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
Illinois Holocaust and Genocide Education Mandate
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.
Illinois Mandated Units of Study Guidance Document is to serve as a guide for districts, schools, and teachers in interpreting the current mandated units of study in Illinois.
Addressing the "Null Curriculum": Teaching about Genocides Other than the Holocaust
Article by Samuel Totten
News, Events, & Highlights
Professional Development Events
Diaries and Memoirs: Using Primary Sources to Teach The Holocaust
March 17, 2020
Lodz Ghetto A Model of Destruction: An Echoes and Reflections Workshop
March 18, 2020
How Far Is Too Far? Holocaust Education In Middle Grade Classrooms
March 19, 2020
Free Workshop for Educator
The Holocaust Education Center invites you to participate in a workshop presented by the Anti-Defamation League (ADL): Teaching the Holocaust - Empowering Students
Registration required at ROE Schoolworks web site. Registration open through March 25, 2020
Through Their Eyes
In commemoration of Yom Hashoah, Holocaust Remembrance Day, the CUJF Holocaust Education Center is sponsoring a student exhibit featuring original works on the study of the Holocaust created by local students from Champaign and Ford Counties. Sunday, April 19 – Wednesday, April 22 at Sinai Temple.
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.
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.
Student Filmmaker: Remembering the Holocaust
Countryside 8th grader and filmmaker, Max Libman at his presentation "The Holocaust: Remembering the Past as We Stand Together for a Brighter Future" at Countryside's Gym and Performing Arts Center.
County Classrooms Learn About the Holocaust
In at least two Vermilion County classrooms, the 75th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz will be observed Monday, which also is the International Day of Holocaust Remembrance.
Ann S. Arnold and Isabella S. Fiske Create A Foundation to Honor Their Father, Mark Schonwetter
Isabella S. Fiske and Ann S. Arnold announced the launch of The Mark Schonwetter Holocaust Education Foundation. The Mark Schonwetter Holocaust Education Foundation’s mission is to expand and support Holocaust Education for students in schools around the country and to provide funds necessary for educators to implement curriculum into their lesson plans.
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 died, 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.