Hear Our Voices: Holocaust Survivors Share their Stories of Trauma and Hate is a bilingual online course that uses the voices of Holocaust survivors to educate students on the Holocaust and Antisemitism. This bilingual project begins with a scholarly and ethical commitment to centre the experience of survivors and Jewish victims in studying and teaching about the Shoah, the Holocaust.
Project Overview
- Elements: Five online modules that may be used together or individually.
- Format: Presented as an online “pressbook” which organizes and presents text, audio, video, and interactive content.
- Audience: The project is designed for second year university courses and selected content will be appropriate for upper-level undergraduate and graduate courses as well as secondary schools.
- Languages: English and French: all text, audio and video.
- Disciplines: Holocaust & Genocide Studies, History, Religious Studies, Gender & Sexuality Studies, Humanities, Sociology, Feminist Methods, Oral History.
The Modules
Hear Our Voices is organized into five online modules to provides educators, students and the public at large with curated resources for learning about the Holocaust. All materials are available in English and French in accessible formats.
- Oral History
- Gender and Sexuality
- Religion and Culture
- Antisemitism and Racism
- Memory and the Holocaust
The first module, “Oral History,” focuses on survivor testimony ranging from the Nuremberg Trials to the present, and on the role of oral history in making space for as many voices as possible in the historical record. The second module, “Gender and Sexuality,” focuses on how gender and sexuality function within the history of the Holocaust in terms of national socialist ideologies and policies and how these worked together in shaping the behaviour and experiences of perpetrators, bystanders, and victims. The third module, “Religion and Culture,” examines Jewish, Christian, and Muslim responses to the Holocaust, how Nazi ideology and policy engaged each religion and religious community, how religious leadership responded to national socialism and the fact of the Final Solution, and the role of Righteous Gentiles. The fourth module, “Antisemitism and Racism,” explores how anti-Jewish and antisemitic attitudes, behaviours, and policies develop over time and assesses how these contributed to the genocide against Europe’s Jewish populations. Inspired by the ways in which our new oral histories explore the theme of memory among survivors, the second generation, and the family of Righteous Gentiles, the last module, “Memory and the Holocaust,” reflects on how the Holocaust is remembered, and how that memory has been shaped over time in Canada and globally.
These modules work together to offer a contextualized learning experience of the Holocaust while highlighting what is at the core of this project, the survivors’ stories.
Oral Histories in Context
Each module places oral histories in context through mini-lectures and by bringing the oral histories into conversation with other oral histories by using primary archival sources such as documents, photographs, artefacts, and historical film footage.
Students will interact with the material through content such as timelines, maps, and “hot-spot” images that allow students to click through to learn more about an artefact or topic. Sample assignments and questions are included throughout the project.
Access the Online Modules
Explore the project and select materials to use to enrich your own teaching.
English: https://ecampusontario.pressbooks.pub/hearourvoices/
French: https://ecampusontario.pressbooks.pub/ecouteznosvoix/