The Yad Vashem Summer Seminar for Educators from Abroad: Teaching the Holocaust and Antisemitism

Abstract

112 SHOFAR Here is my quandary. Are we beginning down the slippery slope of banality ? Will we be asking ten years from now, "What happened to the teaching of the Holocaust in the public school curriculum?" Help! The Yad Vashem Summer Seminar for Educators from Abroad: Teaching the Holocaust and Antisemitism Rochelle L. Millen Department of Religion Wittenberg University Three days before the end of nearly a month of intense study, the participants in this summer's Yad Vashem Seminar for Educators from Abroad were given special permission to view an as-yet-unfinished project set among the Judean hills on the grounds of Yad Vashem. Called the Valley of Destroyed Communities, this undertaking is an architectural and aesthetic accomplishment of extraordinary power. Each section of the valley is a tall, three-sided rectangle, set on the short end and open, at the top, to the sky. Connected to the next three-sided rectangle by a shared corner, the total effect is that of an enormous maze. The walls are constructed of large, thick, pink-beige Jerusalem stone; the height of the rectangle, as well as the thickness of the stones, conveys a feeling of massiveness, of being overpowered. The beautiful multi-hued Jerusalem stone is in its natural state, its surface rough but delicate. Yet as one walks within each three-sided configuration, one notices immediately the contrast between the two outer walls-on one's right and left sides-and the wall which one faces. One gazes directly at a tall stone structure, its inner surface sanded to a smooth grain. Its upper limit is etched with the name of a European country, e.g., "Netherlands," and sometimes with the name of a large city within a country, e.g., "Warsaw." Under the heading are listed the Jewish communities of the country, or, as in the case of Poland, where the number is so large, those in the vicinity of certain large centers which were obliterated .by the Nazis. Vanished communities; desolate vital centers: death commemorated ; life memorialized. The structure and'design of the Valley raise complex feelings. The height of the walls, the size and thickness of the stones, the list after engraved list: from them emanates the feeling of monumental, unfathomable loss. It is as if one is walking through a unique cemetery-and there is row after row of tombstones, extending endlessly in all directions. One is overcome with Volume 10, No.2 Winter 1992 113 bereavement, grief, and irretrievable loss. Yet, in somewhat contradictory fashion, the Valley simultaneously evokes a sense of peacefulness and tranquillity . Having located the list headed by Lvov, the city closest to my late parents' town, I then found Sambor, where nearly all their relatives had been shot by the Nazi Einsatzgruppen shortly after Shavuot of 1941. Those old photos of aunts, uncles, and cousins; I had the feeling that they-and the millions who shared their fate-had finally come home. They were here, in Jerusalem, in the Judean hills, among their own people. This is where they belonged. There is a certain serenity which dims the sharp edges of the pain of monumental loss. The Structure of the Seminar The visit to the Valley of Destroyed Communities was one of the concluding ceremonies of an intense and singular adult learning experience, the Yad Vashem Summer Seminar for Educators from Abroad. Subtitled "Teaching the Holocaust and Anti-Semitism," the seminar attracts Jewish and non-Jewish academics, teachers, curriculum specialists, rabbinic and theology students, and those involved in Holocaust resource centers and museums from all over the world. Begun in July 1980 by Itzchak Mais, currently Director of the Yad Vashem Museum, the Seminar originally was held once a year for English speakers; currently, it meets six times a year. In July and December-January are the English-speaking groups. April 1992 will mark the first of two yearly German groups; there are, as well, seminars given in French and in Spanish. As of August 1991, there were approximately five hundred English-speaking graduates, and two hundred French, Spanish, and German graduates. Yaacov Lozowick, current Director of the program, is an outstanding administrator, whose communication skills and extensive knowledge contribute...