«The Holocaust as a starting point»: A Poland-Ukraine training to confront divergent historical narratives news

What is 'The Holocaust as a starting point'?

The "Shoah as a starting point" program is a device initiated by the Shoah Memorial in 2015 which aims to bring together, on a regional or national scale, teacher communities with divergent historical narratives.

It is declined this year in 14 European training courses divided into two levels beginner and advanced. The network is made up of about thirty partners: ministries of national education, teachers' associations, museums, etc.

Training in Lublin

This edition between Poland and Ukraine brought together Polish and Ukrainian professors, gathered in Lublin from 21 to 23 October. Co-organized by the Ośrodek Rozwoju Edukacji, the Ukrainian Center for Holocaust Studies, and the Shoah Memorial, the course brought together 34 advanced-level teachers.

In addition to the deepening of knowledge on the development of the Holocaust in Poland and Ukraine, work focused notably on inter-ethnic violence in Volhynia and Galicia between 1943 and 1947 and on the pogroms of summer 1941, in Jedwabne and Lviv.

The pedagogical workshops allowed, on the one hand, teachers to express themselves on the difficulties related to the teaching of the Shoah in the Baltic states, and on the other hand, to develop new methods of teaching about the Shoah.

This operation was co-financed by the Claims Conference.