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News
Professors Brown and Webber Honoured by Adam Mickiewicz University
On October 14, 2010, Professors Michael Brown and Mark Webber received medals from the academic Senate of the
Adam Mickiewicz University (AMU) in Poznan honouring their contributions to the university. The medals were presented by AMU Rector prof. dr. habil. Bronisław Marciniak (on the right in the photo) and Prorector for
Research and International Cooperation
prof. dr. habil. Jacek Witkoś (on the left in the photo) . The laudatio was written and read by prof. dr. habil. Zbyszko Melosik, Dean of the Faculty of Educational Studies. The AMU will host a meeting of TftF members in August 2011.
TftF Members Publish Book Wider das Vergessen [Against Forgetting]
TftF members Jörg Ehrnsberger and Johannes Heger (2001-2002), along with permanent team member Peter Trummer and Sandra Maschmeier of the 2003-2004 group, have collaborated in the publication of the book Wider das Vergessen. The book is the result of Jörg's and Johannes' project. It will be formally launched in Osnabrück on February 3, 2007, as an article in the Neue Osnabrücker Zeitung of 21 December 2006 details.
October 25-27, 2006: Follow-Up Meeting Reviews 2005-2006 Cycle
From October 25 through 27, team members of the Appel Program from Germany, Poland, and Canada met in Gniezno to review the program's 2005-2006 cycle. The meeting, hosted at the Collegium Europaeum Gnesnense of the Adam Mickiewicz University of Poznan, enabled the international coordinating team to reflect on the program cycle that has received major support from the European Recovery Program's Transatlantic Program administered by the German Federal Ministry of Economics and Labour on behalf of the German Federal Government.
October 16, 2006: Government of Baden-Württemberg Augments Funding of TftF
Speaking at The Canadian Centre for German and European Studies at York University on October 16, 2006, Dr. Dietrich Birk, MdL, Parliamentary Secretary in the Ministry of Science, Research and the Arts in Ontario's German partner state Baden-Württemberg, announced that the Ministry would augment the ongoing support of the Appel Program through Baden-Württemberg's State Office of Civic Education (Landeszentrale für politische Bildung). Dr. Birk praised the program's important contributions to mutual understanding on both sides of the Atlantic.
February 11-12, 2006: Mending a Broken World
"Mending a Broken World - Lessons of the Holocaust" is the title of an international conference that took place Saturday evening, February 11 and Sunday afternoon, February 12 under the auspices of the Mark and Gail Appel Program in Holocaust and Antiracism Education at York University "Learning from the Past - Teaching from the Future." During the conference Gail and Mark Appel generously announced that they wished to continue their support for a 2007-2008 cycle of teaching and learning.
TftF Receives Major German Government Grant
The Government of the Federal Republic of Germany has awarded the Mark and Gail Appel Program in Holocaust and Antiracism Education at York University "Learning from the Past - Teaching from the Future" a major grant in support of its work. The grant, part of the government's "Transatlantic Program" under the framework of the European Recovery Program (ERP) administered by the Federal Ministry of Economics and Labour (BMWA), covers programming in the calendar year 2005 and 2006.
Under the terms of the grant, the project will enter a distinctive and ambitious phase - in effect building on previous "trial runs" to create an innovative project within a project. The grant, worth just over CAD-$ 150,000 (some 96,000 Euros) over the two-year period, means that the project can reach involve a greater number of students and reach a larger public - in part through major conferences it will organize in Berlin, Germany and Gniezno, Poland in the summer of 2005 and in Toronto in the winter of 2006.
This project was the only Canadian project to be successful in the most recent round of competition. In addition to BMWA, the German Foreign Office (Auswärtiges Amt) - through the Office of the Coordinator for German-North American Cooperation - and the Canadian Embassy in Berlin have provided valuable and much-appreciated assistance in the design and implementation of the 2005 Field Study.
Jutta Limbach
Program Patron
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Prof. Dr. Dr. h.c. mult. Jutta Limbach,
President of the Goethe Institute, Germany's international
cultural agency, has become the Patron of the Mark and
Gail Appel Program in Holocaust and Antiracism Education
at York University.
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Before becoming President of the Goethe Institute, Prof.
