Holocaust education spreads through "couriers of memory"
This 1989 photo shows Felicia Fuksman, who was born in Lodz, Poland, and survived the Lodz ghetto. She was sent in 1944 to work at the Ravensbruck labor camp in Wittenberge, Germany. Fuksman came to New Orleans in 1949 where she met Max Fuksman, also a survivor from Lodz. They married and had three children. (Photo by Plater Robinson)
Plater Robinson, education director for the Southern Institute, says the 2014 summer seminar will accept 10 candidates who will be immersed in a multi-year program that begins with a five-day workshop from July 14-18 on the uptown campus.
Following the workshop, participants begin a one-year practicum where they make school and community presentations under the guidance of Robinson. Upon completion, candidates are named Southern Institute Teacher Fellows and are certified to conduct teacher training sessions.
This summer, participants will focus on the stories of Holocaust survivor Felicia Fuksman of Lodz, Poland, and Jewish refugee Liselotte Weil, who fled Nazi Germany and eventually settled in Eunice, La.
A different set of survivors who found their way to the South is chosen each year for participants to study. Robinson says this is the first year for both Fuksman and Weil, who died last October.
“We"ve produced documentaries on each of our survivors that can be accessed via our website, along with study guides,” says Robinson. “We have video, photographs and interviews aplenty and the teachers receive all of this material.”
To apply, candidates must reside in Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama or the Florida panhandle. Previous 6thâ“12th grade teaching experience is required. The summer seminar is free and the institute provides a stipend to cover meals and lodging for the week.
More information can be obtained by email or phone at 504-865-6100.
