Holocaust survivors are providing a glimpse into history throughout the week, sharing their stories from the World War II concentration camps at the Karl Anatol Center as part of Cal State Long Beach’s third annual Holocaust workshop.
The weeklong workshop, hosted by the Jewish Studies program, has brought together teachers and Holocaust survivors with the goal of better enabling teachers to inform 10th and 11th grade students of one of the most horrific genocides in history.
Although Holocaust education is a state standard, California high school teachers are not required to participate in a workshop or take a class dedicated to the subject.
“I have been to many workshops before, but this is the first on the Holocaust,” Vicki Mikolajczyk, a Trinity Lutheran Christian School teacher, said.
The Eva and Eugene Schlesinger Training Endowed Workshop, which started Monday and continues through Friday, incorporates discussions led by CSULB faculty as well as the testimonies of Holocaust survivors.
The workshop was founded by Holocaust survivor Gerda Seifer and her husband, Harold, who thought teachers lacked the information necessary to teach students about the Holocaust.
Seifer and her husband contacted the CSULB Jewish Studies Program in 2009, and helped start the unique workshop, the only one of its kind in Southern California.
Approximately 35 teachers from different Southern California schools are expected to attend the workshop this week.
“People come here voluntarily to learn,” Mikolajczyk said.
Teachers in attendance may receive up to $200 in stipend pay for food and parking as well as up to two units of service credit.
At the workshop, holocaust survivors will give firsthand accounts of living during the genocide and of life afterwards.
“It’s amazing how different things are now,” a Holocaust survivor said to a friend. The two sat down during a break and talked about their hometowns and how they managed to “move forward.”
Mikolajczyk said she heard one of the survivors share a story with a friend and she is looking forward to hearing the survivors talk about their experiences throughout the week.
Jaccob Seuser, a senior chemical engineering major, said he thinks teachers should be required to take a workshop on the Holocaust before teaching it.
“I think it’s great to have these workshops,” Seuser said. “I mean, if I think about it, the only information I even know about the Holocaust has been through documentaries and a few museums. I’m surprised teachers aren’t required to take a class on the subject before teaching it.”
Topics covered at the workshop Thursday and Friday will include “Denying the Holocaust” and “Perpetrators, Victims and Bystanders.”