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Fall 2025 Gizella Abramson Teaching the Holocaust Conference
Fall 2025 Conference Materials
Below, you will see the agenda for this conference, which will also have all of the presentations and files embedded for your use by the day of the workshop.
Contact Information for the Conference Facilitators:
Lauren Piner, Region 1 Director: laurenepiner@gmail.com
Juanita Ray, Region 3 Director: holocaustncwest@gmail.com
Laurie Schaefer, Region 5 Director: lschaefer@wsfcs.k12.nc.us
Kinsi King, Region 6 Director: Kinsi_king@iss.k12.nc.us
Amy Clark, Region 7 Director: uncgirl1989@gmail.com
Stacie Dotson, Region 8 Director: srcdotson@gmail.com
| AGENDA ITEMS | LINKS TO RESOURCES USED |
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8:30: Introductions/Housekeeping
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8:35-9:35: 3G Survivor Courtney Doi
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9:35-9:45: Break
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9:45-11:00: Breakout Session #1 (Teachers choose one when they register in the morning): NC Council on the Holocaust Presentation: Guidelines and Rationale for Teaching the Holocaust In this session, participants will explore how to teach about the USHMM’s Guidelines for Teaching the Holocaust and consider their rationale for teaching about the Holocaust in their classroom. Participate in a discussion about these thoughtful guidelines and connect some of the key guidelines with lessons before creating a rationale for teaching the Holocaust, which will help teachers narrow their focus on what resources would be best to use with their own students.
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9:45-11:00: Breakout Session #1 (Teachers choose one when they register in the morning): NC Council on the Holocaust Presentation: Teaching a Holocaust Elective This session is for teachers who either are currently teaching an elective on the Holocaust or who would like to teach an elective in the future. Participants will explore the new framework for teaching an elective from the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction and also interact with two outlines for an elective that apply the new objectives and course materials from NCDPI as options for teachers to use when planning their own course. Presenters in this session have all taught a Holocaust elective and will offer support and advice for how to get started.
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9:45-11:00: Breakout Session #1 (Teachers choose one when they register in the morning): NC Council on the Holocaust Presentation: Oath and Opposition: Teachers in the Third Reich Education in Nazi Germany is the focus of this session, where participants will learn about the role of teachers in aiding or opposing the Nazis in German schools. Through four case studies of teachers and the choices that they made, and survivor testimony, teachers will learn how to implement this lesson from the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in their classrooms to help students understand the impact that teachers had on students during this time in history.
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9:45-11:00: Breakout Session #1 (Teachers choose one when they register in the morning): Echoes and Reflections Presentation: Teaching Media Literacy: The Holocaust as a Case Study Participants explore the events of the Holocaust through the lens of media, by examining propaganda deployed by the Nazis to discriminate against Jews and other minorities. Educators gain tools to facilitate classroom discussions and support students in analyzing media in today’s world.
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11:00-11:15: Break
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11:15-12:30: Breakout Session #2 (Teachers choose one when they register in the morning): NC Council on the Holocaust Presentation: State of Deception: Nazi Propaganda How did words, images, and other techniques shape the general public’s thinking in Nazi Germany? What are some ways participants can engage their students in discussion related to antisemitism and hatred? Participants will discuss propaganda and take part in an activity that will help implement the study of Nazi propaganda in their classrooms.
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11:15-12:30: Breakout Session #2 (Teachers choose one when they register in the morning): NC Council on the Holocaust Presentation: Non-Jewish Victims of Nazi Persecution While the Holocaust is most often associated with the genocide of six million Jews, millions of others were also persecuted under Nazi rule. This session examines how and why the regime targeted non-Jewish groups—including Roma and Sinti, people with disabilities, Jehovah’s Witnesses, Poles, and Soviet prisoners of war. Through historical sources and classroom strategies, participants will explore the ideological and political goals that drove these persecutions and learn ways to help students the impact of Nazi ideology.