Limbach had served as President of the German Federal
Constitutional Court (the equivalent of Chief Justice
of Canada's Supreme Court). She was the first woman
to serve in this capacity, as she had also also been
the first woman Minister of Justice of the city-state
of Berlin. In November 2003, York University celebrated
Professor Limbach's distinguished public career as a
champion of human rights and international understanding
by conferring on her the degree of Doctor of Laws honoris
causa.
During her stay at York, which included addresses to
law students and the fall graduating class and a visit
to The Canadian Centre for German and European Studies,
she took the opportunity to become personally acquainted
with the Appel Program "Learning from the Past
— Teaching for the Future." In agreeing to
become the Program's Patron, she expressed her hope
that it would continue its important work so that the
racism and antisemitism that had resulted in the catastrophe
of National Socialism would have no place in the future.
All of us associated with the Program are honoured to
count Professor Limbach among the Program "family."
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Innovations in 2005-2006
Success Leads to Increased Numbers and a New Configuration
With the successful completion of Phase II of the Project, preparations for Phase III (2005-2006) are in high gear. Twenty-seven students - thirteen from Canada and seven each from Poland and Germany - participated in the 2003 European Field Study and the 2004 Symposium in Toronto. The success of previous phases and of our application to the government of the Federal Republic of Germany under its "Transatlantic Program" enables us to increase the number of students who can participate, with up to sixteen spaces reserved for Europe and up to the same number for Canada. At the same time, the project receives a new programmatic and organizational configuration.
Partners Old and New
The institutional partnerships that underlay the success of previous test phases will provide strength to the Project in Phase III. One change is that eligibility to apply will be extended to all students in the universities and pädagogischen Hochschulen (Colleges of Education) in Ontario's sister state of Baden-Württemberg, as well as to students from other states under certain circumstances. Coordinating the selection of students from Baden-Württemberg will be the Stuttgart branch of its Office for Civic Education (Landeszentrale für politische Bildung), with whom a formal contract of partnership has been concluded.
The partnerships with the Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznan, the Project's principal partner in Poland, with the Pedagogical University of Kraków, and with the Université de Montréal, have been retained and strengthened.
Research and Public Outreach
Hand-in-hand with the strengthening of the Project's pedagogical focus goes increased emphasis on its research potential. In Phase III, the Project will organize conferences in Berlin and Gniezno, as well as in Toronto. The conferences will also be open to the public, increasing the Project's ability to reach larger audiences in Canada, Germany, and Poland.
2003-2004 Cycle
Successfully Completed
The 2003 European Field Study took place from
July 28 until August 21. The itinerary
for the Field Study is available from the download archive, as is an electronic copy of Polish
TV coverage of the conference in Gniezno. From February 12 to 22, 2004 the second international symposium and conference was held at York University in Toronto. An overview of the schedule is available from the download archive.
Project Named in Honour
of Appels
In recognition of a generous gift from Mark and
Gail Appel in Toronto, the Project has received the name "The
Mark and Gail Appel Program in Holocaust and Antiracism Education
at York University."
The Appels are members of a prominent Toronto
family who are well-known as benefactors of the community. Their
support provides a solid foundation for taking the Project through
2006 and represents an incentive for other sources to provide
the necessary matching funds.
The Appels participated in events and met with project
members during the February 2004 symposium in Toronto. The photograph below was taken at the reception for Project participants and guests hosted by the then Consul General of Poland, Dr. Jacek Junosza Kisielewski.
TftF in the News
From time to time the Project hits the headlines. Here is a
sampling of articles and interviews featuring "Learning
from the Past - Teaching for the Future":
TftF Featured on CBC National Radio Broadcast The Current
TftF was featured on CBC Radio's national public affairs broadcast The Current on December 10, 2004. The interview with Professor Mark Webber was part of a three-segment program on the importance of Auschwitz in public and private memory. Responding toa study in Great Britain indicated that a significant proportion of the British public had not heard of Auschwitz, the entire broadcast included interviews with Canadian students, with a Holocaust survivor, and with a specialist in the study of genocide.
The broadcast is available from The Current's website as a RealAudio file.
Polish
TVP3 Covers TftF Conference in Gniezno
Polish Television
Channel TVP3 coverage viewable as streaming audio
York
U. future teachers visit Germany and Poland to explore Holocaust
and anti-racism education
TORONTO,
July 22, 2003 - Thirteen
York University students are spending their summer studying
ways to teach about the Holocaust and racism. Their studies
will take them to Europe for three weeks.
