Holocaust Education Center
"If you don't know at least part of the story, if you don't know that there is a story, then we shall bequeath upon our descendants a sense of shame. We could not save those who died but we can save them from dying again because to forget is to kill them again. So why should the next generation in the 21st century live with that shame? For the dead and the living, we must bear witness."
Elie Wiesel
About Us
The CUJF Holocaust Education committee serves as a resource to help school systems comply with the 1990 Illinois state mandate to teach about the Holocaust in fifth, eight, and tenth grades. (Public Act 86-780)
The committee is also dedicated to providing assistance to all individuals in the greater Champaign-Urbana area who wish to address the universal lessons to be learned from the Holocaust.
The committee sends information about the Holocaust to public school teachers and college students majoring in education; sponsors and grants scholarships for in-service teacher training programs; provides videos, books, and newspapers to local libraries and schools and speakers to area classrooms.
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JDC Archives
Search the archives of the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee, which has a large collection of documents and photographs relating to its work during World War II. There is information about the legacy of the JDC's work rescuing and providing relief during and after the Holocaust.
Holocaust Education Trunks
Holocaust Education Trunks provide materials and ready-to-use units that vary in readability and format, are grade-appropriate, and are relevant to all learning styles.
- Teacher Reference Books
- Lesson Plans
- Fiction and Non-fiction Books (classroom sets)
- Videos and DVDs; CD-ROMS
- Poetry and Scripts for Plays
- Artifact Kits
Holocaust and Genocide Education
Download Public Act 094-0478
In 1990 Illinois became the first state in the country to mandate each public elementary school and high school to include in its curriculum a study of Holocaust history. In 2005 The mandate, Public Act 094-0478, was expanded to include other cases of genocide.
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Download Illinois Mandated Units of Study Guidance Document
Illinois Mandated Units of Study Guidance Document serves as a guide for districts, schools, and teachers in interpreting the current mandated units of study in Illinois.
Download list of Genocide Web Sources (pre and post Holocaust)
Download article by Samuel Totten:
Addressing the "Null Curriculum": Teaching about Genocides Other than the Holocaust
HEC News, Events, & Announcements
The Olympics and the Holocaust
July 21 @ 12:00 pm CST
This upcoming Olympic Games provides an opportunity to connect Holocaust history with this momentous event. In 1936, Nazi Germany hosted the Summer Olympic Games, promoting an image of a strong and unified nation while attempting to hide the regime’s targeting of Jews and Roma. In this webinar, delivered by Sheryl Ochayon Echoes & Reflections Director at Yad Vashem, we will tell stories of Nazi persecution against Jewish, LGBTQ+, Sinti, and other athletes—as well as acts of individual resistance—during the 1936 Berlin Games.
2021 Yom Hashoah Observance
Under the instruction of Tamra Gingold, Urbana High School Orchesta Director, students explored the music, artwork, poetry and childrens’ experiences in Terezin. They learned what Anti-Semitism is and how it emerged. They got the opportunity to hear stories and experiences from Holocaust survivors, including my dad, Dr. William Gingold. They learned how to play the themes to Schindler’s List and Eli Eli. They created a slideshow presentation that included: pictures and experiences of a child(ren), poetry and artwork created by children from Terezin, and compositions that emerged in Terezin. Several of the students also learned the melody to songs that were composed during the Holocaust, focusing on Terezin, but not limited to. Then, students learned the importance of Yom Hashoah and how important it is to learn, educate and share with others so this will never happen again.
Through Their Eyes
American Rescue Efforts during the Holocaust
March 8 @ 5:00 pm
With the annexation of Austria and Czechoslovakia in 1938, and due to the restrictive quota, the waiting list for those who wanted to enter the United States from Nazi-occupied Europe grew to span ten years. As the obstacles to leaving became insurmountable, European Jews, and those who strove to help them, responded creatively and sought any and every opportunity for escape. Join United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Curator Susan Goldstein Snyder as she explores the ways Americans, both Jewish and non-Jewish, attempted to help the Jews of Europe who were increasingly living under the Nazi cloud.
Virtual Tour for Students and Teachers
March 20 @ 1:00 pm
In partnership with Echoes & Reflections, join us for a virtual tour of the groundbreaking exhibition Auschwitz: Not long ago. Not far away. Students and educators will study Jewish life before, during, and after the Holocaust using artifacts and personal stories to examine this period in history.
"The future historian will have to dedicate an appropriate page to Jewish women in the war. She will take up an important page in history for her courage and her steadfastness. By her merit, thousands of families have managed to surmount the terror of the times."
Emanuel Ringelblum, (Jewish historian, 1900-1944, notes from inside the Warsaw Ghetto)
Today marks the beginning of the 41st Annual Women's History Month. The Jewish Partisan Educational Foundation website offers an extensive library of easily accessible resources and lesson plans to help you teach students about Jewish women in the partisans. Empower them through the lives of Sara Fortis, Brenda Senders (z''l), Sara Ginaite-Rubinson (z''l) (pictured above), and the many other women who fought back against the Nazis and their collaborators during World War II.