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11:15-12:30: Breakout Session #2 (Teachers choose one when they register in the morning): NC Council on the Holocaust Presentation: Photo Narrative and Timeline of the Holocaust This session will feature two hands-on lessons to use when helping students define the Holocaust, analyze primary sources, and build a historical timeline of the Holocaust. Both lessons are from the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, and the NC Council on the Holocaust has some unique additions to the Timeline activity for teachers in NC, including two new layers. We highly recommend this session for all teachers, but especially those who are new to teaching about the Holocaust, as these lessons can provide a solid foundation for learning how and why the Holocaust happened.
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11:15-12:30: Breakout Session #2 (Teachers choose one when they register in the morning): NC Council on the Holocaust Presentation: Life after Survival The end of World War II did not mark the end of suffering for Holocaust survivors. This session explores the experiences of those liberated from concentration and labor camps and their struggles to rebuild their lives in the aftermath. Participants will learn about conditions in Displaced Persons camps, efforts to reunite families, and the emotional and physical challenges of starting anew. Using survivor testimony and classroom resources, educators will gain strategies to help students understand liberation as both an ending and a beginning in the long journey of recovery and resilience.
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12:30-1:30: Lunch on your own
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1:30-2:45: Breakout Session #3 (Teachers choose one when they register in the morning): NC Council on the Holocaust Presentation: Challenges of Escape Why didn’t the Jews just leave? Students often ask this question when they begin their study of the Holocaust, so this lesson incorporates primary sources, survivor testimony, and historical facts to help answer this complex question. By the end of the lesson, students may change their question to “How could so many of the Jews have managed to leave Germany?” Teachers with any experience in teaching the Holocaust will find this lesson to be an important one to use with their students.
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1:30-2:45: Breakout Session #3 (Teachers choose one when they register in the morning): Echoes and Reflections: Antisemitism: Understanding and Countering This Hatred Today This session will give an overview of how teachers can approach teaching about the history of antisemitism up to the present day. Young people must understand the dangers of antisemitism today and the threat that it poses to both Jewish and non-Jewish populations. This program helps teachers to educate about antisemitism, examining its complexities from historic and contemporary perspectives. Educators gain strategies to help students respond to and counter antisemitism and forms of hate.
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1:30-2:45: Breakout Session #3 (Teachers choose one when they register in the morning): NC Council on the Holocaust Presentation: Using Picture Books to Introduce the Holocaust Children’s and young adult literature can offer powerful, age-appropriate entry points for teaching the Holocaust. This session explores how carefully selected books—both fiction and nonfiction—can help middle and high school students connect personally to history while developing empathy and critical thinking skills. Participants will examine recommended titles, classroom strategies, and discussion frameworks that align with Holocaust education standards and foster meaningful reflection on moral choice, identity, and resilience.
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1:30-2:45: Breakout Session #3 (Teachers choose one when they register in the morning): NC Council on the Holocaust Presentation: Spiritual Resistance: She Wouldn’t Take Off Her Boots This session will explore the history behind the “She Wouldn’t Take Off Her Boots” monument in Greensboro, NC, which is based on a defiant photograph taken of four women and a girl before they were murdered in Liepaja, Lativa. Hear from Women of the Shoah Teaching Fellows and docents about the story of the women and how they reclaimed their dignity in their final moments and walk away with a lesson plan and information about the Women of the Shoah Fellowship that is open to all NC teachers.
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2:45-3:00: Break and Evaluations
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3:00-4:00: Holocaust Survivor Speaker Lex Silbiger Alexander “Lex” Silbiger was born in the Netherlands in 1935 and survived the Nazi occupation by fleeing through Belgium, France, and Spain to a refugee camp in Jamaica before finally resettling in Curaçao. After years of displacement and schooling across multiple countries, he eventually made his way to the United States, where he would become a distinguished musicologist and share his testimony widely in educational settings. He will also be signing copies of his new book, Our Great Escape: The Story of a Dutch Family’s Flight from Persecution.
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