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.
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.
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
Introducing Our Special Webinar Series: “Connecting Communities”
Join the next webinars in our Connecting Communities series to engage with like-minded colleagues and organizations and gain new perspectives to help you reflect on the lessons of the Holocaust.
Upcoming professional learning opportunities include a focus on art, conversations with a film director and an author, a closer look at brain science, and a deeper exploration of resistance during the Holocaust.
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.”
Jewish Partisan Educational Foundation
The Jewish Partisan Educational Foundation is here to offer our many resources to you and your students during this challenging time.
Holocaust Remembrance Day - Yom HaShoah v'HaGevurah is Tuesday, April 21st. During this period of remote learning, JPEF offers excellent opportunities to introduce your students to the empowering experiences of the 30,000 Jews who fought against the Germans and their collaborators.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