There they will join university
students from Germany and Poland and will visit several former
concentration camps, including Auschwitz, and participate in
a series of workshops and conferences about the Holocaust and
Jewish life in Europe before and after the Second World War.
The field study is part of the Mark
and Gail Appel Program in Holocaust and Anti-racism Education
--"Learning from the Past, Teaching for the Future",
which brings together university students, primarily from teacher
education programs, to explore how best to counter racism and
anti-Semitism in the classroom. The 2003 group includes students
from many ethnic and religious backgrounds (Catholic, Protestant,
Greek Orthodox, Jewish, Muslim).
The program was conceived in 2001
by York professors Michael Brown, past director of York's Centre
for Jewish Studies, and Mark Webber, co-director of York's Canadian
Centre for German and European Studies. The students traveling
to Europe are the second group to go through the highly successful
program.
Webber says that visits to sites
such as the memorial at Auschwitz and the museum of Romani (Gypsy)
culture in Tarnów can be deeply moving and emotional experiences
for many of the students. "This program offers future teachers
a unique opportunity to connect the past with modern realities
that can't be properly conveyed by textbooks alone," he
says.
Adds Brown, "Recent world events
such as 9/11 and the Iraqi war have perpetuated many racist
stereotypes. This program aims to give the next generation of
teachers the tools that they will need in multicultural classrooms
to dispel these stereotypes based on firsthand reflections and
personal experiences from their trip."
The York students will depart from
Toronto on July 27 and return August 21.
A ten-day follow-up symposium which
will re-unite the students - 27 in all - from Canada, Germany
and Poland is scheduled for February 2004 at York University.
A Web site with program details is located at: www.yorku.ca/tftf.
Canadian Jewish News
(February 28, 2002)
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Polish
schools begin teaching Holocaust studies
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By SHELDON
KIRSHNER
Staff Reporter
TORONTO - Schools
in Poland have begun teaching the Holocaust as an
independent subject.
 Since
the Polish education system was reformed three years
ago, the Holocaust has been a compulsory, stand-alone
course, said Piotr Trojanski, who co-wrote the new
curriculum.
It
is outlined in a pamphlet entitled Holocaust. About
the History and Extermination of the Jews Within
the Framework of Humanities Lessons in Post-Primary
Schools.
"Before
1999, the Holocaust was taught as an event in the
war," he explained in an interview. "Now it is recognized
as a distinct subject."
Approximately
three million Polish Jews, or more than 90 per cent
of Poland's pre-war Jewish population, were killed
by the Nazis during the Holocaust.
He
believes the Holocaust remains an unprecedented
event in the annals of history.
A
33-year-old scholar on the staff of the Pedagogical
University in Krakow, Trojanski was here to attend
a York University international conference on The
Future of Memory.
It
was co-sponsored by The Canadian Centre for German
and European Studies and the Centre for Jewish Studies
at York University.
Trojanski
said the curriculum is designed for middle and secondary
school students 14 years of age and up.
The
syllabus places the Holocaust in the context of
combating racism and anti-Semitism.
He
strongly believes that students who are acquainted
with its horrors are much more likely to be tolerant.
Since
last summer, Mowia Wieki, the national magazine
of the Polish history teachers' federation, has
published nine excerpts from the curriculum.
He
co-wrote it with a colleague, Robert Szuchta. It
focuses on three basic problems: Why was the Holocaust
possible? How did it happen? What can be done to
prevent it from happening ever again?
"The
Holocaust," he noted, "should be taught in such
a way as to make students realize that it is still
possible for the crime of genocide to recur.
"The
effects of the Holocaust can be found even today
in the acts of terror, ethnic cleansing and mass
murders committed in various parts of the world."
The
Holocaust, he added, "should not be taught in isolation
from Jewish history and culture."
In
pedagogical terms, the Holocaust has gone three
three phases in post-war Poland, said Trojanski,
whose PhD thesis was on the Jews of Cracow province
from 1918 to 1939.
During
much of the Communist era, its Jewish victims were
described as victims of fascism, and their Jewish
backgrounds were hushed up.
From
the early 1980s onward, they were portrayed as Poles
in what, Trojanski said, was a "process of Polonization."
This,
he suggested, was an essentially blinkered approach.
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"That's
why Poles didn't know that most of the victims at
Auschwitz were Jews."
Trojanski
- a former history teacher - and Szuchta are currently
finishing a textbook for teachers about the Holocaust.
