Sandra Rosenfeld Katz

Sandra Rosenfeld Katz

Project Manager, Content Developer and Educator at the E-Learning Department at The International School for Holocaust Studies, Yad Vashem.

Location Jerusalem, Israel

Activity

  • Hi Vicky, the video should be back by now. Please try watching it.

  • Hi Renate, please try watching the video again.

  • @MartaSimo thank you for participating in the course dear Marta!

  • @JuneAtkinson thank you for your comment and for participating in the course!

  • Hi @MiskoStanisic, welcome to the course! Greetings from Jerusalem. I hope you find the course useful.

  • Thank you for your comment @MichelleSadowski
    In the following links you can find tools to use poetry and photography as well when teaching the Holocaust, I hope you find them useful.
    https://www.yadvashem.org/education/educational-videos/video-toolbox/hevt-poetry.html
    https://www.yadvashem.org/education/educational-videos/video-toolbox/hevt-photographs.html

  • Hi @DennisdlC , thanks for letting us know. I think it is working now but in case you still can't access it here is the link, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eoBGiP_cE1c

  • Thank you for pointing this out @DennisdlC and for sharing all the information and links. It is indeed a fascinating issue. There are a few points that we weren't able to include in the course but we are happy to provide you with the following list of materials on the subject:

    Philippine Visas-for-Jews from the Perspective of the Unanswered Letters of...

  • Hi @EvelynROSS thank you for sharing your own experience. I can only imagine how traumatizing it must have been for you.

  • @OlRappaport thank you for sharing them with all of us! They are very valuable and enriching.

  • @EvaF. thanks for sharing this.

  • Thank you to everyone who has finished week 1 recently for participating in the course and for sharing your thoughts, knowledge and opinions, I hope you have found it helpful, enriching and thought provoking. Thank you for your kind words and I hope you enjoy the rest of the course!

  • Hi @JoWhitehead I am not sure I understand your question, how do you prepare your students, the class? You can start by introducing them to artifacts and personal stories always putting them in the historical context.
    https://www.yadvashem.org/yv/en/exhibitions/bearing-witness/suitcase-heinz-finke.asp

  • Hi @StuartWatkin thanks for your comment. It has been described that way, on the other hand it is a fact that almost 700 Jews did arrive to the Dominican Republic and thus were saved and many more, around 5000, were able to leave Europe thanks to the visas they received.

  • @SUSANDAVID thanks for sharing, it is really unbelievable.

  • @ElenaGodunova thanks for sharing! I hope you get to finish your project.

  • @JoWhitehead I guess so too, as so many of the survivors who started talking only many years after. Are you acquainted with Tolkatchev's paintings and story? He was a Soviet liberator and an artist and on arrival to the camps he entered in a frenzy and drew what he saw. Definitely unbelievable, ungraspable, horrifying. ...

  • Hi @OlRappaport thank you for all your comments and for sharing all the very interesting and enriching information and links throughout the course.

  • Hi @ElenaGodunova thanks for your comment. Have you visited the Auschwitz Jewish Center | Centrum Żydowskie w Oświęcimiu created in the synagogue? In it, they tell his story and it is a beautiful and highly recommended commemoration and educational center.

  • Hi @TorbenDannhauer thank you for sharing this moving and interesting information.

  • Hi @HowardLukeman thank you for sharing this, I found it very enriching and moving.

  • Hi @OlRappaport thank you for sharing your fascinating family story. It is very enriching indeed to hear/read personal stories and to get acquainted with the richness of the life that was.

  • Hi @MaryR , thank you for your comment. I understand your feelings but don't be angry, we need to understand and acknowledge that "each one in its own circumstances". The best we can do is to try to pass on the stories and inform others of such events and their meaning and hope they are really absorbed.

  • Hi @NicoleE thank you for sharing the link to the educational videos!

  • @JoWhitehead they sure were. They are part of what we define as spiritual resistance.

