Educating Teachers of Non-Jewish Schools about the Holocaust

The All-Ukrainian Tkuma Research and Education Center has gained considerable experience in working with Directors of Studies and teachers delivering special course in the history of the Jewish people and the Holocaust, both in Jewish and non-Jewish schools of Ukraine. In accordance with the Declaration of the Stockholm International Forum on Holocaust, and in association with the Ukrainian Ministry of Education and Research, and regional institutes of the professional advancement of teachers, Tkuma Center has developed a special collaborative project with academic and educational institutions of Ukraine. Textbooks and teaching materials on Holocaust history have been developed to be used in Ukrainian schools.

The center held a Holocaust Education Seminar for History Teachers of non-Jewish Schools in Dnepropetrovsk, from March 10-14. The seminar brought together 50 non-Jewish school Directors of Studies and teachers from all over Ukraine, including: Dnepropetrovsk, Kiev, Lvov, Zaporozhye, Simpheropol, Krivoy Rog, Dneprodzerzhinsk, Lvov, and Kharkov. Tkuma organized the seminar in cooperation with Dnepropetrovsk Institute of Education and Regional Scientific Methodological Center.

The main goals of the seminar were to:

• Create a universal system of Holocaust teaching and study in non-Jewish schools of Ukraine assisted methodologically by the Tkuma Research and Education Center in Dnepropetrovsk.
• Promote Holocaust history awareness among non-Jews, interethnic tolerance, understanding and work towards the elimination of anti-Semitism.

It is important to emphasize that seminar participants were not just passive listeners, but took an active part in discussion of methodological, philosophical and historical problems. Each participant had an opportunity to express his/her personal point of view. Attention was paid to the importance and problems of teaching about the Holocaust in non-Jewish schools. The seminar succeeded in providing participants with an introduction to teaching a Holocaust history course in public schools.