JPEF's resources offer in-depth insights into the lives of female Jewish partisans who resisted as soldiers, spies, saboteurs, medics, and vital support personnel, helping to save people and end the war.
- Women in the Partisans Resource Page: Includes free curricula, links to profiles with biographies, primary-source video testimonials, and photos, plus a printable poster and other resources
- Short Films: Every Day the Impossible: Jewish Women in the Partisans (15:00) and A Partisan Returns: The Legacy of Two Sisters (21:00) – both narrated by Emmy-winner Tovah Feldshuh
- Free Curriculum: Women in the Partisans Study Guide
- Video Course: A 41-minute training that can be used as lesson prep (offering free CEUs) or shown in class.
For additional information, read JPEF's blog about female Jewish partisans.
Sheri Rosenblum
Director of Development and Outreach
IFC Films Makes Claude Lanzmann’s “Shoah” Available to Own Digitally for the First Time Ever on March 2, 2021
Teaching the Holocaust, Empowering Students
Sign up today for our first 3-Part Online Course of 2021, which includes new interactive learning tools that create a more collaborative environment for educators as they enhance their Holocaust teaching skills and guide students in building a brighter future. New features include:
Live sessions with a facilitator
Tools for remote classroom instruction
Discussion boards to support sharing of teaching methods
Course opens February 1. We hope to see you there!
The Museum of Jewish Heritage Online Education Program
The Museum of Jewish Heritage — A Living Memorial to the Holocaust is providing online education programs for educators and students during this time of remote learning. Online professional development for educators is offered each Monday from 3:00-4:00 pm CST. Corresponding lesson for students are offered on Tuesdays from 10:00-11:00 am CST.
Illinois Holocaust Museum and Education Center
Illinois Holocaust Museum and Education Center in Skokie offers a wide array of resources for edicators and students.
Anti-Defamation League: Teaching the Holocaust
Echoes & Reflections website offers free online webinars and courses for educators.
“Our webinars are designed to increase participants’ knowledge of Holocaust history, explore and access classroom-ready content, and support instructional practice to promote student learning and understanding of this complex history and its lasting effect on the world.”
The Current State of Holocaust Education
Holocaust Education Chair Brian Kahn and CUJF Director Linda Bauer are discussing teaching about genocide and the Holocaust on WILL-AM 580's "The 21st" radio show: strategies and challenges of dealing with this important, evolving issue.
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Holocaust Education Center Scholarships
The Holocaust Education Center of Champaign Urbana Jewish Federation proudly sponsors educators to attend professional development sessions in an effort to inform their current practice teaching the Holocaust and contemporary genocide.
Our Stories
Survivor Story: Dr. William Gingold
Students in University Laboratory High School’s German 4 class were privileged to welcome Holocaust survivor Dr. William Gingold as a guest speaker in their class. Gingold, whose family fled the Warsaw Ghetto, shared his story publicly for the first time with Uni students and faculty.
The presentation was part of teacher Jenny Robins’ unit on WWII and the Holocaust, where she brings in community members to help students better understand this difficult period in German history.
Gingold shared the story of his family’s escape, their time in a camp in Russia, his experience in a DP camp, and, finally, his family’s journey to the U.S. where they settled in Milwaukee.
His story was illustrated by a series of photos, as well as by passing around “Tunnel, Smuggle, Collect: A Holocaust Boy”, a book about Gingold’s older brother, Sam. The book was researched and written by Gingold's nephew, Jeffrey Gingold.
Gingold’s vivid and touching account inspired both tears and hope, and the Uni community is honored to have been the first to publicly hear his story. We appreciate the efforts of Brian Kahn, director of Holocaust Education for the Champaign-Urbana Jewish Federation, who facilitated the talk.
Dr. Gingold Bio
William (Baruch) Gingold, a Holocaust survivor from World War II, was born September 20, 1939, one day before the hospital, (in which he was born), was bombed and destroyed by Nazi, Germany. The Gingold’s (immediate family) were incarcerated in the Warsaw Ghetto until eventually escaping to the Russian border in January of 1942. Upon reaching the Russian encampment, they and other Jewish people were transported in trucks to trains which took them to a Siberian lumber work camp. In November of 1942 the Gingold’s were allowed to leave the camp and move about within Russia and eventually finding their way to Zhambly in Kazakhstan.
In the spring of 1945, (May 8th), Hitler was dead and Germany surrenders. Upon those events, the Gingold’s reach their goal in September of 1945 by arriving at and entering the American Sector in occupied Berlin. Shortly thereafter in May of 1946, the Gingold’s were sent to the Föehrenwald Displacement Camp. After six years living at this camp, the Gingold’s emigrate to the United States of America in May of 1951 and arrive by boat to Ellis Island, NY. Soon thereafter the Gingold’s are resettled in Milwaukee, WI, where new lives and many transitions began in their start of the American dream and way of life.
Relive the Historical Evening with Marthe Cohn
World War II spy Marthe Cohn, the author of Behind Enemy Lines: The True Story of a French Jewish Spy in Nazi Germany, is sharing her story of joining the French intelligence service, posing as a nurse, crossing enemy lines and relaying information about the Nazis back to the French.
