by George Elbaum

Facing History and Ourselves is an international educational and professional development organization whose mission is to combat bigotry, racism and prejudice in order to develop a more humane and informed citizenry.  For 39 years, Facing History has believed that education is the best key to accomplish this and to nurture justice and democracy, and it does so by providing training workshops and materials for teachers and speakers for personal presentations for students – 113,000  teachers and 4 million students have participated to date.

This event, held on the premises of Palo Alto High School, was an educator workshop, Survivors and Witnesses – Using Survivor Testimony in the Classroom, and included presentations on Nazi policies and actions, from isolation to more overt persecution; my testimony as a Ghetto survivor;  a model lesson by Dana Pattison, a Facing History-trained teacher from Dougherty Valley High School in San Ramon; and discussion about several online testimonies of survivors from a newly developed project, iWitness, around which Facing History has developed instructional resources.

The workshop was organized by Facing History’s Senior Program Advisor, Jack Weinstein, and attendees included teachers, community members, and Facing History Advisory Board members.   Photos by Irene Searles.

with educator group and Jack Weinstein.

My presentation