  • @MicheleCampanelli thanks for your comment. Indeed, more than half of the Jews managed to emigrate to other countries.

  • @SteveWilliams Many Jews managed to emigrate after the Nazis came to power in 1933 and made it very clear that the Jews were not welcome in Germany anymore. Indeed there were around half a million Jews in 1933 and represented almost 1% of the total population but by 1933 the number had more than halved. Unfortunately, many of the Jews that managed to emigrate...

  • @SueWalsh true, "Following the German defeat of France in spring 1940, Nazi authorities conscripted Spanish Republicans for forced labor and deported more than 30,000 to Germany, where about half of them ended up in concentration camps. Some 7,000 of these became prisoners in Mauthausen; more than half of them died in the camp." You can read more about the...

  • Hi @JoWhitehead I can imagine it hits specially hard on them. It is a very sensitive and incomprehensible topic indeed.

  • Hi @HershyOrenstein, welcome to the course! Don't worry, you can take the course at your own pace, when it suits you. The course is open for 6 weeks. I hope the course fulfills your expectations.

  • Hi @AnnCohen , welcome to the course! This course was offered last year around the same dates. I hope it fulfills your expectations!

  • Welcome everyone, it is so exciting to see so many people from all over the world and from such different backgrounds interested in this course. I hope you enjoy it and most of all I hope we are able to provide you with the required knowledge, information and tools so we can all continue transmitting this history in an informed and meaningful way. We are...

  • Hi @LiTian they were targeted because of their unique religious beliefs. In the following link you can read and learn more about these and other non Jewish victims, https://www.yadvashem.org/holocaust/about/nazi-germany-1933-39/non-jewish-victims.html

  • @KatrinaBreen hi, yes they should stay.

  • @ElenicedeOliveiraSouza gracias por tus comentarios. Estoy de acuerdo contigo respecto al testimonio y las palabras de Leon Greenman (z"l). Si te interesa, puedes encontrar materiales educativos en portugues en https://www.yadvashem.org/education/other-languages/portuguese.html

  • Hi @FionaRussell thank you for your comment, you can find also part 2 of the course "The Holocaust - An Introduction" in Coursera at the moment. You can find more information about it at, https://www.yadvashem.org/education/online-courses/the-holocaust.html

  • Hi @LynnErasmus thank you for all your comments and for sharing your thoughts.

  • Hi @MarilynWeiserAdler thank you for sharing this piece of your father's story with us.

  • Hi @JoannaPylat thank you for your comments and suggestions, we will look into them.

  • @miriamassor Terezin was beautified for the visit of the Red Cross, to mislead them. Among other things, artists made special paintings to decorate the offices, the Germans gave some children a one-off pass to be on the street during the Red Cross visit, as part of an effort to create the fiction that the Jews of the Terezin led a comfortable and happy life.

  • Thank you to everyone who has finished week 1 recently for participating in the course and for sharing your thoughts, knowledge and opinions, I hope you have found it helpful, enriching and thought provoking. Thank you for your kind words and I hope you enjoy the rest of the course!

  • Bienvenida @KateryneAtehortua espero el curso te resulte enriquecedor y encuentres materiales que puedas utilizar con tus alumnos. También puedes encontrar materiales en español en https://www.yadvashem.org/es.html

  • Welcome to the course to everyone! I hope it meets your expectations and that you find it helpful and useful.

  • @DamienStewart are you using Chrome? If you aren't try if it works, otherwise restart your computer. If it still doesn't work let me know.

  • @JoannaPylat thank you for sharing your personal experience. It is indeed shocking and unbelievable, impossible to grasp.

  • @MarySmith yes, among other important points to take into consideration of course. For a more thorough exposition of how to use art when teaching about the Holocaust please look at https://www.yadvashem.org/education/educational-videos/video-toolbox/hevt-art.html

  • @RonvanHasselt thank you for your comment, it is definitely worth the try. It is very nice to see you in this course as well. I hope you find it enriching and helpful.

