Workshops for Students and Community Groups
The Message Matters
How do the messages we see affect us? Using historical images from Nazi Germany and modern advertising, this workshop reminds us that stereotypes are reinforced every day. This workshop encourages us all to consider and discuss our relationship with the stereotypes we see, and our decisions of whether we choose to believe them or make up our own minds.
45-75 minutes – Suitable for Grades 4 and up.
Decision Making in Times of Injustice
This program gives students an awareness of the enormity of the crimes committed during the Nazi Holocaust and helps them grasp the fact that thousands of ordinary people participated in perpetrating these crimes, while thousands more stood by as quiet witnesses. The material in this workshop reminds students of the importance of living in a democracy whose citizens are capable of making informed judgments, not only on behalf of themselves, but on behalf of a larger community.
45-75 minutes – Suitable for Grades 6 and up.
Yearning to Breathe Free:The Immigrant Experience in Maine
The story of immigrants in Maine is older than the state itself. From Verrazano’s first glimpse of Maine in 1524 on, immigrants have played a key role in shaping Maine and her people. This workshop, inspired by our 2015 exhibit of the same name, provides an overview of Maine’s immigrant past, and serves as a reminder of the important role that immigrants will play in our future.
45 – 60 minutes – Suitable for grades 4 and up.
Civil Rights in America: Yesterday and Today
The HHRC is proud to have been selected to offer this important program focusing on the US civil rights movement from the 1830s to the 1960s. The program, funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities and The Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History, features documentary films and resources that can be tailored into a program suitable for any audience. – Customized for any audience.
45 – 75 minutes – Suitable for Grades 4 and up.
Finding Your Voice
In the wake of the school shooting protests, the #metoo movement, and other events in our country many students are wondering how to process their feelings about such big topics. This workshop serves as a reminder that students and young people have led most of the great social and political movements of America including the end of the Viet Nam War, Civil Rights, Women’s Right to Vote, and even the American Revolution. Finding your voice is an inspirational, but cautionary program that suggests there may even be more issues of concern facing young people in the coming decades.
45 – 60 minutes – suitable for Grades 6 – 12.
Maine’s German POW Camps During World War II
Inspired by the HHRC’s 2013 exhibit Maine Boys Overseas, German Boys in Maine, this program tells the story of German prisoner of war camps from 1944 to 1946. The workshop includes the story of the camps which were located in Houlton, Spencer Lake, Seboomook, and Indian Township. In addition, the workshop presents some information about the politics that led to the creation of the camps.
Read a write up about this program from the Downeast Lakes Land Trust newsletter Downeast Lakes Landings.
60 minutes – Suitable for Grades 6 and up.
For many Americans, the first awareness of the events taking place in Nazi Germany began with news reports following the pogroms on November 9th and 10th, 1938 – Kristallnacht, or the night of broken glass. This workshop outlines the events leading up to Kristallnacht, and the aftermath. First hand accounts, including one by Maine’s Cantor Kurt Messerschmidt, are included in this compelling story.
60 minutes – Suitable for Grades 8 and up.
HHRC Educational Programs use materials and resources from Facing History and Ourselves, the USC Shoah Foundation, Yad Vashem, the US Holocaust Memorial Museum, The Gilder Lehrman Institute for American History, and the National Endowment for the Humanities.
If you would like to arrange to have your group visit us or have us visit you, email us!