7
German Police Officers Study the Holocaust
New Opportunities for Australian Educators
by Richelle Budd Caplan, Orit Margaliot and David Metzler
■
“We arrived in Riga at 21.50. The train was
kept at the station for one-and-a-half hours
without heat… The temperature outside was
-12°C… I myself found a place to sleep in the
guesthouse.”
These words close a detailed report about
the deportation of 1,007 German Jews from
the Düsseldorf area to Riga in December 1941.
Police officer Paul Salitter, who was in charge
of escorting this transport, wrote the report
after handing over the Jews to the guards of
the Riga ghetto.
Salitter’s police station in Düsseldorf still
exists, and the officers working there today are
well aware of their colleague who served 75
years ago. In April, Captain Klaus Dönecke, who
devotes a large portion of his job as a police
officer to studying the archival documents still
stored in the cellar of the police headquarters,
accompanied a group of police officers for the
second time to a seminar run by the International
School for Holocaust Studies.
Before a wreath-laying ceremony, which
took place in the presence of the Ambassador of
Germany to Israel H.E. Dr. Harald Kindermann,
the group met with Dr. Jürgen Rüttgers,
Prime Minister of Northrhine-Westfalia, who
encourages and supports groups from his state
attending Yad Vashem’s educational seminars.
During the meeting, Dönecke handed over a rare
historical document to the director of the Yad
Vashem Archives Dr. Haim Gertner: the personal
file of Officer Salitter. The double page shows a
carefully filled-in form, documenting the career
of a simple policeman who climbed the Nazi
hierarchy – seemingly without ever doubting
the moral correctness of the institutions and
organizations in which he was serving.
The deep commitment of Prime Minister
Rüttgers’ policy towards Israel and the Jewish
people is expressed in his own personal annual
visits to Yad Vashem. When he met the group
from Düsseldorf, he greeted his policemen with
the words: “Good morning here in Yad Vashem.
I have to admit – I am proud of you.”
The author is Head of the German Desk in the
European Department at the International School
for Holocaust Studies.
■
On 16 April, Yad Vashem held a one-day
seminar tailored for principals of Catholic
schools in Melbourne and Sydney, Australia.
This inter-disciplinary program included
a comprehensive tour of Yad Vashem’s
Holocaust History Museum, as well as
workshops on Holocaust literature and
teaching methodologies. During the
concluding session, participants noted,
“An excellent selection of speakers and a
great amount presented to think about… the
International School for Holocaust Studies at
Yad Vashem has been most welcoming and
generous to us.” “We need to spend more
time here... Thank you!”
The Gandel Holocaust Studies Program
for Australian Educators, established in
honor of the Gandel family from Melbourne,
is a long-term professional program aimed
at training a cadre of Australian teachers
to become experts in Holocaust instruction.
Due to the untiring efforts of Prof. Suzanne
Rutland on behalf of the New South Wales Joint
Committee for Jewish Higher Education, Phil
Symons on behalf of B’nai B’rith Australia’s
Raoul Wallenberg Unit, and Avril Alba
on behalf of the Sydney Jewish Museum,
teachers from across Australia have had the
opportunity to study at Yad Vashem since
the 1980s. This opportunity is now being
expanded and enhanced through the new
Gandel Program.
“By working in close partnership with
Australian non-government organizations
and universities, the Gandel Program aims to
form an active organized network of Australian
educators committed to teaching about the
Holocaust and its universal implications,
using multi-disciplinary, multi-cultural and
age-appropriate approaches,” explains Orit
Margaliot, the newly appointed director of
the Gandel Program. “The components of
the program will include follow-up seminars
in Australia and videoconferences to foster
professional exchange and provide educators
with practical teaching tools.”
Director of the International School for
Holocaust Studies Dorit Novak is enthusiastic
about the program: “More than 250 educators
from Australia have studied at Yad Vashem
over the past two decades, and we look forward
to building a sustainable program that will fit
into the guidelines of the Australian national
teaching curriculum about the Shoah.”
The next seminar geared to Australian
educators will take place on 10-22 January
2010 at the International School for Holocaust
Studies. For more information on how to apply
for this special, subsidized program, please
contact: gandel.program@yadvashem.org.il
Richelle Budd Caplan is Head of the International
Relations Section and Orit Margaliot is Director of
the Gandel Program at the International School for
Holocaust Studies. David Metzler is Director of Yad
Vashem's English Desk.
■
German police officers in Warsaw Ghetto Square
during an educational seminar at Yad Vashem,
accompanied by (bottom row, from right): Archives
Director Dr. Haim Gertner, International School
Director Dorit Novak, Ambassador Kindermann,
Captain Dönecke and Prime Minister Rüttgers
■
Captain Klaus Dönecke presents Dr. Haim Gertner
with the personal file of German police officer Paul
Salitter.
■
Left to right: Richelle Budd Caplan, President of
Israel Philanthropy Advisors Yael Shalgi, Executive
Director of the Gandel Charitable Trust Laurence
Joseph, David Metzler, Dorit Novak, Orit Margaliot
by Dr. Noa Mkayton