Netherlands Institute for War, Holocaust and Genocide Studies Hosts IWitness Educator Workshop

Teachers from across the Netherlands participated in an IWitness training session Oct. 4, held as part of a new partnership between USC Shoah Foundation and the NIOD Institute for War, Holocaust and Genocide Studies.

NIOD was founded in 1945 in Amsterdam to research the effects of wars, the Holocaust and other genocides on individuals and society. In 2010, it merged with the Centre for Holocaust and Genocide Studies. The institute includes extensive archives of historical materials from World War II, a library and reading room, research opportunities for scholars, and teaching resources and educational programs.

Kori Street, USC Shoah Foundation director of education, and NIOD’s Maria Van Haperen, who organizes NIOD’s teacher education programming, led 20 teachers, including education leaders and teacher trainers as well as instructors from Vrije University, in a workshop on using IWitness. The teachers represented a range of disciplines and the workshop aimed to show them how to integrate IWitness into their own learning environments.

In addition to IWitness workshops, USC Shoah Foundation’s partnership with NIOD will include the development of an IWitness activity to complement the NIOD-authored book The Holocaust and Other Genocides and a testimony-based activity that could reach classrooms with limited access to technology, USC Shoah Foundation and NIOD will also investigate the possibility of integrating IWitness into NIOD’s educational programming.