Das Vermächtnis

Core features of the practice

• Organisation:

  
  Institution name: erinnern.at
  Institution type: Institute for Holocaust Education of the Austrian ministry for education
  Institution URL: http://www.erinnern.at
  

• Format:

  
  Instructional material
  

• Target population:

  
  Students, Young people
  

• Cost (per practice):

  
  10-50 euros
  

• Setting:

  
  No specific setting required
  

• Themes:

  
  Remembrance education and/or history education, Citizenship/democracy education, Antisemitism, The Holocaust and/or other genocides, Critical thinking
  

• Core activities:

  
  Group work, Group discussion, Written activity, Film viewing, Testimonial
  

Additional information about the practice

Target population

• Number of participants:

  
  Up to 34
  

• Age of target population:

  
  16-18
  

• Additional specifics:

  
  National/local specifities (e.g. activity targeted to Swedish school students)
  

Components of the practice

• Topics and objectives:

  
  "Das Vermächtnis" contains stories of survivors collected by the Los Angeles USC Shoah Foundation Institute for Visual History and Education. A working group of historians, didactics and video experts selected thirteen interviews from that database and prepared them for use in school lessons in form of DVDs.
  

• Materials used:

  
  Audiovisual material, Online material
  Link to the material:
  
  1. http://www.erinnern.at/bundeslaender/oesterreich/zeitzeuginnen/das-vermaechtnis/die-zeitzeuginnen
     

• Material produced:

  
  Written material
  

• Sequence of activities - methodology:

  
  The second DVD contains additional material (biographies, transcripts of the interview excerpts, photos and documents as well as elaborated teaching and learning units. The "modules" or "materials and work impulses" can all be printed out. They begin with a "encounter with the contemporary witnesses" recommended as an introduction. This is followed by further learning units organized according to topics. The work impulses provide detailed suggestions for dealing with people and their reports. The didactic concept is based on the assumption that in addition to the classification into the historical context, a discussion about the reports of contemporary witnesses or an active examination of these reports is of particular important. Therefore, there are many suggestions in the work impulses. Since these accounts of the contemporary witnesses are individual memories of events that have happend a long time ago, the teaching one of the modules focuses on remembering and narrating. Another module uses the experiences of the contemporary witnesses as an opportunity to ask about our contemporary way of dealing with the "own" and the "stranger", thus clarifying the relevance of the past for our present.
  

• Length of activity:

  
  5 to 8 hours
  

• Is the activity digital?:

  
  Yes: http://www.erinnern.at/bundeslaender/oesterreich/zeitzeuginnen/das-vermaechtnis/die-zeitzeuginnen
  

Accessibility and replicability

• Language(s) in which activity can be delivered:

  
  German
  

• Is specialist knowledge or professional training required?:

  
  No
  

Qualitative Details

• Has this practice been evaluated?

  
  Yes
  

How many times?:


5-10


• By whom?:

  
  Participants, Informal non-participant observer, Instructor delivering the practice, Internal evaluator, Formal external evaluator
  

• By what means?:

  
  Informal verbal feedback
  

• Core content knowledge and transferable skills:

  
  Students should develop a critical understanding of history and historical sources on the foundation of a confrontation with interviews of contemporary witnesses.
  

• Indicators of success:

  
  The DVD has been successfully used by dozens of teachers all over Austria.
  

• Educational coordinator contact details:

  
  Name: Maria Ecker-Angerer
  Email address: Maria.Ecker@erinnern.at
  

Scalability

The RETHINK project is concerned with bridging formal and informal education. This section explores the factors that make a practice adaptable.

• Key factors for successful implementation:

  
  Materials needed
  

• Main challenges to teachers adapting this practice for their students:

  
  As the material is mostly based on DVDs, nowadays one of the main challanges probably is to find a computer which still operates a dvd drive.
  

• Availability of guidance/training/replication materials (and in what language/format currently):

  
  There have been a number of trainings in German in different settings so far.
  

• Other comments or details:

  
  None