PROGRAM
10th International Centropa Summer Academy
Vienna – Prague/Terezin – Berlin
July 4-13, 2016
Teaching 20th Century Jewish-European History and the Holocaust in the 21st Century.
A nine-day workshop for 90 educators from 17 countries
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Here you will find our full program, with descriptions of all events and workshops.
Latest update: 01.07.16
Monday 4 July
Day One - Meet Centropa, Meet Vienna
12:00 - Program begins with buffet lunch at Diplomatische Akademie. Welcome & introduction of Centropa staff and participants.
13:00 - We present the Centropa Summer Academy Program. Participants will learn about topics and choose an elective.
13:15 - Meeting of elective groups. A chance to get to know your group members.
14:00 - Icebreaker activity & speed-learning presentations.
15:00 - Coffee break. Participants walk to Austria Trend Hotel to check in.
16:30 - Buses depart for afternoon tour of the center of Vienna. Visit the Holocaust Memorial.
18:30 - Buses depart.
19:00 - Welcome dinner at a local Heurigen wine restaurant in the Vienna Woods, hosted by the City of Vienna.
21:00 - Buses depart for the hotel.
Tuesday 5 July
Day Two - From a multi-ethnic Empire to the Anschluss
08:45 - Welcome remarks by Ambassador Hans Winkler, Director of the Diplomatische Akademie
09:15 - Introduction to Jews in the Austro-Hungarian Empire, followed by a screening of two Centropa films: Jewish Soldiers in the Austro-Hungarian Empire and Only a Couple of Streets Away From Each Other .
10:00 - Coffee break
10:30 - Elective group work
12:00 - Historical lecture by Philipp Blom, author of The Vertigo Years: Europe, 1900-1914 and Fracture: Life and Culture in the West, 1918-1938.
12:45 - Q&A.
13:00 - Lunch
14:00 - Panel discussion on “Vergangenheitsbewältigung (coming to terms with the past) in Germany and Austria. Speakers will be Hannah Lessing (Director of Nationalfonds, Austria's Holocaust Restitution agency) and Michaela Spaeth (Deputy Chief of Mission, Germany Embassy in Vienna).
14:45 - Q&A.
15:00 - Coffee break
15:30 - Participants drop their computer off at hotel.
16:00 - Buses depart for Jewish Museum.
18:00 - Free evening
Wednesday 6 July
Day Three - From the Fin de siècle to the two World Wars
08:15 - Leave hotel to walk to the Heeresgeschichtliches Museum (Military Museum).
09:00 - Arrive at the Heeresgeschichtliches Museum, where Ed Serotta will discuss the outbreak of the First World War. Participants will then have 30 minutes on their own to see the other exhibits.
09:50 - Walk to the Belvedere Museum.
10:15 - Guided tour of the Belvedere Museum.
11:15 - Walk to the Diplomatic Academy from the museum.
11:30 - Return to DA to meet 30 elderly Viennese Jews that Centropa interviewed between 2001 and 2010.
12:30 - Lunch at Diplomatische Akademie with our elderly interviewees. Daniel Baer, the US Ambassador to the OSCE, will speak. We have also invited the Israeli, German, and Ukrainian ambassadors to Austria to lunch.
14:30 - Session: Refugees Then, Refugees Now: Making History Relevant for Today's Students. Sonia Feiger from Shalom Alaikum will talk about the organization's work with Syrian refugees. Nance Adler will discuss her students' fundraising activities for the organization. We will also share the story of Anthony Luwig's students fundrainsing activities.
15:00 - Q&A
15:15 - Centropa film screening: The Past is Another Country.
15:45 - Israeli teacher Lowell Blackman to present how this film is used in class.
16:15 - Coffee break
16:45 - Elective group work.
18:00 - Free evening.
Thursday 7 July
Day Four - A Visit to Prague
07:45 - Be sure to have had breakfast and check out to gather for th buses.
08:00 - Buses depart for Prague.
13:00 - Buffet lunch in Prague with leaders of the Prague Jewish community.
14:00 - Visit of the New Jewish Cemetery, where Franz Kafka is buried.
15:00 - Buses depart from the cemetery for the hotel.
15:30 - Check in at B and B Hotel.
17:00 - Walking tour of Stare Mesto.
19:00 - Reception and light buffet dinner at the Austrian Ambassador's Residence. Welcome remarks from Ambassador Dr. Alexander Grubmayr.
20:15 - You are free to enjoy the nightlife of Prague. Participants return to hotel on their own, Centropa staff will provide directions.
Friday 8 July
Day Five
07:30 - Finish breakfast and check out.
07:45 - Buses depart from hotel for Terezin.
09:00 - Guided walking tour of former Theresienstadt Ghetto, accompanied by Jewish Holocaust survivors Dagmar Lieblova and Doris Grozdanovičova. Followed by screening of film about survivor Dagmar Lieblova and Q&A with Mrs. Lieblova.
12:30 - Buses depart for Berlin. Participants will receive lunch bags.
16:30 - Check in at Hotel Berlin.
18:15 - Buses depart for Shabbat.
19:00 - Shabbat services at Pestalozzi Street Synagogue, the last classic German liberal service with the liturgy composed by Cantor Lewandowski.
20:30 - Shabbat Dinner at a local restaurant. Members of the Jewish community of Berlin will be invited to speak. (NB: for those who want an Orthodox service, we can arrange that. Hotel is walking distance to both).
22:00 - Return to hotel.
Saturday 9 July
Day Six
Free morning.
Observant participants will get information upon request where to go for morning services and where to obtain glatt kosher afternoon/evening meals.
Lunch on your own.
13:00 - Meet at KAS Academy for our afternoon workshop on using Centropa Source Books in your classroom. Meet in small groups.