  • @Sarawancjer gracias por su muy acertado comentario. Le comento que puede encontrar este video con subtitulos en español en https://www.yadvashem.org/es/education/educational-materials/video-toolbox/hevt-nazi-ideology.html

  • @SANDRAYANETHPAEZLEAL de acuerdo contigo Sandra. Gracias por tus comentarios. Espero el curso te sea útil y te aporte nuevos conocimientos, materiales e ideas para tus clases.

  • @HeikeOtterson thank you for your comment, you are right. @ElizabethEaves if you don't know her story and want to watch Yehudith Klienman's testimony film you can find it at https://youtu.be/5u5uVPd1Yvc

  • Hi @aletsmits welcome to the course!

  • @georgiakarantona they were not monsters, they were ordinary men. I think you will find answers to some of your questions in Christopher R. Browning's book "Ordinary Men: Reserve Police Battalion 101 and the Final Solution in Poland" which in my opinion is a must read.

  • Thank you to everyone who has finished week 1 for participating in the course, for posting your knowledge, opinions, personal stories and comments and for sharing your thoughts with us. I hope you find this and the two coming weeks thought provoking, helpful and useful. Thank you for your kind words and enjoy the rest of the course!

  • @ElizabethEaves yes, in the article "The Difficulties Involved in the Rescue of Children By Non-Jews – Before and After Liberation" which you can find at https://www.yadvashem.org/articles/general/difficulties-in-rescue-of-children-by-non-jews.html I touched on this difficulty encountered by children that were hidden by non Jews and that had converted to...

  • @OliverMaradzike @BenjaminRassell thank you for your comments. I am glad to know you find the videos helpful. You can find more of our Video Toolbox videos at https://www.yadvashem.org/education/educational-videos/video-toolbox.html and key historical concepts which are very useful for students at https://www.yadvashem.org/education/educational-videos.html

  • Hi @AmyWildstein thank you for your thoughtful and so accurate comment. I agree with you, "it is far too much to even comprehend."

  • Hi @JoAlexSousaGomes there are two Brazilians recognized as Righteous among the Nations, you can find their stories at,
    https://www.yadvashem.org/righteous/stories/dantas.html
    https://www.yadvashem.org/righteous/stories/carvalho.html

  • Hi @OliverMaradzike , the Holocaust began on January 30, 1933, when Adolf Hitler became Chancellor of Germany. Hitler exploited democracy to come to power advocating the politics of hatred, violence and fear.
    The Wannsee Conference's purpose was to discuss and coordinate the "Final Solution."
    You can find more information about it...

  • Hi @SheilaBurrell I think we never stop learning new things related to this topic. In my experience the more we know, the more questions we have, the more ungraspable and unbelievable it is. I hope you find the course enriching.

  • Hi @MeirVardi he was indeed an amazing person, as part of the project "Witnesses and Education" https://www.yadvashem.org/education/testimony-films.html we made a testimony movie of Shmuel Shiloh (z"l). At the moment it is only available in DVD and you can get it through Yad Vashem's shop if you are interested. Some of the testimony films are available at...

  • @KristinaP.Bartolome some people ended staying in the DP camps for years, some lasted for over a decade. The survivors were waiting for visas and for a place to go to.

  • Welcome to all the new joiners to the course! I hope the course fulfills your expectations, I hope it gives you knowledge, teaching sources and tools, more understanding and inspiration among other things.

  • @LynnErasmus Welcome to the Course! I certainly hope the course proves to be everything you are expecting it to be.

  • @MarekWoloszyn hi, yes it is, the picture depicts the transfer from the deportation trains to cattle cars at the Kolo Station. If you are interested in further information about any other of the historical photographs feel free to contact Yad Vashem’s Photo Archives at, photo_arc.crm@yadvashem.org.il

  • Hi @SimoneEvangelisti it definitely depends on many aspects, your goals, the time you have to teach, your public, etc. There isn't a single way to teach, this is one approach and I believe that using small testimonies of different survivors is also an excellent way of showing different experiences of different people in different places which gives a wide...

