This course is for all teachers who will be teaching about the Holocaust in a secondary school context. Drawing upon empirical research from UCL’s Centre for Holocaust Education and the latest scholarship the course provides a clear rationale for the importance of teaching about Jewish life across Europe, and Eastern Europe in particular, within any study of the Holocaust. You will explore some of the Centre’s resources so that upon completion of the course you will have considered ways in which you may approach this important topic in the classroom.
Course aims
This course will enable you to:
- Develop secure knowledge and understanding about the diversity and the long history of Jewish life in Europe and the important contributions that Jewish people made to their communities and countries.
- Understand where the Holocaust took place and who the victims were.
- Understand how and why the Holocaust unfolded differently in different spaces and the significance of Eastern Europe.
- Recognise the significance of the Holocaust by ‘seeing’ the spaces that it left, the loss of individuals, whole families and the destruction of entire communities and a way of life across Europe.
Course content
The course is structured in the following way:
- What does the research tell us?
- Watch a short video exploring student misconceptions and misunderstandings as identified in the Centre’s 2016 research and how knowledge and understanding of Jewish life across Europe before the Holocaust can equip students to challenge these.
- How can we approach this in the classroom?
- Explore some of the Centre’s lesson resources relating to Jewish life before the Holocaust. Find out about life in the Jewish town of Trochenbrod and what we can learn about this place and more broadly about Jewish life across Eastern Europe.
- What does the latest historical scholarship reveal?
- Listen to Dr Waitman Wade Beorn, Associate Professor in history at Northumberland University as he explains it is so important to include prewar Jewish life and a focus upon Eastern Europe in any study of the Holocaust.
Teaching and structure
The course is online and asynchronous. Participants can work through the activities, watching and reflecting upon short films and exploring lesson resources, at their own pace.
Certificate
You will receive a certificate of participation upon completion of the course.
Learning outcomes
By the end of this course you will be able to develop more effective, better-informed learning activities and resources to teach your students about Jewish life across Europe before the Holocaust.
Ready to deepen your subject knowledge and teach this history with confidence?
- Click the link below to go to the course.
- This will take you to the UCL Extend ‘shopping basket’ do not worry, the course is free so just go straight to ‘checkout’.
- If you already have a UCL Extend account, please log in to your account using your Email address and Password or if you are a new customer, select ‘I am a new customer’ and click on ‘Login’ button.
- Once you have entered your details and checked out, you will be sent a confirmation email, an account on UCL Extend will be created and you will be enrolled on the course.
