Martyrdom & resistance, March/April 2022

AMERICAN SOCIETY FOR YAD VASHEM Vol. 48-No. 4 | ISSN 0892-1571 March/April 2022 - Adar/Nissan5782 WITHOUT A TRACE: THE OBLIGATION OF MEMORY BARBARA GUTFREUND ARFA PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT CONFERENCE ON HOLOCAUST EDUCATION The Education Department of the American Society for Yad Vashem held its twenty-fourth annual pro¬ fessional development conference on Holocaust education on March 27, 2022. This year’s pro¬ gram was generously supported by the Bar¬ bara Gutfreund Arfa En¬ dowment Fund for Holocaust Education. Our theme this year, Without a Trace: The Ob¬ ligation of Memory, rep¬ resents an opportunity to reflect on our obligations to honor the memory of Holocaust victims, to pre¬ serve the factual record of the Holocaust through education, and to make this history relevant decades later. This program is a collaborative effort with the Association of Teachers of Social Studies/United Federation of Teachers, the UFT Jewish Heritage Committee, the Educators’ Chapter of the Jewish Labor Committee, and the School of Education of Manhattanville College. Participants in this year’s program included educators from five countries across the globe and fifteen states nationwide. Our program aims to teach about the consequences of extreme and baseless hatred and prejudice. We educate to pro¬ mote tolerance in the hope that through our efforts, future generations will make sure that the Holocaust, a low chapter in human history, will not repeat itself. This confer¬ ence, organized by Marlene W. Yahalom, Director of Education of the American So¬ ciety, has proven to be a strong vehicle to promote the mission of Holocaust remem¬ brance and memory through education Women and children on the Birkenau arrival platform known as the "ramp." The Jews were removed from the de¬ portation trains onto the ramp, where they faced a selection process — most of them were sent immediately to their deaths, while others were sent to slave labor. Photo from the Auschwitz Album. over the years. The conference was cre¬ ated by Caroline Massel, Executive Board member and chair of the Education Com¬ mittee of the American Society for Yad Vashem, in 1999. While identifying opportunities to reach a broader audience, we successfully con¬ nected with educators across the nation to broaden our reach and empower more teachers to share our mission of Holocaust remembrance with greater ease, thanks to the variety of remote platforms available. It is important to recognize that there are many aspects of Holocaust education that did not change despite the multiple obsta¬ cles of pivoting to Zoom and remote for¬ mat. We still face the same challenges. These challenges include the relevance of the Holocaust; the shrinking population of Holocaust survivors; a future without Holo¬ caust survivors; time constraints on educa¬ tors for required subjects in their curricula; and the challenges of Holocaust denial and ris¬ ing tides of anti-Semi¬ tism — just to name a few. n times of unprece¬ dented challenges due to the pan¬ demic, we continue to carry the torch of re¬ membrance through edu¬ cation and convey to the world the survival, re¬ silience and strength of the Jews before, during and after the Holocaust. It is through education and the educational pedagogy de¬ veloped by Yad Vashem that we sustain this mis¬ sion and transmit the les¬ sons of the Holocaust to present and future genera¬ tions. We want to highlight the best of hu¬ manity when the worst was there. By restoring a human face to the victim, we can underscore the resilience of the Jewish people and their ultimate survival. We continue to consider what was lost and how Jews survived. The courage and resilience of Jews during the Holocaust must be identified and promoted. It is also critical to address the rising tides of anti- Semitism and the efforts of Holocaust de- niers to muffle these important messages and facts. We have the additional obligation of transmitting the lessons from this event for present and future generations with a di¬ rective to educators in all educational set¬ tings. (Continued on page 3)