German genocide practice and stages of the “final solution,” the Holocaust in the ISC and France, the genocide of the  Roma, mass crimes and genocide in 1990s during the conflicts in Rwanda and ex-Yugoslavia, remembrance of the Holocaust in post-conflict societies, and others.  Participants additionally had the opportunity to meet Ida Greenspan, a survivor, and to visit the site of Drancy. More about the seminar can be found at the website of the Education and Teacher Training Agency (in Croatian).