The Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies maintains a vast resource library and provides links to educational websites, organizes workshops, arranges university speakers and lends expertise to help educators of grades k-16 better teach the Holocaust and other genocides in the classroom.
2013 Summer Institute: Holocaust in European Memory
2015 Educator Workshop to Commemorate the Centennial of the Armenian Genocide
April 25, 2015
100 Years of Genocide Student Conference
In commemoration of the 100th Anniversary of the Armenian Genocide, The Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies, the Human Rights Program and the Institute for Global Studies hosted three days of events to commemorate this centennial. The events included the Arsham and Charlotte Ohanessian Lecture featuring Professor Bedros Der Matossian, which was open to the public (April 23), a student conference, entitled “One Hundred Years of Genocide” (April 24) and a K-16 teacher workshop (April 25). The objectives of these events are to promote public understanding of the genocide and the fates of those who lost their lives and those who escaped.
2014 Educator Workshop to Commemorate the 20th Anniversary of the genocide in Rwanda
April 19, 2014
In this educator workshop, visiting scholar Samuel Totten will begin by discussing the origins, causes and responses to genocide within the scope of human rights and international law. He will then give an overview and summary of genocides perpetuated in Africa and beyond in the 1990s including the Nuba Mountains; Srebenica; and Darfur before examining in depth, as a case study, the 1994 Genocide of Rwanda. Totten will finish by addressing the latest outbreaks of violence in the world, which crimes against humanity have been perpetuated, and noting where there is a fear of genocide breaking out.
2013 Educator Workshop on the occassion of the 75th Anniversary of Kristallnacht: History, Memory and Pedagogy
November 9, 2013
This one-day professional development workshop is a follow-up to the Holocaust in European Memory Summer Institute that took place on July 8-11, 2013 at the University of Minnesota. That workshop examined questions such as how the Nazi murder of European Jews became "The Holocaust." How the story is conveyed through public memorials, school curricula, art, literature and film. How the Holocaust has been contextualized and rendered meaningful within the diversity of European nations and in the distant US.
Kristallnacht and the Duties of Memory: Remarks Alejandro Baer
Alejandro Baer is the director and Stephen C. Feinstein Chair of the Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies at the University of Minnesota. He has authored numerous articles addressing issues of genocide, memory, and antisemitism
The Roma Genocide and Memory: Lecture by William Duna
William A. Duna is an American Gypsy descended from Hungarian musicians who emigrated to the U. S. in 1893. Duna has taught music, written and performed, and has served as an entertainment consultant. He has written and lectured about the Roma people and was appointed by Ronald Reagan as the first Roma to serve on the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Council in 1987.
Gypsies: A Persecuted Race by William Duna
"Holocaust Commemorations for the Broader Community"
Presentation by Deborah Petersen-Perlman
Deborah Petersen Perlman Associate Professor Communications, University of Minnesota Duluth and coordinates the Baeumler-Kaplan Holocaust Commemoration.
2013 Summer Institute for Secondary Educators:The Holocaust in European Memory
The Holocaust in European Memory took place on July 8-11, 2013 at the University of Minnesota.
The workshop examined questions such as how the Nazi murder of European Jews became "The Holocaust." How the story is conveyed through public memorials, school curricula, art, literature and film. How the Holocaust has been contextualized and rendered meaningful within the diversity of European nations and in the distant US. And what are its implications for teaching the Holocaust in the classroom.
The topic was approached from an interdisciplinary perspective, with internationally recognized scholars in the fields of history, sociology, literature and German/European studies from the University of Minnesota and Gustavus Adolphus College. Speakers focused on historiography, testimony, media and visual arts and assisted educators in creating curriculum and lessons they can incorporate into their classrooms.
Educators also dialogued with Holocaust survivor Dora Zaidenweber. Who shared her insights on Holocaust memory and her experiences after World War II in Germany, Poland and the U.S.
Ofer Ashkenazi, Visiting Assistant Professor, History, University of Minnesota
Alejandro Baer, Director and Stephen C. Feinstein Chair, Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies, University of Minnesota
Leslie Morris, Associate Professor, Department of German, Scandinavian and Dutch, University of Minnesota
Juliette Brungs, PhD Candidate, German, Scandinavian and Dutch, University of Minnesota
Joachim J. Savelsberg, Professor Department of Sociology, University of Minnesota
Elizabeth Baer, Professor English, African Studies, Gustavus
Jodi Elowitz, Outreach Coordinator, Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies, University of Minnesota
CHGS Teaching Resources