In-Service Educator Professional Development Session Options

Join Illinois Holocaust Museum & Education Center for an interactive workshop designed specifically for educators and school administrators from all backgrounds and levels of knowledge on the topic. Through videos, images, and discussions, participants will learn about the diversity of Jewish identities and the variety of forms antisemitism has taken, both historically and contemporary. The workshop guides participants through self-reflective activities on identity and implicit/explicit bias, deconstructs antisemitic images that illustrate larger antisemitic tropes, and engages participants in scenario-based problem-solving to recognize and respond to antisemitism in their schools.

Presented by Jones Day Foundation.

February 22, 2023, marks the 80th anniversary of the execution of members of the White Rose resistance group: Hans Scholl, Sophie Scholl, and Christoph Probst. While perhaps the most well-known of the German resistance groups, there were others created and led by young people in Germany, including Edelweiss Pirates, Swing Youth, and those led by Hanno Günther and Helmuth Hübener. Learning about youth and student-led resistance counters misperceptions that the Nazi regime brainwashed German young people who had no choice but to conform, and instead demonstrates the agency and power they truly had. This workshop will provide historical background on the resistance of young people in Nazi Germany, examine primary source documents to use in classrooms, and feature Illinois Holocaust Museum’s Take a Stand Center resources to empower students to resist hatred, prejudice, and indifference today.

80 years ago, on April 19, 1943, hundreds of inhabitants of the Warsaw ghetto revolted against mass deportations planned by the Nazis. Resistance movements, made up largely of young people, were active in over 100 ghettos. Inspired by the bravery of the ghetto fighters in Warsaw, resistance groups in other ghettos rose up also, disrupting deportations and enabling ghetto inhabitants to escape and, in many cases, join partisan groups in the forests. What led so many young people, many still teenagers, to fight back against such overwhelming odds? Participants in this workshop will examine ghetto uprisings including Warsaw, Kovno, and Bialystock, and learn strategies to bring the stories of the resistors to their classrooms.  

Prior to the Nazis coming to power in 1933, Berlin was home to a visible and vibrant LGBTQ community. The situation changed drastically under the Nazi regime, when the LGBTQ community became targets of persecution, imprisonment, and murder. Liberation did not bring freedom, as “homosexuality” remained illegal long after Nazi Germany was defeated. In this workshop, educators will learn more about the history of the LGBTQ community in Nazi Germany and use primary source documents and Eyewitness testimony to explore larger themes including the role of the German public in denouncing individuals, LGBTQ experiences in the camp system, and the struggle for freedom and equality after liberation.

As educators, we strive to give the past meaning for our students. Diaries and memoirs are essential tools in teaching the Holocaust, helping our students to develop both a historical and a human understanding of this complex history. This session will provide an overview of how to use these invaluable primary source records in your classroom and provide strategies and approaches to incorporate into your curriculum. Teachers will also receive an introduction to the resources of Illinois Holocaust Museum & Education Center for both educators and students. 

Systematic killings by the Nazi regime began in the fall of 1939. These first victims were Germans, both Jewish and non-Jewish, with physical and intellectual disabilities. Beginning with the murder of children, followed by adults, and eventually those imprisoned in the concentration camp system, the T4 program was a direct predecessor to the so-called “Final Solution.” The details of Operation T4 became known to the public, most famously through the sermons of the Bishop of Münster, Clemens August Graf von Galen, in the summer of 1941. Public outrage resulted in the ceasing of systematic gassings in centralized locations, illustrating the power of the German people and public opinion in opposition to the Nazi regime. The killings continued out of the public eye, moving to decentralized locations in clinics and hospitals with the use of lethal injections and starvation. It is estimated that approximately 250,000 people were murdered. Through the analysis of primary source documents and Survivor testimony, educators will learn about the history and progression of Operation T4, and the consequences and implications of public opposition to the program.

Delve deeply into the experiences of women during multiple genocides, including the Holocaust, Bosnia, and Rwanda. To restore agency to women, educators will explore the multiple roles women played during genocide. Through close reading/viewing of primary sources and testimony, educators will dissect the difficult decisions women had to make to survive and analyze the choices made by women perpetrators and survivors. Educators will leave with a wealth of knowledge and resources to incorporate women’s experiences into their genocide unit. 

Approximately, 5.4 million Eastern European Jews died under Nazi occupation. Nearly half of them were murdered in eastern Poland and the former Soviet Union, usually by bullets, sometimes by gas. What changed the attitude of the Nazis in regards to the Eastern European Jews between 1941 and 1942? Join us as we explore the origins of the Final Solution and the role of the Einsatzgruppen (mobile killing squads) in eastern Poland and the former Soviet Union. Learn what made the mass murder of Jews in the East different from Nazi occupied territories in West. Uncover the history and put into context the overall destruction which led to a more efficient method of killing.

In this workshop, educators will take a deeper look into their rationale for teaching genocide. Participants will examine the guidelines of teaching genocide, including how to define the term, and discuss the challenges of its legal definition. Together, educators will analyze primary sources and explore the Illinois Holocaust Museum’s Genocide and Human Rights Virtual Teaching Trunk to help them effectively teach the origins of genocide and learn how to implement age-appropriate classroom activities into their genocide unit.