(PDF) (DOC) (JPG)November 12, 2008

Professor Joan Stein-Schimke.

(Mahwah) – “Optimizing the Use of Film in Teaching about the Holocaust and Genocide” was the title of a Gumpert Teachers’ Workshop held at Ramapo College on November 12, 2008 and sponsored by the Gross Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies in cooperation with the New Jersey State Commission on Holocaust Education.

The all-day workshop was conceived to assist middle and high school teachers to apply the best practices in using the wide array of available dramatic and documentary films to help students grasp some of the enormity of tragedies like the Holocaust as well as the Armenian, Cambodian, Rwandan and Darfur genocides. The goal was to enable New Jersey students to gain knowledge about the forces and processes that brought about these catastrophes to have the hope of preventing similar events in the future. It is intended for students to obtain an understanding of the critical issues of discrimination, citizenship, activism and human rights.

The keynote speaker was Joan Stein-Schimke, filmmaker and assistant professor of communications at Adelphi University, who addressed “Screening the Unimaginable: Film in Conveying the Experience of the Holocaust and Genocide.” Stein-Schimke was the director- writer of the acclaimed Oscar-nominated short “One Day Crossing” (1999). Often used by teachers in the classroom, in the 25-minute film movingly tells the story of a young Jewish mother and her family caught in the confusion and moral choices of the last days of the Holocaust in Budapest.

Holocaust survivor and Center Advisory Board
Member John Gunzler.

First hand testimony of those horrible last days of the Holocaust in Hungary came from John Gunzler, who as a boy spent that fateful time in different hiding places in and around Budapest hoping for the moment of liberation. Now semi-retired from the business world, Mr. Gunzler spends a good deal of time now serving on various non-profit boards, including the Gross Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies. As a result of his workshop presentation, Mr. Gunzler has had a number of requests from different types of schools to relate to students his story of survival.

Also taking part in the workshop were Colleen Tambuscio of New Milford High School, who reviewed with teachers ideas for using dramatic and documentary films in teaching about the Holocaust and genocide, and Helen Simpkins, retired Social Studies Supervisor of the Vernon School District, who discussed the use of film in relation to the New Jersey Core Curriculum Standards. Dr. Paul Winkler, executive director of the New Jersey State Commission on Holocaust Education, provided an overview of the State Mandate on Holocaust Education.
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