Shared European Remembrance in Innovative School Education Erasmus Project

Project Title

Shared European Remembrance in Innovative School Education

Project Key Action

This project related with these key action: Cooperation for innovation and the exchange of good practices

Project Action Type

This project related with this action type : Strategic Partnerships for school education

Project Call Year

This project’s Call Year is 2018

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: Civic engagement / responsible citizenship; Intercultural/intergenerational education and (lifelong)learning

Project Summary

The Sharing European Remembrance with innovative School Education project (SERISE) project was initiated as a one year program, implemented from September 2018 until the end of August 2019, to support European schools in developing innovative tools and new educational methods, to exchange best practices and information in order to better address the challenges of European memories and remembrance of the Holocaust, in the context of increasing waves of Antisemitism, hatred and intolerance and Holocaust denial when the last witnesses of the past are passing away.SERISE aimed also to foster an effective European partnership between schools and their teachers who met together for the first time and managed to launch the Community of Schools for Holocaust Education (COSHE) as a dedicated network of schools engaged in Holocaust education and participating in the March of the Living and Holocaust Educational programs.The COSHE partners defined new tools and innovative approaches how to reach out and engage young Europeans to be the next generation of Holocaust witnesses when soon there will be no more Holocaust survivors, how to identify and address emerging generational division between last generations who witnessed or know witness of the Holocaust and the new generations and how to help students to transmit their experiences of participating in the March of the Living and visits of Holocaust related sites to their peer groups and to their communities and families.SERISE generated the first of its kind exchange of information and of best practices between COSHE partners in order to help them developing new educational tools and define new and innovative Educational guidelines to support European schools and school authorities addressing the European Historical Memory of the Holocaust and tragedies of the past.SERISE partners also discussed how to better promote and more effectively ensure the transmission of this European Historical Memory, of European values and Cultural Heritage to young generations, to help them drawing the lessons of the horrendous consequences of the Holocaust and of the tragedies of the Past in order to enhance their civic engagement, civic courage and social responsibility to act on the Present, to combat Antisemitism, intolerance and racism and to build a better future.Therefore SERISE reached out, gathered and engaged a selected group of 40 experienced teachers, educators, school and educational programs staffers, experts and civic leaders from Austria Germany, Hungary and Belgium through the European March of the Living Network who accompanied their groups of high school students to the March of the Living educational programs, visits of Nazi concentration and extermination camps in Poland and of other Holocaust related and Commemorative sites in Europe.In the framework of the four days of the SERISE Joint Staff Seminar workshops, organized in August 2019 in Budapest, the participants presented and analyzed the impact of their Holocaust Educational programs and reviewed their existing resources toolkits in a transnational perspective and transdisciplinary approach, taking into account the new digital challenges.The participants presented, discussed, identified and defined their best and most impactful resources including their visual toolkit and use of digital memories.They discussed and reviewed the existing Guidelines for Holocaust Educators issued by Yad Vashem, the U.S Holocaust Memorial Museum (USHMM) and by the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA), in order to define new and innovative Educational Guidelines specifically adapted to the visits of Holocaust related sites, to the Students Frequently asked questions and to the National and European context.They reviewed and discussed shortcomings and existing issues in Holocaust education and in enlarging the participation to the March of the Living and Holocaust related sites visits, taking into account the main findings of their SWOT (Strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats) analysis .The participants discussed and defined new tools and innovative approaches how to reach out and engage young Europeans to be the next generation of Holocaust witnesses when soon there will be no more Holocaust survivors and how to help their students to transmit their experiences of participating in the March of the Living and visits of Holocaust related sites to their peer groups and to their communities.The SERISE seminar participants also reviewed and discussed how to support and enhance their students’ civic engagement and social responsibility to act on the Present and build a better Future.The participants also discussed and defined innovative guidelines to cope with logistic and practical issues, teachers’ needs, emotional and psychological support to the students and discipline issues.Finally the participants started to share through the COSHE website (www.coshe.eu) the new approaches and the new innovative tools and they committed themselves to continue this work and engage new teachers and new schools.They also committed themselves to promote the SERISE spirit and the SERISE mission in the years to come

Project Website

https://www.coshe.eu/

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 48477,75 Eur

Project Coordinator

EMOTL – European March of the Living Network & Country: BE

Project Partners

• RBF FRANCE – FORUM DE LA MEMOIRE
• March of Remembrance and Hope, die Holocaust-Gedenkreise
• Az Élet Menete Alapítvány
• RBF – The Remembrance Forum e.V.