How Jews Lived: Life Before the Holocaust

A Centropa professional development opportunity for educators in partnership with the Holocaust Resource Center of Kean University, Saint Elizabeth University Center for Holocaust and Genocide Education, and the Holocaust Center of Greater MetroWest NJ

It’s not enough to teach students how Jews were murdered.
We must also teach how Jews lived.

What is Centropa? Centropa, a Jewish historical institute based in Vienna, interviewed 1,200 elderly Jews living in 15 European countries. We didn’t use video or focus on the Holocaust, but asked our respondents to tell us their entire life stories spanning the 20th c. as they showed us their old family photographs.

Centropa offers teachers a database of thousands of annotated photos, hundreds of interviews, and scores of award-winning, short multimedia films (none longer than 30 minutes)—ideal for creating virtual and in-class projects that teach digital literacy, promote critical thinking, increase global awareness, all found at http://www.centropa.org, all free of charge. Each summer we bring the most innovative teachers to the great cities of Central Europe to travel with 70 teachers from 17 countries—in 2023 we will be in Vienna & Prague.

Teachers use Centropa resources to teach history, Holocaust education, social studies, ELA, art, world languages, filmmaking, photography, technology, and civics.

Teachers will return to their classes with:

• ready-to-use activities for teaching your students about pre-war Jewish life, including stories of what it was like to grow up in different Jewish communities;
• access to a database with all of the resources you will need to teach about pre-war Jewish life;
• primary source photographs and interviews, and short multimedia films that you can use to create the lessons you need for the students you teach;
• information about Milton Wolf Prize in Student Advocacy, Centropa’s student civics competition with cash prizes for grades 6-12;
• further professional development opportunities from the Holocaust Council of Greater MetroWest NJ, Holocaust Resource Center, Saint Elizabeth University Center for Holocaust and Genocide Education, and Centropa.

Register here.