13:45 - Small groups report to rest of the participants about their results. Moderated by US Centropa teacher Sarah Martin.
14:15 - Elective groups meet over coffee to work on their lessons / projects
16:00 - Visit to the Holocaust memorial. We will explore the Information Center of the Memorial.
17:00 - Participants will have the chance to meet in a seminar room to reflect on the exhibit and discuss how it can be used in class.
17:30 - Buses leave for Jewish Museum.
18:00 - Self-guided tour of the Jewish Museum. Museum closes at 8pm.
20:00 Free evening, enjoy Berlin by night.
Sunday 10 July
Day Seven - Berlin from the Second World War to the Cold War
08:15 - Buses depart
08:45 - Arrival at Soviet War Memorial in Berlin-Treptow.
09:40 - Buses depart
10:00 - Arrival at German-Russian Museum in Berlin-Karlshorst.
11:20 - Buses depart
11:50 - Arrival at Berlin Wall Memorial
12:45 - Buses depart
13:15 - Lunch at Academy of the Konrad Adenauer Foundation, one of our long-term partners in Germany, where we will hold our afternoon workshop.
14:15 - Elective group work.
15:30 - Karen Ettinger from the National Library of Israel (NLI) will speak about the work of the NLI and about its primary sources for teachers and students.
16:00 - Coffee break. In a separate room, Karen Ettinger from NLI will meet with the Israeli, South AFrican, the CJN and US Jewish school teachers to discuss how their schools can benefit from NLI materials.
16:30 - Marketplace of ideas: veteran Centropa teacher will share their strongest lesson plans with other participants.
17:30 - As an introduction to our walking tour on Monday morning, we show the Centropa film Living with History about Rosa Rosenstein, who grew up in interwar Berlin and escaped from Germany in 1933.
18:30 - Participants return to hotel; free evening
Monday 11 July
Day Eight - Jewish Berlin
08:15 Bring your passport. Buses depart for Oranienburger Strasse for a walking tour of the historic Jewish quarter of Berlin.
08:45 Participants will split into groups. We will visit Tucholskystrasse, the Oranienburger Strasse synagogue, the old Jewish girls' school, the Jewish orphanage and the Jewish cemetery where Moses Mendelssohn is buried. During the tour we will learn about historical Jewish figures and read two interviews from our Source Book, stories which are set on these streets.
10:45 - Groups will tour the Centrum Judaicum on their own.
11:30 - All groups meet at the buses which must leave at 11:40 for the headquarters of the Friedrich Ebert Foundation, our other long-term partner in Germany
12:00 - Buffet lunch at Friedrich Ebert Foundation.
13:00 - Welcome remarks from Matthias Jobelius, the new head of the department for Eastern and Central Europe at the FES.
13:15 First Session - When Civil Society Fails and When it Succeeds: Understanding Post-Communist Transformation in the Balkans and Central and Eastern Europe. Includes screening of Centropa film Survival in Sarajevo and presentation by US teacher Liz Goodloe on how she used this film with her class.
14:00 - Introduction to expert panel by Alison Smale, head of the New York Times Berlin office. Panel discussion on "Understanding Post-Communist Transformation in the Balkans. Panelists: Jakob Finci (former Ambassador and current president of the Jewish Community of Bosnia and Herzegovina), Zarko Korac (member of the Serbian parliament), and Erich Rathfelder (journalist and Balkan specialist for the German daily Taz).
15:00 - Q & A led by Alison Smale.
15:30 - Coffee break
16:00 - Second Session. Experts will discuss the Euromaidan movement in Ukraine. Introduction by Alison Smale. Panelists: Katerina Bosko (Research Center for East European Studies, University of Bremen) and Knut Dethlefsen (Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung).
17:15 - Q & A led by Alison Smale.
17:30 - Elective group work at Friedrich Ebert Foundation. Final preparations for tomorrow's presentations.
18:30 - Buffet dinner at FES.
19:30 - Walk back to hotel. Free evening.
Tuesday 12 July
Day Nine
09:00 - Bring your passport. Buses depart from hotel.
09:15 - Arrive at the Alfred Herrhausen Society Deutsche Bank.
09:45 - Welcome remarks from Dr. Claudia Huber of the Alfred Herrhausen Society.
10:00 - Final presentations by CSA participants - part one.
11:30 - Coffee break.
12:00 - Panel discussion on the how Berlin's identity has changed since the Berlin Wall fell. Panelists: Dr.Sylke Tempel (editor-in-chief of the German journal Internationale Politik) and Tim Renner (Berlin State Secretary for Cultural Affairs).
13:00 - Q&A.
13:15 - Lunch.
14:15 - Final presentations - part two.
15:30 - Coffee break.
16:00 - Final dicussion: what to keep, what to change. Centropa will provide feedback to all participants.
17:00 - Walk to German Foreign Office for our final event. Walking tour on the way to the Foreign Office - Bebelplatz, Unter den Linden Boulevard and Neue Wache memorial.
17:50 - Arrive at the German Foreign Office. Be sure to have passport for security check.
18:20 - Meet with Felix Klein for reception and discussion on the crisis in Ukraine and how Germany and the US have made it an international relations priority. Ukrainian diplomates and OSCE representatives invited.
18:35 - Israeli teacher Ettie Abraham will read excerpts from A Tale of Love and Darkness.
18:50 - Ed Serotta will speak about Operation Barbarossa and the destruction of Jewish life in Ukraine.
19:00 - Screening of Centropa film Return to Rivne.
19:30 - Special guest Shelly Weiner will do a Q&A about the film.
20:00 - Buffet dinner at the Foreign Office.
21:00 - Return to the hotel by bus.
End of the program!