How to deal with a difficult past?

How to Deal with a Difficult Past? –  Educational Perspectives on National Socialism, Shoah and the Second World War.

A seminar for (prospective) teachers at the Buchenwald and Sachsenhausen Memorials (17-23 July 2025) and the Auschwitz-Birkenau Museum and State Memorial  (24-28 September 2025) 

On the occasion of the 75th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz, Marian Turski, former Auschwitz prisoner and Holocaust survivor, said that "Auschwitz did not fall from the sky. Auschwitz was approached on tiptoe, in small steps, until what happened here happened." It is not possible to understand the crimes committed in Auschwitz and other places without going back to the pre-war period, placing them in a broader context and engaging with different perspectives and forms of remembrance of National Socialism.

Aims

Aims of the project are therefore to analyse the history of National Socialist crimes in depth and their origins and effects. In addition, we would like to reflect on how the history of National Socialism was and is told in Germany and Poland, but also what relevance this has with regard to current authoritarian threats from within and without European societies. The focus will also be on analysing various content-related and methodological approaches to our educational work within the participating Memorial sites. The seminar will also take an in-depth look at the German and Polish educational landscapes in schools. It's results can be valuable for your own (international) educational work at school and beyond.

Target Group

The seminar addresses primary and secondary schools’ teachers from Poland and Germany as well as  students of master's degree pedagogical or historical studies from Poland and Germany who in their educational work raise the subject of WWII and the Holocaust. Educators and students who have a deep interest into the field of German-Polish youth exchange and/or historical-political education (school and/or extracurricular) are very welcomed. 

The language of both parts of the seminar is English. The candidates must declare the knowledge of English on the level that allows them to fully and actively participate in the seminar (at least B2 level).

Organisational details

The two-part seminar will take place in Buchenwald and Sachsenhausen as well as at the Auschwitz-Birkenau Memorial. The organisers will cover the costs of accommodation, meals, local transfers and the programme. Participants are responsible for travelling to and from the seminar locations and for their own health insurance. The seminar language is English and therefore good passive and active knowledge of the language is a prerequisite for participation. 

Further information, the link for registration and application as well as the programme can be found attached.

Registration deadline: 30 April 2025

"The seminar was very well prepared both from the methodological side and the topics covered, as well as from the organizational side. The form of work was varied through which the activities were not monotonous. The seminar expanded my knowledge and also showed how to work with such topics."

Magdalena Smółka, Poland (2024)