Pedal to the Past

Lauren here. This is my first post. Melanie was in charge of the blog while we were traveling together, and I am so thankful to her for all the work she put into it. This blog is such a great resource and holds all the information we gathered on our trip.

Today I attended a teacher professional development program at Mystic Seaport about teaching the holocaust and the role of the Gerda III in the Danish rescue. It was put on jointly by the Seaport, the Anti-Defamation League and Echoes & Reflections.

The first half of the day was led by Cathleen Cadigan, who presented a variety of resources from Echoes and Reflections and the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum which were very powerful. I have linked the agenda from the day as it includes links to all the resources.

The second half of the day was led by Howard Veisz, author of Henny’s Boat: The Maritime Rescue Operation that Saved Denmark’s Jews and Sparked a Nationwide Revolt Against the Nazis. Howard began his presentation on the dock next to the Gerda III, telling her story in the context of the larger story of the Danish rescue. The Gerda III is one of the three boats in the world still in the water that are known to have participated in the rescue of Denmark’s Jews. The boat was donated to the Museum of Jewish Heritage by an Act of the Danish Parliament in 1989. It is kept at the Mystic Seaport Museum where it is maintained and showcased. Howard does a better job telling the story than I ever could:

At the end of the afternoon, I shared about my travels through Denmark this summer and shared the blog with the other participants, in hopes that it will be useful to other teachers that incorporate Denmark’s story into their teaching of the Holocaust. It is a story that should be told, especially in today’s world. We need to understand the conditions and circumstances that led this country to save over 95% of their Jews, when mass extermination was happening around them. It is a story that exemplifies the importance of standing up for the rights of the other, whoever they happen to be.

And speaking of the blog’s usefulness, I have begun the process of cataloging the videos in a Google spreadsheet so that it is easier for a teacher to find those that are most relevant to what they want to teach. This index can be found through a direct link via a button on this blog’s homepage.