International Conference on Education and the Holocaust

The 2015 and 2017 ICEH have led to the successful development and implementation of country-specific initiatives in sixteen countries. The initiatives, tailored to the respective national context, effectively contributed to the advancement and institutionalization of education about the Holocaust and genocide in all participating countries. UNESCO and the USHMM support the country teams in the development and implementation of their projects through regular exchanges, technical guidance and resources.

Project Design

The design of each project is determined by each team’s professional expertise and country-specific challenges. All project contribute to increasing the visibility, impact, and productivity of education about the Holocaust and genocide and strengthen the national discourse about the Holocaust. To this end, the projects incorporate activities such as curriculum development and revision, creation of educational materials, capacity-building initiatives, cultural projects, academic initiatives and pedagogical research.

Project Implementation

The projects are implemented by the country team members in cooperation with identified local key partners, including for instance UNESCO Field Offices, and run for approximately one year.

Ongoing projects

• Colombia: Learning about the Holocaust to foster peace building

In Colombia, the National Ministry of Education, National Center of Historical  Memory and the Casa de la Memorial Museum  work together to introduce education about the Holocaust and genocide as a means to strengthen the peacebuilding process in Colombia. The project is based on a case study of displaced person (DP) camps in Germany after the Second World War, which will inform workshops for educators on confronting trauma through education and will serve to develop educational materials and recommendations. The outcomes of the project will be presented at an international conference to be held in November 2018.

• Indonesia: Teacher trainings on Education about the Holocaust

In Indonesia Sanata Dharma University, State University of Malag and the Center for Development of Early Childhood and Community Education West Java are cooperating to organize two teacher trainings in July and October 2018 on teaching the Holocaust in Indonesian schools. All workshop materials will be gathered and published in an article, which will be shared with the participating teachers and the Ministry of Education.

• Kenya: Integrating education about the Holocaust into the national curriculum

In Kenya, the Ministry of Education and the Kenya Institute for Curriculum Development have formed a team to integrate Global Citizenship Education (GCED) in Kenya with a focus on education about the Holocaust to prevent conflict and atrocities, into national curricula. The team will organize and facilitate sensitization meetings and trainings for identified key stakeholders and will conduct a review of relevant textbooks and educational materials.

• Mexico: Developing open source educational materials

In Mexico, the Latin American Faculty of Social Science, the Ibero-American University, the National Autonomous University of Mexico, the National Institute for Education Evaluation work together to introduce Holocaust, Genocide and Democratic Education as a new field of study in middle school  education in Mexico. The team is  developing educational materials and study guides for middle school teachers in collaboration with the Ministry of Education. The project also envisages the creation of a UNESCO Chair at the Mexican Ibero-American University and an international conference on Holocaust and genocide education in November 2018.

• Namibia: Addressing Namibia’s violent past

In Namibia, the Museums’ Association of Namibia has developed the first Namibian exhibition on the 1904 genocide against the Herero and Nama, entitled “The Namibian Genocide - Learning from the Past”. The traveling exhibition will be displayed in all 14 Namibian states and visited by school groups. To accompany the exhibition, teachers will be trained as guides and supplementary educational materials will be developed.

The Namibian team has further partnered with the South African team to bring the exhibition “Deadly Medicine: Creating the Master Race” to Namibia in 2019.

• South Africa: Learning about the Nazi regime’s “science of race”

In South Africa, the South African Holocaust and Genocide Foundation displays the exhibition “Deadly Medicine: Creating the Master Race” – originally created by the USHMM - in five South African cities in cooperation with its regional Holocaust and Genocide Centers and local universities. The team facilitates guided visits for school groups and workshops for diverse adult groups that focus on Nazi racial ideology and its links to colonial anthropology in Namibia and the history of Apartheid in South Africa.

The project is carried out in partnership with the Namibian team. In February 2019, the exhibition will be moved to Namibia.

• Tunisia: Learning about the dangers of propaganda and Tunisia’s past during World War II

In Tunisia, teachers and researchers from Manouba University and other institutions in Tunisia have developed a project on the history of Nazi propaganda linked to the exhibition “State of Deception: The Power of Nazi Propaganda”, initially created by the USHMM. The Tunisian team is displaying the exhibition in English, French and Arabic. The project also addresses the history of Tunisia during the time of the German occupation and the history of the Tunisian Jewish community through exhibitions, film screenings and book presentations, as well as workshops for educators and students.

The project will conclude with a conference for education stakeholders in December 2018.

• Ukraine: Museums as places to address traumatic pasts

In Ukraine, the Babi Yar Memorial Center, the Holodomor Research and Education Center, Odessa National University, Taras Shevchenko National University and Dnipro National University cooperate to hold a workshop in Kyiv to discuss memorial challenges regarding the Holocaust in Ukraine and their lessons for other cases in Ukrainian history. The workshop in November 2018 will be targeted at specialists in memorializing traumatic pasts, individuals responsible for implementing memory policy, academics, professors, artists, civil servants, civil and human rights NGO activists, and memorial/museum staff.  

• Argentina: Training teachers to work with memory sites and collective maps to educate about the Holocaust and genocide

In Argentina, the Education & Memory Program  of the National Ministry of Education, the Human Rights Free Chair of the University of Buenos Aires, the ESMA Memory Site Museum and the Buenos Aires Holocaust Museum are cooperating to organize three training seminars for teachers in October and November 2018 on how memory sites can contribute to teaching about the Holocaust and other genocides. The project team will also invite schools to participate in building a “collective map” by registering online information about memory sites in their local communities. All project outcomes will be collected in a teachers’ guide.

Projects in development

• India: Training Indian policymakers and teacher trainers on education about the Holocaust

Finalized projects

• Chile: Organization of teacher trainings on education about the Holocaust and human rights
• Hungary: Organization of workshops for students about concepts of complicity and collaboration leading to the development of their own travelling exhibitions
• India: Organization of the first international academic conference on mass atrocities and education about the Holocaust in India, leading to several publications
• Lithuania: Organization of teacher trainings and school events on researching the role of local rescuers during the Holocaust
• Mexico: Development of materials for teachers in support of teaching and learning about resilience and resistance during the Holocaust
• Republic of Korea: Development of the first teacher’s guide on Education about the Holocaust in the Korean context
• Rwanda: Organization of teacher trainings to raise awareness about the Holocaust in Rwandan schools
• Turkey: Organization of student seminars on the history of the Holocaust and other atrocity crimes
• Cross-regional Chilean-Mexican initiative: Organization of seminars to raise awareness about the importance of strengthening education on genocide and mass atrocities among political figures.

To learn more about these projects, please consult the ICEH 2015-2017 Achievements Report.