Building Bridges to the Future: 80 Years Since the End of the War, 35 Years Since German Reunification
To mark the 80th anniversary of the end of the war and the 35th anniversary of German reunification, 34 teachers from Germany, Israel, and Poland gathered in Berlin from October 6 to 8, 2025. The three-day seminar focused on international exchange, expanding knowledge of Jewish history, and exploring a future-oriented culture of remembrance.
The event addressed current social developments: Two years after the attacks of October 7 and in light of rising antisemitic tendencies in Europe, the seminar aimed to strengthen education as a key tool against disinformation and anti-Semitism.
Program Overview:
- Insights into Berlin’s history: Lectures on German-Jewish history after 1945 by Prof. Dr. Michael Brenner; guided tours of significant Berlin memorial sites, including the Scheunenviertel, the Bayerisches Viertel, the Berlin Wall Memorial, and the Soviet Memorial in Tiergarten
- Practical workshops: Insights into the work of the Centrum Judaicum and the creative use of Jewish biographies from the Centropa archive.
- Reflection on October 7, 2023, as a turning point for educational work and remembrance of the fallen students of our Israeli teachers
- Project Development: The highlight of the seminar was transnational group work, in which participants presented their own interdisciplinary and transnational project concepts based on Centropa biographies
We would like to thank the LOTTO Foundation Berlin for its funding, which enabled our participants to exchange ideas on biography-based teaching methods and created a lasting framework for multilateral educational projects. The collaborative initiatives developed over these three days will be implemented in classrooms in Germany, Poland, and Israel during the coming school year.
