WASHINGTON, D.C. — Albert Zaccor of Bridport, a teacher at Mount Abraham Union High School in Bristol, is bringing back lessons designed to engage and promote students’ understanding of Holocaust history from the nation’s leading Holocaust education conference this summer at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.
Zaccor was one of 260 participants from all over the country who attended the museum’s annual Arthur and Rochelle Belfer National Conference for Educators, a three-day workshop for teachers hosted by the museum in late July. The 2019 conference is a vital part of the museum’s ongoing effort to equip educators throughout the country with the knowledge and skills to effectively bring Holocaust education into their classrooms.
“Educating students about the history of the Holocaust provides an opportunity for young people to think critically not only about the past but also about their roles in society today,” says Gretchen Skidmore, director of education initiatives for the museum’s William Levine Family Institute for Holocaust Education. “As the global leader in Holocaust education, the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum works to ensure teachers have the training and resources they need to introduce their students to this important and complex history — and show them how its lessons remain relevant to all citizens today.”
At the  conference, Zaccor and the other participants teamed up with museum educators and scholars in sharing rationales, strategies and approaches for teaching about the Holocaust. They also explored the museum’s latest exhibition “Americans and the Holocaust,” which examines American society in the 1930s and ’40s and the factors that shaped Americans’ responses to Nazism. Program participants also heard from Esther Starobin and Louise Lawrence-Israëls, two Holocaust survivors who volunteer at the Museum.