How Jews Lived: Diversity in Prewar Central and Eastern Europe

Join the Virginia Holocaust Museum and Centropa for a day of professional development focused on Jewish life before the Holocaust. It’s not enough to teach how Jews were murdered; we must also teach how they lived, and Centropa, a historical institute based in Vienna, offers you easily accessible resources to do just that. From 2000 to 2009, Centropa interviewed over 1200 elderly Jews in 15 Central and Eastern European countries. They did not use video or focus on the Holocaust. Rather, they asked their interviewees to share their entire life stories spanning the 20th century as they showed them their old family photographs, which they digitized.

In this workshop, you will spend time with Centropa's interviews, photographs, short multimedia films, thematic websites, and podcasts about Jewish life from the end of the Austro-Hungarian Empire through the first decade of the 21st century and exploring the diversity of Jewish life and culture the Nazis attempted to wipe out.

This workshop is free for educators and includes:

Breakfast, Coffee & Lunch
Educator Resources
Certificate of Attendance

About Centropa

Centropa is a non-profit, Jewish historical institute dedicated to preserving 20th century Jewish family stories and photos from Central and Eastern Europe and the Balkans, and disseminating these stories and photos through films, books and exhibitions. Centropa offices are in Budapest, Hamburg and Washington, DC.

About Lauren Granite, Workshop Facilitator

Dr. Lauren Granite, US Education Director for Centropa—a historical institute based in Vienna—has a Ph.D. from Drew University, and master’s degree from the University of Chicago. Before joining Centropa in 2010, she spent more than a dozen years teaching Jewish history to adults, college students, and teens. She builds Centropa’s network of Jewish, public, parochial and charter schools in North America, and designs workshops, seminars, webinars, and Centropa’s annual Summer Academy, where 70 educators from 15 countries come together to study history in the great cities of Central Europe. Dr. Granite also mentors teachers, designs online and in-person activities, and establishes teacher advisory teams for Centropa programs. Her latest project is creating a network of museum educators in the US and Europe to discover ways that Centropa can support their work with museum visitors, particularly visiting school classes.

Travel Scholarships

A limited number of scholarships are available for teachers 120+ miles from Richmond. Scholarships are to help cover travel, housing, and meals. Please contact Megan Ferenczy mferenczy@vaholocaust.org to apply.

Free Educator Workshop