IHRA-Online Event: Training educators to respond to Antisemitism and Holocaust Distortion

Invitation to a hybrid panel discussion

Some of our most formative years are spent in school and teachers have a crucial role to play in the civic education of students. It is with this in mind that the IHRA-funded project by _erinnern.at_ set out to strengthen teachers and their training institutions to respond to Holocaust distortion and antisemitism.

On behalf of the project, we would like to extend an invitation to the IHRA Community and any interested colleagues to join a hybrid panel discussion on 16 June from 14-16 CEST. During this event, you will learn more about the recommendations published by the project team on "Developing basic training for teachers at teacher training colleges and universities in Austria, Bavaria and Switzerland" – and how these recommendations may be applicable in other national contexts.

The event is supported by IHRA, in cooperation with the German MFA, _erinnern.at_, and its partners. It will be broadcasted live from the German MFA via zoom, in English.

Register for the event here.

The project drew on analyses of curricula of selected teacher training institutions and on structured interviews with approximately 30 experts in order to develop a set of theses and recommendations for action. Both are aimed primarily at universities that train teachers and secondarily at government agencies that have oversight of teacher training. The recommendations were validated by experts and representatives of universities and educational administrations in the three countries involved (Germany, Switzerland, and Austria).

The event will be opened and moderated by Ambassador Michaela Küchler, Head of the German Delegation to the IHRA, and will feature introductory speeches by the IHRA Secretary General, Dr. Kathrin Meyer, by Dr. Robert Sigel from the office of the Bavarian State Government Commissioner for Jewish Life and Against Antisemitism, for Remembrance Work and Historical Heritage. The panelists are as follows:

• Prof. Dr. Helga Embacher  Professor of History at the Universität Salzburg. Dr. Embacher has also been a visiting professor at the university of Minnesota, Minneapolis, the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, and University of Innsbruck, as well as hte reciepient of many research fellowships, including a Fulbright Fellowship. Research interests: National Socialism, Jewish history, emigration, Israel and the Middle East, anti-Semitism.

• Prof. Dr. Thomas Metzger, Lecturer and co-leader if  the Democracy education and Human Rights at the University of Education in St. Gallen. Dr. Metzger, also a lecturer at FernUni, Switzerland, focuses in particular on the history of social inclusion and exclusion, with an emphasis on the cultural, social, and intellectual history of anti-Semitism
• Dr. Juliane Wetzel, at the Institut für Zeitgeschichte, Munich and the  Zentrum für Antisemitismusforschung, TU Berlin. Dr. Wetzel holds a PhD in history and art history from Ludwig Maximilians University. Since 2002, she has been a member of the German delegation of the IHRA, and has had many lectures and publications on Jews under Nazi persecution (Germany, France, Italy), Jewish postwar history (Jewish displaced persons), right-wing extremism, and contemporary forms of antisemitism.
• Dr. Werner Dreier, director of National Socialism and the Holocaust: Memory and the Present from 2000 to 2021.  Dr. Dreier has been a member of the Austrian delegation to the IHRA since 2001, where he is a member of the Education Working Group. Research and publication projects include historical learning with eyewitness video interviews and antisemitism.

In addition to the theses and recommendations, the project also produced a book in German. Please follow this link to access the book, Antisemitism Sondierungen im Bildungsbereich, for free.

Following your registration, you will receive an automated email with the link to the event.