Echoes and Reflections Training Equips Educators to Teach about the Holocaust

  • June 9, 2014

In its shocking new Global100 survey, the Anti-Defamation League revealed that two-thirds of the entire world’s population have either never heard of the Holocaust, or believe it to be a myth or  greatly exaggerated. Even more disturbing is that the awareness rate is lowest and the denial rate highest among young people ages 18-34. In today’s society, Holocaust education is more important than ever.

On Friday, May 30th, the ADL hosted a Holocaust education workshop at the National Museum of American Jewish History. Middle and high school teachers from across the tri-state region came together to explore the award-winning Holocaust resource guide, Echoes and Reflections, developed in partnership with ADL, the USC Shoah Foundation and Yad Vashem. The guide includes ten lessons accompanied by a state-of-the-art website, primary source, as well as a DVD of Visual History testimony from survivors and other witnesses of the Holocaust. Regional ADL Education Director Randi Boyette introduced the teachers to a variety of ways to help students connect with the Holocaust and suggested interactive projects to enable students to engage more deeply with its history.

During the workshop, teachers studied diary entries, poems, and photographs from the Holocaust and discussed how to effectively integrate them into their lesson plans. They listened to several testimonies, including one by Margaret Lambert about how the Nuremberg Laws impacted her as a child. “My students would definitely connect with Margaret,” one teacher said. “She talks about sports, school, her friends…We see that she’s just like any other kid.” Boyette also introduced teachers to USC Shoah Foundation’s IWitness program, a website that allows students to create their own videos about the Holocaust. The workshop ended with a tour of the National Museum of American Jewish History focusing on the impact of the Holocaust in the U.S.

The ADL’s Holocaust Education workshops and Echoes and Reflections resources help teachers create lessons that enable students to engage with history,  develop empathy and make connections to current issues, while upholding and respecting the memory of the Holocaust. The workshop participants spoke highly of the resources presented; speaking about Echoes and Reflections specifically, one teacher said, “It is the best resource I have ever been given as an educator.”

The ADL will host two more workshops at the National Museum of American Jewish History that are coming up on July 8th and October 24th. You can sign up here. We hope to see you there!

 The Anti-Defamation League is one of the nation’s premier civil rights/human relations agencies fighting anti-Semitism and all forms of bigotry, defending democratic ideals and protecting civil rights for all. Click to learn more about our Holocaust Education programs and Echoes and Reflections.