Lesson Plans

Scavenger hunt

This scavenger hunt was designed for Mitzvah Day 2021 where the theme was "Gedenken", Remembrance. The students were 8th graders and had to look for information about Centropa interview information...

Centropa Biography Film/Stolpersteine Assignment

Survival in Sarajevo - Helpful Advice on how to realise Centropa's exhibition in you area

Three Promises: Personal Stories as Historical Material

This lesson plan uses group work, creative writing, and multimedia to teach subjects including History, Literature, Civics, Social and Political Education, Philosophy, Language etc. It is also useful in discussions...

History of Holocaust Final Exam Project

This final exam project culminates a semester of study and storytelling about Jewish life in Central Europe and the Holocaust that started with students presenting their own stories in picture...

Life During World War II

This is a history project but because we want our students ultimately to teach each other, we started with an introductory video conference during which students asked each other questions...

Then and Now

Students bring in a family photograph they like. This can be from a vacation, a holiday celebration, a family life cycle event, any photograph that includes the student. In class...

The Great Centropa Treasure Hunt

Between 2000 and 2010, Centropa interviewed 1,200 Jewish Holocaust survivors still living in Central and Eastern Europe, the former Soviet Union and the Balkans. Centropa then digitized 22,000 of their...

"Three promises": A project about the Kalef family

This project uses family photos from the Kalef family to trigger a discussion about memory.

Every Photo tells a Story: A Project about Franziska Smolka

When engaging students with history in general, and with the history of National Socialism and the Holocaust in particular, teachers should not limit themselves to how European Jews died during...

Let All Who are Hungry Come and Eat

In these two back-to-back lessons, students will explore Jewish values, Jewish identity, and the question of how to balance their ethnic/religious identities with being a citizen of the world.  Students...

I Was There - A Journey into a child's past

In this project, students in groups of 3-4 will read a memoir, diary or biography about a European child whose life was turned to chaos during the Shoah, 1933 to...

Preserving Jewish Memory: A Family Education Program

Just as we pass the Torah from one generation to the next at bar and bat mitzvahs, so do we pass family stories dor l’dor (from generation to generation). Stories...

We speak for them

6th Grade SS/LA Project 

World History Class Centropa Exam

This is a Centropa final exam for  10th grade students. The students will use interviews and albums. There have already been several steps along the path--this is the destination.

This...

Traces of Memory. Saved from Oblivion.

The educational project Teaching the Holocaust was introduced in the fourth class of vocational school at the General-Technical School in Lubliniec for students in their last year of high school...

Working with Centropa's Photos

The Centropa Exhibition Jewish Witnesses to the Polish Century was at our school for 9 days (5 – 14 November 2012) At that time 14 classes, which means over 400...

Centropa Ebook: Chava Pressburger

"Rescued Memories": Creating a student exhibition

In this lesson plan, Cynthia Peterman illustrates how she used the Centropa database to create a student exhibition.

“Of Shtetls and Cities”: Creating a student exhibition

A student-created exhibition based on Centropa

photo taken by Jonathan Ah Kit, on April 28, 2000, CC licensing

Guidelines for Creating a Centropa Lesson

Your guide for a successful lesson plan.

Using Centropa's database for a student exhibit