  • @LloydKahan I hope after having ended this week, specially steps 1.12 and 1.18, where different kinds and examples of Jewish resistance is presented, you have a better understanding of the resistance of different kinds that did take place. You can find more information about this subject and materials to use in your classroom at,...

  • Hi @ZehavaTaub you are in the course, to go to the next step press the arrow where it says "learning with us..." Just above the comments.

  • @RichelleBuddCaplan thank you very much for this recommendation!

  • Hi Jo Alex, you can watch more videos at https://www.youtube.com/user/YadVashem/videos
    if you still encounter a problem please let me know.

  • Hi Tamar, I am very pleased to know that you have learned something new, although so shocking and ungraspable as the pogroms that took place after the war had ended, important to know. Thank you for sharing your insights with us.

  • Hi Jeanne, thank you for sharing this, it is very touching. The Righteous were exceptional people, an example of courage, care and love for their fellow human beings. They represent, to me, a ray of light in the midst of so much evil and darkness.

  • Inga thank you for sharing this information and your thoughts.

  • Thank you for your comment Paolo. We still don't have it with Italian subtitles. Here is the link to our educational materials' page with subtitles in Italian https://www.yadvashem.org/education/other-languages/italian/educational-materials.html

  • Thank you for sharing your thoughts Jen. Regarding the why, and of course taking into consideration that what matters is the fact that the Dominican Republic offered their help, the answer is complex. The motivations for doing so included racial and demographic considerations, economic development, publicity, a desire to improve U.S.-Dominican relations, etc....

  • Thank you for sharing your thoughts and this very useful information Graeme.

  • Hi Marek, I am not sure to which exact photo you are referring to but if you are interested in further information about any of the historical photographs that appear in the course please contact Yad Vashem’s Photo Archives at, photo_arc.crm@yadvashem.org.il (you can take a screenshot of the photo and send it)

  • Hi Asif, thank you for your comment- Yes more than 33,000 Jews were killed in Babi Yar.

  • @AnthonyRich thank you for your comment regarding the word "shul", we will take it into consideration.

  • Hi Elizabeth, yes it will come up later in the course, if at the end you still have questions let me know.

  • Hi Michael, thank you for sharing your thoughts. Some of those exceptional people are of course mentioned in step 19.

  • Graeme, thank you for sharing your thoughts and Howard Gardner's quote, with which I totally agree.

  • It is indeed as 'in order to know what was lost we need to know what existed.' Thank you for sharing your thoughts.

  • @AnthonyRich Hi, thank you for sharing your thoughts and being active in the course. I think there might have been a misunderstanding of what Dr Silberklang meant in the video, in it he is referring to the ideas only, he is talking about the roots of Nazi ideology and Antisemitism specifically. I am quoting him around minute 2:20 he says: "We should first note...

  • Thank you for pointing this out Kristina, it is indeed a fascinating issue. There are a few points that we weren't able to include in the course but we are happy to provide you with the following list of materials on the subject:   

    Philippine Visas-for-Jews from the Perspective of the Unanswered Letters of 1939 to President Quezon...

  • Definitely Kirsten, spiritual and cultural resistance. I think it is very powerful and thought provoking to speak about this kind of resistance. Of how people were even ready to exchange the little food they had, in exchange for borrowing a prayer book in order to be able to pray or for a pencil or drawing materials. How against orders and risking getting very...

  • Welcome everyone, it is so exciting to see so many people from all over the world and from such different backgrounds interested in this course. I hope you enjoy it and most of all I hope we are able to provide you with the required knowledge, information and tools so we can all continue transmitting this history in an informed and meaningful way. We are...