Blog co-authors, Lauren Fenech and Steffanie Grotz both teach 8th grade Advanced English Language Arts at Inverness Middle School in Florida.  

As educators, when we go into teaching, we go in with what some might call ideological visions: This concept that we can and will make a difference; this idea that the children we teach will take the lessons we’ve taught and use them to become productive people long after they leave the four walls of our classroom. As we sit here now, reflecting on our most recent efforts to teach the Holocaust in a profound manner that gives justice and honor to the victims of this atrocity, we feel fortunate that such ideologies are being lived in our classroom.

Renee describes the active Jewish cultural life that existed in her hometown of Goworowo, Poland, before the German invasion.

USC Shoah Foundation’s international consultants in Poland and Czech Republic ended 2015 introducing the work of the Institute to new audiences.