Educational Materials about Holocaust in Serbia

Update: the teaching material “Ester” is finished. More info here…

Holocaust in Belgrade
A story about the Old Fairground

New approach in creating online educational materials about the Holocaust in Serbia

Supported by OSCE/ODIHR in the frames of the programme “Turning Words Into Action to Address Antisemitism”, and leaning on the outcomes of the Historical Archives of Belgrade’s project “Escalating into Holocaust”, Terraforming creates educational materials based on personal stories of young victims from Belgrade, Nis and Zrenjanin murdered at the concentration camp at Sajmiste

New materials for teaching and learning about the Holocaust in Serbia

A Terraforming-led team consisting of international experts and artists will create a set of educational materials about young Jewish victims murdered at the concentration camp at Sajmiste (Old Fairground) in Belgrade.

Educational materials will be developed by the international expert team consisting of historians, pedagogues, illustrators, new-media experts, experts on the pre-war Jewish life and culture in Serbia, gender perspectives experts, dramaturgs and designers from Serbia, Netherlands, Sweden, Germany and Austria.

The work started a couple of days ago, and aim to be finished by 1. December 2016.

The project is supported by OSCE/ODIHR in the frames of the programme “Turning Words Into Action to Address Antisemitism”.

Innovative educational concept

The concept is based on several fundamental principles:

Online-based, simple to access and ready to share through social-media channels
Using new-media technologies as a pedagogical tool
Based on presentation of local events in the well known environments and locations in three Serbian cities that will be easy recognized by students
Based on personal stories
Focus on young victims for emphasized empathy and self-identification (in addition to young victims’ families and friends)
Main focus on the pre-war Jewish life in Serbia
Stories from three Serbian cities: Belgrade, Nis and Zrenjanin
Graphic novel-style illustrations as a main medium for learning and as a tool to initiate critical thinking and debate in the classroom
Using historical photographs, archive documentation and other sources in parallel with illustrations in order to emphasize that the stories are based on historical facts
Connection to the online victim’s database created by the Historical Archives of Belgrade
Emphasizing the role of archivists and historians as important, exciting and interesting professions
Implementing more gender perspectives in teaching and learning about the Holocaust
Offering ready-made teachers manuals and lesson plans
Providing different ways to use the materials: from a work group in the classroom to visits to the story-related locations in the city

The project is supported by OSCE/ODIHR The Organization For Security And Co-operation In Europe – Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights, in the frames of the programme Short Projects: Turning Words Into Action to Address Antisemitism

Leaning on the project “Escalating into Holocaust”

The project “Holocaust in Belgrade – A Story About The Old Fairground” is leaning on the results and outcomes of another international cooperation: the project “Escalating into Holocaust”.

“Escalating into Holocaust” is a project run by the Historical Archives of Belgrade in cooperation with partners from Serbia, Croatia, Netherlands and Sweden. The main project goal is to further support Holocaust remembrance, research and education, with particular aim to explore shared European aspects of the Holocaust by taking Holocaust in Serbia as starting point, in order to further discuss important current European challenges, and Holocaust as a shared European narrative that defines European values of diversity, tolerance and Human Rights.

Victim’s database

In the frames of that project, the Historical Archives of Belgrade is developing a database of the Holocaust victims murdered at the concentration camp at Sajmiste (the Old Fairground). This victims’ database served as inspiration and precondition for the educational materials “Holocaust in Belgrade – A Story About The Old Fairground”.

During the international event “Escalating into Holocaust” in april 2016 in Belgrade, Terraforming organized a workshop with international experts, Serbian teachers, representatives of the local Jewish communities, and other stakeholders, about the use of graphic novels in Holocaust education. This exchange led to further development of the idea for “Holocaust in Belgrade – A Story About The Old Fairground”.

Supporting the work on the new Memorial Center and Museum

No memorial centres or museums have ever been built on the former campgrounds. For a long time the area where the camp was located was in a very poor condition. Recently, the Belgrade City Council announced the plans of building a permanent Memorial Center at the site. The Museum of Genocide Victims in Belgrade and the newly established Memorial Center Committee are now making plans for the Memorial Center and Museum, with aim to start the project in 2017.

By putting the Concentration camp at Sajmište in focus and by creating materials that could be used at the future Memorial, both initiatives “Escalating into Holocaust” and the educational materials “Holocaust in Belgrade – A Story About The Old Fairground” aim to contribute to this important task.

Holocaust in Belgrade A story about the Old Fairground