He hopes it will be published this year.
It
will come out under the patronage of Poland's prime
minister and minister of foreign affairs, and will
be the only school text of its kind in Poland dealing
exclusively with the Holocaust.
Turning
to a related topic, Trojanski said that Poles of
his generation are generally curious about Poland's
Jewish past.
Prior
to 1939, Poland was home to approximately 3.3 million
Jews. After the United States and the Soviet Union,
Poland had the world's largest Jewish community.
Today,
he noted, there are anywhere from 8,000 to 15,000
self-declared Jews in Poland.
But,
he observed, these figures do not take into account
Jews who conceal their identity and pass as Christians.
Asked
whether anti-Semitism is deeply rooted in Poland
nowadays, Trojanski replied, "From my perspective,
it's decreasing, especially among young people,
who are very interested in Jewish culture and history.
They want to talk about it. It was a taboo subject
for years. Now young people want to fill in the
gaps."
Trojanski,
born in a village near Krakow, is a member of the
Polish Society of Jewish Studies and on the editorial
board of the periodical Studia Judaica.
Several
years ago, after attending a conference about the
Holocaust in London, England, he helped organize
a series of seminars on the Holocaust for Polish
teachers.
These
seminars, he acknowledged, prompted the ministry
of education to introduce the current Holocaust
curriculum.
In
co-operation with the Polish-German Centre in Cracow
and Anne Frank House in Amsterdam, Trojanski also
created a travelling exhibition, The Jews in Poland,
Fellow Citizens or Foreigners? It is now in Germany.
His
own view is that Jews are, and were, fellow citizens
rather than strangers in Poland.
"And
that's one good reason why we should teach the Holocaust.
Jews were fellow citizens. My generation thinks
so."
Trojanski,
who is considering turning his doctorate dissertation
into a book, said his interest in Jews was whetted
by three people.
When
he was a boy, his parents told him stories about
the only Jewish family in their pre-war village.
Rafael
Felicsharf, a Polish Jewish academic originally
from Cracow and now a resident of London, further
aroused his curiosity.
Last
year, in recognition of his efforts to document
the Holocaust and the Jewish presence in Poland,
he was awarded a diploma by Israel.
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Reutlinger
Generalanzeiger (August 1, 2001)
»Geschichte
wird zum Positiven umgekehrt«
»Lernen
aus der Vergangenheit, Lehren für die Zukunft«: Studenten aus
Kanada, Polen und Deutschland in Grafeneck
Von Andreas Fink
Gomadingen-Grafeneck. (GEA) Was zwischen
1933 und 1945 passiert ist, wissen sie alle. Die meisten aber
kennen Deutschland nur aus dem Geschichtsbuch. Jetzt taucht
die 27-köpfige Gruppe aus kanadischen, polnischen und deutschen
Studenten gut drei Wochen lang in die deutsche Geschichte ein.
»Learning from the Past, Teaching for the Future - Lernen aus
der Vergangenheit, Lehren für Zukunft« ist das Seminar der angehenden
Lehrer überschrieben. Gestern besuchten sie das Samariterstift
Grafeneck - den Ort, an dem die Nazis vor 61 Jahren über 10
000 Menschen ermordeten.
Organisiert hat das Seminar die Landeszentrale
für politische Bildung gemeinsam mit der kanadischen York University.
Vom 29. Juli bis zum 22. August befassen sich die Studenten
mit unterschiedlichen Aspekten des Nationalsozialismus. »Wir
wollen keinen KZ-Tourismus«, betont Professor Mark J. Webber
von der York University, der das Seminar mitorganisiert hat.
Die Gruppe will mehr wissen als nackte Zahlen zum Holocaust.
Heute fahren die Studenten nach Buttenhausen, um sich zwei Jahrhunderte
christlich-jüdisches (Zusammen-)Leben auf dem Lande vor Augen
zu führen. Weitere Stationen sind Worms, Berlin, Frankfurt/Oder,
Krakau, Auschwitz und schließlich Warschau.
