print this page

Stories that Move. Toolbox against Discrimination

10.07.2017

The International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) supports development of online teaching materials ‘Stories that Move. Toolbox against discrimination’.

The international youth conference Stories that Move, which took place in Berlin in 2013, was the inception point of a project to develop an online toolbox that challenges the critical thinking of learners on issues of diversity and discrimination.

The project consists of a multi-lingual website, easily accessible on the website, where young people can learn about antisemitism, racism, discrimination, hate speech, and inclusion. Equally important, the toolbox is a valuable practical tool for educators who can utilize it to set up so-called digital classrooms thus creating the environment for a constructive debate on these issues.

The scope of the project is not limited to antisemitism, but tackles other equally complex, sensitive issues such as racism, antigypsism, discrimination against the LGBTI community and Muslims.

The project enjoys funding from the EU and constitutes a successful example of IHRA-EU international cooperation. The online learning tool will be available in English, Dutch, German, Hungarian, Polish, Slovak and Ukrainian by the end of summer 2017. In autumn 2017 seminars will be held in each of the countries involved in the development of the tool. An international conference in June 2018 will facilitate international exchange and future implementation of the tool in schools across Europe.

The IHRA helped the development of this project by funding an expert meeting of educators and educational policymakers on teaching about antisemitism in Europe in relation to other forms of discrimination, in Berlin from 16 - 20 June 2014, together with the Foundation “Remembrance, Responsibility and Future” (EVZ)  - A joint event by the Anne Frank House, the Anne Frank Zentrum and the Federal Agency for Civic Education (BpB). The participating states in this project were represented by the Congress of National Communities (Ukraine), erinnern.at (Austria), the Milan Simecka Foundation (Slovakia), the Pedagogical University of Cracow (Poland), the Zachor Foundation (Hungary) and the OSCE-Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR).

The IHRA continues to be present in this project as leading educational expert and member of the IHRA Education Working Group, longstanding member of the Dutch Delegation to the IHRA, Karen Polak, is coordinating the project on behalf of the Anne Frank House, Amsterdam.

Image: Stories that Move: young people sharing their stories were recorded during two youth meetings in Berlin and Amsterdam. The 26 young people come from Austria, Denmark, Germany, Hungary, Poland, the Netherlands, Slovakia and Ukraine.