January 2009

Dear Educators:

The Holocaust, a watershed event both for the modern world and the history of humanity, has become an invaluable tool in the examination of basic moral issues. Scholars, historians and laypeople alike have been forced to examine the Holocaust in order to gain some understanding about an event which affected millions of people from varying economic, religious and social groups. Its happening transcends the purely historical context and teaches important lessons in hate, intolerance, insensitivity, and the resiliency of the human spirit.

Now approaching its sixteenth year, the Florida State University Holocaust Institute for Educators continues to address the need to reach school and community college students in Florida and the southeastern region. Participant-teachers hear thought-provoking presentations in multiple disciplines, visit with Holocaust survivors and members of the Jewish community, and receive ideas and materials to be applied to the classroom. Attendees, who are selected partly for their leadership in designing instructional materials or developing curriculum in their school or county, return to their schools and colleges and integrate Holocaust studies in their own classrooms. They also promote the inclusion of Holocaust and genocide studies within the larger school curriculum by offering in-service training and counsel to other teachers, school resource professionals, and school, county, and district curriculum supervisors. During the past fifteen years, more than 545 teachers have participated in the Institute.

Generous individual donors and foundations provide scholarship support to those teachers who are selected for the program. Their support of the Institute means that teacher participants pay only a portion of the actual fee to attend. We welcome your application to the Institute and hope that you will be with us in the program next summer.

Yours truly,

Karen L. Bickley
Assistant Director, Academic & Professional Programs
Academic & Professional Program Services

January 2009

The Holocaust Institute has three major goals for participants: to understand what happened, why it happened, and how best to present the Holocaust to students. These issues are complex. Professional Holocaust scholars differ in emphasis, in interpretation, and sometimes on the facts. In addition, some Institute students have considerable knowledge of the Holocaust, while the understanding of others is minimal. Thus the Institute is designed to benefit both the experienced teacher of the Holocaust, as well as the novice.

In our Institute we deal with subjects often neglected (for example, the role of the Italian population in saving thousands of Jews and the Nazi extermination of three million non-Jewish Poles). Our presenters, who in their own books and articles contributed significantly to the growing knowledge of the Holocaust, also examine traditional Holocaust subjects. Innovative teaching techniques and specially designed teaching aids prepare participants for including the Holocaust subject matter into the curriculum. The result is an extensive examination of the Holocaust and its implications for humanity.

Dr. Neil Betten
Director, FSU Holocaust Institute, and
Dorothy and Jonathan Rintels Professor of Holocaust Education, Department of History