The plight of the Belarusian Jews during the Second World War is an inseparable part of the tragedy of the Belarusian people. Therefore, it is very important for every Belarusian pupil to know what the Holocaust is and remember the wholesale slaughter on Belarusian territory. The educational handbook "the Minsk ghetto" was created for teachers and pupils to achieve this.
From 2017 to 2018, CGE Erfurt e. V and its partners worked to enhance education about the Holocaust in Belarus, using eyewitness testimony. Together, they created the educational handbook, containing up-to-date didactic materials on the history of the Minsk ghetto. The edition was highly praised and recommended for teachers to use by the Ministry of Education of Belarus. Teachers were given a print of the educational handbook, which was also made available for anyone else who was interested. A German version of the materials was also made available and widely used.
The materials were created by participants which included 4 practicing teachers from Minsk schools, specialists in didactics and history from Belarus and Germany. This was done by collecting 46 interviews from eyewitnesses, a five day educational visit of the Belarusian teachers to the places of remembrance in Thuringia (Germany), related to the crimes of the Nazis, and a meetings of the Oral Historians’ Club.
On May 16, 2018 in Erfurt, atthe "Topf und Söhne" remembrance site, a presentation of the educational handbook was held.
