Christine Cole: The Past is Present

Auschwitz 70 - Past is Present

teacher professional development program in Poland, Jan 2015

When I first applied for this worldwide teacher professional development program being offered by the University of California’s Shoah Foundation and Discovery Education, I never dreamed that I would be swapping my sunny, lounging by the pool days during my summer holiday break for -5 degrees and snow in Europe.

The Auschwitz 70 Past is Present program ran from 23rd – 28th January and brought together twenty-four teachers from teb different countries, a group of junior interns from schools across the USA and a whole team of professionals from USC’s Shoah Foundation and Discovery Education. Being the only Australian teacher selected to attend, I felt truly honoured.

The goal and purpose of the program was to bring educators from across the globe together to learn how to use people’s testimonies from the past (particularly Holocaust survivors) to use in the present, and to attend the commemoration of the 70th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz on the 27th January at Auschwitz Birkenau Memorial and State Museum. Delivered by a highly intelligent team of teachers and professionals, there were workshops to attend, museums to visit and people to meet. 

Throughout the five day program the amount of learning that took place through the sharing and collaboration of teaching ideas and strategies was infinite. The team of professionals from the Shoah Foundation and Discovery Education took us through the importance and powerfulness of using testimony in the classroom, supported through the use of the Iwitness website.

As teachers, it is our role to bridge the gap between what has happened in the past and to prevent atrocities like those of the Holocaust to happen in the future by educating those we teach. In the words of Holocaust survivor Roman Kent, “Teach what happens when hate is allowed to flourish, we must teach tolerance and understanding, we must teach that hate is never right and love is never wrong.”

Together with the guided tours of museums and authentic sites, such as the Auschwitz Memorial and Museum, nothing was more meaningful than meeting Holocaust survivors and attending the commemoration ceremony of the 70th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz, held at the former Auschwitz Birkenau concentration camp. It was surely an experience I will never forget.

For a full account of my trip and participation in the program, please visit my blog page at:

http://christinecoleauschwitz70.weebly.com

Christine Cole

History Teacher/Senior School Team Leader