In cooperation with La Benevolencija, a Jewish humanitarian organisation based in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Centropa organised a 2.5 day training program for 25 educators from Bosnia-Herzegovina and Germany that took place on 18 – 20 October 2024. EHRI was invited to present services that could be of relevance to teachers from the Balkan region and to join the various activities, such as historical lectures on the Jewish history of the Balkans and the Holocaust. Centropa had also invited colleagues from Serbia, Croatia, Slovenia and North Macedonia. 

Taking part in this Centropa seminar was an obvious next step in EHRI and Centropa’s journey towards jointly developing educational offers that draw on EHRI services and can complement Centropa’s excellent educational programmes. It followed on from two initiatives that EHRI did in 2023 to support excellence in Holocaust Education, an international outreach workshop to engage with university teachers of the Holocaust and the first international EHRI seminar tailored to educators teaching the Holocaust in different educational settings. At both EHRI events, Centropa presented their educational offers and engaged with the participants.  

The first day of the Sarajevo event included a dinner at the Jewish community that was also attended by Christian Schmidt, who currently holds the office of the High Representative for Bosnia and Herzegovina, followed by a panel discussion on the challenges of preserving the history of the Jewish communities in the Balkan region and the role that school education can play in this matter.  The panel consisted of members of the Jewish community, representatives of La Benevolencija including Jakob Finci, who played an active part in the humanitarian activities of the Jewish community in Sarajevo during the Balkan wars (1991 – 2001), and a member of the Jewish community of Berlin.  

On the second day of the seminar, Johannes Meerwald and Katharina Freise introduced EHRI’s history and future, briefly presented the EHRI services the EHRI Portal, the EHRI Document Blog, the EHRI MOOC, and the EHRI Podcast, and delivered a workshop focused on the EHRI Online Editions. After introducing the Editions, the participants tested the suitability of selected early Holocaust testimonies for classroom teaching in small groups. Teachers studied the testimonies using a number of questions that EHRI had prepared and combined it with other Centropa material. 

This hands-on activity was followed by a general discussion of the usefulness of EHRI services for classroom teaching. Participants commented that some services, such as the Portal, could especially be used with senior secondary school students in preparation for further education, while others such as the Editions provided high-quality sources that could be more easily adapted to the demands of classroom teaching. The challenge of relevant language skills was raised several times, which both Centropa and EHRI are well aware of. At the end of the workshop, many participants signed up for the EHRI Newsletter to stay in touch with EHRI. 

EHRI also used the visit to Sarajevo to meet with historian Eli Tauber and learn about the ambition of the Jewish Community of Bosnia Herzegovina to establish an archive of Balkan Jewish history that will cover 500 years and include documents, photographs, artifacts, and genealogies. Tauber and his team have started to collect relevant sources from descendants of Bosnian Jews and from existing (state) archives across the region that hold relevant material. Their ultimate aim is to provide all material in digitised form. As it becomes an ERIC, EHRI will also explore whether Bosnia Herzegovina could become a member or observer country.  

All in all, Johannes and Katharina were pleased with the interest that EHRI’s services received from educators and are keen to further develop the cooperation with Centropa. Special thanks go to the Centropa coordinators Anna Kozemjakin and Esthera Cotoarba for inviting EHRI and organising an excellent event in Sarajevo.