In January 2017 Merici College’s senior modern history teacher Dr Stephen Powell was selected as the ACT teacher representative on a study tour of Israel, to become an expert educator on the history of the Holocaust. The intensive professional development course involved 35 teachers from across Australia who won fully-sponsored scholarships through a nationwide competitive selection process. The course was based in Jerusalem at the International School for Holocaust Studies, at Yad Vashem, the world’s foremost Holocaust museum. Yad Vashem is also a memorial to the 6 million Jewish victims of the Holocaust, a research centre and a teacher training college.
Dr Powell met survivors of the Holocaust with inspirational stories of how they survived Nazi persecution in Europe in the 1930s and 1940s and their journeys to modern Israel. ‘How was it humanly possible?’ is the eternal question. He also met museum staff, historians, archaeologists, expert educators, and residents of modern Jerusalem and elsewhere in the Holy Land. Participants learned about resources for use in teaching and learning about the Holocaust, with age-appropriate approaches for the classroom.
This year Dr Powell has begun to put his insights into practice with his Year 11 and 12 Modern History class, which studied Nazi Germany intensively, including an excursion to the Sydney Jewish Museum to meet an Australian survivor of the Holocaust and to learn about the artefacts on exhibition.
The displayed photo shows the Merici teacher at the Catholic cemetery in Jerusalem, giving a short speech on behalf of the scholarship winners at the grave of Oskar Schindler, who was well known for his efforts to save Jewish people from becoming victims of Nazi persecution. Dr Powell stands beside Ms Eva Lavi, who was number 201 on Schindler’s ‘list’ and the youngest of the 1200 Jews who were saved by the enigmatic ‘Righteous Among the Nations’ businessman.