»Grafeneck
ist mehr«
»Hier hat alles angefangen«, sagt Thomas
Stöckle vom Arbeitskreis Gedenkstätte Grafeneck, »nämlich das
industrielle Töten von Menschen in Gaskammern.« Fast im gleichen
Atemzug sagt der 36-jährige Historiker, der seit fünf Jahren
die Geschichte von Grafeneck aufarbeitet: »Grafeneck ist mehr.«
Mehr als »nur« das Schloss mit den Euthanasie-Morden. Mehr auch
als die überregional bekannte Gedenkstätte. Denn das Leben ist
weitergegangen an dem geschichtsschweren Ort oberhalb des Dolderbachs:
Dort, wo einst der Schuppen stand, in dem die Nazis »unwertem
Leben« mit Kohlenmonoxid den »Gnadentod« gewährten, strahlt
heute ein eleganter Wohnpavillon. Mittlerweile leben auf dem
Gelände 120 geistig Behinderte und psychisch Kranke. Erst vor
11 Jahren wurde die Gedenkstätte errichtet, die an das Morden
vor 61 Jahren erinnert.
»Um die Einmaligkeit von Grafeneck zu
begreifen, muss man nur die Mitarbeiter-Verteilung anschauen«,
so Stöckle: 140 Leute kümmern sich um die Bewohner, ein Mann
- Stöckle - forscht in den Archiven nach Opfern und Tätern.
»Das ist wirklich beeindruckend«, sagt
Arkadiusz Kozlowski.
Erst nachdem der polnische Student die
Gedenkstätte, das Namensbuch und den Alphabet-Garten gesehen
hat, wird für ihn das Phänomen Grafeneck greifbar. Zuvor - den
Alltag im Schloss, in den Pavillons und in der Landwirtschaft
vor Augen - hatte er noch gesagt: »Ich hätte etwas anderes erwartet:
eine Stelle, an der die Geschichte irgendwie sichtbar wird.«
Die Kanadierin Jaya Gosyne hat Grafeneck
als einen Ort begriffen, der gleichzeitig Vergangenheit und
Gegenwart verkörpert. »Eine gute Sache«, meint die Studentin,
»hier wird Geschichte zum Positiven umgekehrt.«
York University Press Release (May 31,
2001)
York U. students explore issues in Holocaust,
anti-racism education during visit to Germany and Poland
TORONTO, May 31, 2001
-- Ten York University students have been awarded
scholarships to participate in a unique international project.
They will join students from Germany and Poland for three weeks
in Europe this summer to explore issues in Holocaust and anti-racism
education. The York students will depart from Toronto on July
29 and return August 22.
The students are part of a project called Learning
from the Past, Teaching for the Future, intended to help
them as future educators to develop curricular responses to
racism and antisemitism in Germany, Poland and Canada. The students
will participate in seminars at such places as the museum and
memorial at Auschwitz, the Wannsee Conference House and Topography
of Terror Foundation in Berlin, and the Ravensbrück concentration
camp for women. The group will also meet with representatives
of the Jewish community and other minority groups in Germany
and Poland. In February 2002, the European students will join
the Canadians at York for a week-long follow-up seminar that
will include sessions open to the public.
Student participants represent such diverse fields
as environmental studies, political science, Canadian studies,
history, sociology, and religious studies. Nine of the York
students are in the Faculty of Education's concurrent program,
including three in the Jewish Education stream.
"This program offers a unique opportunity
for educators to talk about the importance of integrating an
anti-racist, anti-bias perspective into their curriculum so
future generations will not repeat the events of the past,"
says Jaya Gosyne, one of the York education students. "Most
exciting for me is that by learning from one another we may
be setting the wheels in motion for change."
The project is the brainchild of York professors
Michael Brown and Mark Webber. Brown heads the Centre for Jewish
Studies, and Webber is the associate director of the Canadian
Centre for German and European Studies (CCGES).
Says Webber, "By looking to the past we prepare
teachers to lead their students towards a better future. By
looking at others, we not only overcome stereotypes about them,
but also get to know ourselves better." Adds Brown, "The
cooperation of so many individuals, institutions and groups
both sets the stage for and reflects the aims of the project.
We are grateful to our public and private sponsors and donors,
and to our colleagues in Canada, Germany and Poland, for making
the project a reality."
The project is funded by the Heinrich Böll Foundation
of the Green Party of Germany, the Office for Democratic Education
of Baden-Württemberg, the Topography of Terror Foundation in
Berlin, the federal government's Department of Canadian Heritage,
York University, the Viadrina University in Frankfurt an der
Oder, the Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznan, and private
donors, including Allan and Hinda Silber, Al Schrage, Gerda
Frieberg, and Joseph Lebovic.
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AMU Honours Professors Brown and Webber