The Holocaust as a starting point

ended

The Holocaust as a Starting Point (HSP) project aims to deal with sensitive issues on a relevant scale by taking the Holocaust as the foundation of inclusive dialogue between countries having a lot to debate and/or to share because of their competing memories or as they have the same challenges to address. With the rise of nationalisms, hate speech based on racial prejudices and xenophobia, Europe has not time left for divisions that threaten its future. The HSP project thus intends to provide a counter narrative to historical disinformation by acting on the most transversal and effective level: namely schools. The objectives of the project address the Holocaust as a common European legacy playing a prominent role in history education, aligned with the EU strategies combating anti-Semitism, racism, anti-Roma and discrimination against other minorities, considering intersectionality with other discriminations related to social origin or gender. The HSP projects consists of realising 5 cross-border dialogues in 10 EU countries, associating each 55 teachers and partners such as Ministries of Education, civil society and cultural/educational organisations. Through the learning activities of the five dialogues, 275 Teachers will be equipped with the latest historiography on the Holocaust and with hands-on teaching tools that will reach 3000 of their students. They will also acquire tools for how to concretely tackle and respond to contemporary classroom challenges. The dialogues cover: Greece/Bulgaria, Italy/Slovenia/Croatia, Poland/Lithuania, Spain/Portugal, France/Germany, each area having a specific objective related to common history. The originality of the approach lies in the unprecedented aspect of transnational cooperation on sensitive issues between neighbouring countries. The dialogues will give birth to a coordination conference associating the partners’ network and allowing capitalising the results of the project among participating countries and at EU level.