From September 18 to 20, Vilnius hosted an international training seminar for educational communities from Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia.
Entitled ‘The Holocaust as a Starting Point’, the seminar was held in the conference hall of the Lithuanian Jewish Community in Vilnius. The event was opened by Bruno Boyer from the Mémorial de la Shoah (France), Ronaldas Račinskas, Executive Director of the International Commission, and Faina Kukliansky, Chairwoman of the Lithuanian Jewish Community. Representatives of the French Institute in Lithuania also attended.
Participants included teachers from Lithuania, Latvia, and one representative from Estonia. During the three-day seminar, lecturers from Lithuania, France, and Estonia delivered talks on the Holocaust in the Baltic region, Jewish–Christian relations, the use of terms and concepts in the educational process, and the variety of methods employed to present the complex topic of World War II.
Teachers who participated in the seminar had the opportunity to take part in the ‘Road of Memory’ event, which commemorated the Day of Remembrance for the Victims of the Genocide of Lithuanian Jews. This event was organised by the Secretariat of the International Commission, in collaboration with the international organisation ‘March of the Living’. Following the commemoration event in Paneriai, the teachers participated in an educational tour of the Paneriai Memorial.
The international seminar was organised by the Mémorial de la Shoah (France) in cooperation with the International Commission (Lithuania), the Ministries of Education and Science of Latvia and Estonia, the Estonian Jewish Museum, and the Lithuanian Jewish Community.
The international seminar ‘The Holocaust as a Starting Point’ is an ongoing project that has been running for several years. It aims to involve teachers from neighbouring countries in analysing and discussing complex issues related to the Holocaust.
