"It is not permissible to forget, it is not permissible to remain silent. If we remain silent, who will speak?"

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                             Primo Levi

On November 7, the seminar "Teaching the Holocaust in the Classroom" was held at the FCEDEI, organized by Javier Rodríguez Abengózar, professor of Contemporary History and General Coordinator of Students at the URJC, and Jesús Sáiz, a high school teacher at the Moncayo School in Fuenlabrada. The event was opened by the Vice Dean of Culture and Communication and professor in the Department of Foreign Philology, Translation and Interpretation, Inmaculada Cobos Fernández. Students from the URJC, students from the Moncayo School and teachers from the URJC had the great opportunity to listen to excellent specialists from the Emanuel Ringelblum Jewish Historical Institute in Warsaw, Poland. This entity aims to deepen the importance of teaching the Holocaust and its relevance in contemporary education. Among its objectives are: 

     1. dissemination of knowledge: to promote the legacy of the millennia-old presence of Jews in Polish lands.

     2. heritage conservation: care and preservation of the Jewish heritage stored in the archives of the Institute.

     3. Cultural and educational activities: organization of temporary exhibitions, artistic events, scientific conferences and educational and publishing activities.

The entity also has collections and documentary archives with a very high historical value, for example:

     1. Warsaw Underground Ghetto Archive (Ringelblum Archive)): central part of the collection with seven million pages of various documents.

     2. Jewish library: the largest in Poland, with more than 85.000 volumes including ancient prints and manuscripts. 

The seminar was attended by leading specialists from one of the most prestigious institutions in the field of the study and dissemination of the Holocaust worldwide:

      Zuzanna Schnepf-Kolacz, Deputy Director of Programs at the Emanuel Ringelblum Jewish Institute. Zuzanna has an extensive background in Holocaust studies and has curated several exhibitions such as:

      The exhibition "A Sea of ​​Fire Around Us: The Fate of Jewish Civilians During the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising"

      Co-curator of the Holocaust Gallery at the Polin Museum in Warsaw.

      He has also served as Vice Consul at the Polish Consulate General in Milan and has published numerous articles on the history of Jews during the Holocaust.

      Pawel Bysko, Director of the Education Department of the Jewish Historical Institute. He has extensive experience as an educator and organizer of projects for various institutions including the Jewish Community in Warsaw and the Auschwitz-Birkenau Museum. He has also published a number of articles, including a guide on the multi-religious nature of Warsaw's inhabitants and co-authored an exhibition on Polish-Ukrainian relations after the Volhynia massacre. 

      Agnieszka Witkowska-Krych, a doctor and cultural anthropologist, Hebraist and sociologist. Today, she is one of the greatest experts on Kanusz Korczak and his legacy, as well as on the study of the children of the Warsaw Ghetto Orphanage.

      Jesus Saiz, a secondary school teacher at the Moncayo School in Fuenlabrada, an expert in using tools in the secondary school classroom to teach about the Holocaust.