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Electives

Information for Participants​

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Elective 1:
The Kindertransports
Coordinator: Yonat Gross 
In small, international groups, using our stories from Vienna, teachers will collaborate to design projects and lessons about the Kindertransport —the program to bring almost 10,000 Jewish children from Germany, Austria, and then-Czechoslovakia to England, where they were taken in by families of all backgrounds. Most of the parents who made the terrible decision to send their children off to another country could not get out of Nazi-occupied Europe and the majority were murdered. At war’s end, most of the “Kinder” remained in England, the country that had given them shelter. 

We recommend you take a few minutes to look at Centropa's website with interview excerpts, films, and other resources about the Kindertransport from Vienna: https://www.kindertransport.centropa.org
Elective 2:
Terezín Stories
Coordinator: Ettie Abraham
For over a decade, Centropa teachers have brought together their students virtually from different cultures to study the Holocaust, learn about one another, and expand their minds. 

In this elective, you will partner with a teacher (or two or more) to design a lesson about Terezin that you will implement during the 2023-2024 academic year. 

Here are three films (two from Centropa) about people who were in Terezin, which you may want to view before deciding.
Elective 3:
Holocaust Youth Diaries
Coordinator: Alex Zapruder
Alexandra Zapruder, the author of Salvaged Pages: Young Writers’ Diaries of the Holocaust, will lead this elective. Alex will speak about youth diaries in the first session, and then participants will use the rest of the time to work together—or alone—to design lessons for the coming year that use Centropa interviews as well as excerpts from youth diaries from the Holocaust.  

Here is a link to Alex's web page about Salvaged Pages.
Elective 4:
Stepping Into the Future with Empathy: A Photography Project about Refugees
Coordinator: Gili Sherman
This unique interview/photography elective about refugees is new this year. Unlike the other electives, the outline of this project is set but you will design the specific ways you will teach your students the various elements. 

Your students will learn about contemporary refugees in their own country as well as Centropa's Holocaust refugees, learn how to conduct an interview with sensitivity, and study how to take a portrait photograph that conveys emotion. In pairs or small groups, they will interview a refugee in your area and, in partnership with the interviewee, they will take a portrait photograph of him/her. Their reflection of what they learned will be a photograph that illustrates their own response to the refugee’s story. 

In this elective, two sessions will be spent on learning how to teach students to do sensitive interviews and take photographs that convey mood and emotion. In the rest of the sessions, you will design the lessons for your students.

Those interested can pair up to make this a cross-cultural project.
Elective 5:
Border Jumping Program
Coordinators: Liz Weide and Biserka Zajec
Bring the world to your students by creating a project with a teacher (or teachers) from another country. For over a decade, Centropa teachers have virtually brought together their students from different cultures to study the Holocaust, learn about one another, and expand their minds. 

You will hear from teachers who have successfully done cross-border projects, and we will provide you with multiple suggestions for designing strong learning experiences for your students. Veteran teachers who have done innovative cross-cultural projects will mentor you during the CSA and throughout the school year. In May 2024, all elective participants will meet once again via Zoom—a mini-reunion—to present their projects to one another and other interested teachers.
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