AEJM Educational Training Workshop in Amsterdam, November 24–25, 2026

New Lenses on the Holocaust. How do you approach teaching and learning about the Holocaust? New insights explored through language, image, and content.

This two-day program, centred on teaching and learning about the Holocaust, takes place in Amsterdam on 24–25 November 2026. The program is designed to deepen participants’ awareness of how sensory communication functions within this field: how language, visual representation, atmosphere, and narrative framing all shape perception and understanding. Because teaching and learning about the Holocaust is such an emotionally and historically charged field, it is important to consciously reflect on how these forms of communication influence audiences and educational practice.

The program is open exclusively to participants from AEJM member institutions.

Day 1 — November 24, National Holocaust Museum

A. Curatorial Principles and Language.

Julia Sarbo and Annemiek Gringold, National Holocaust Museum Amsterdam, jointly deliver the full first day as one integrated session. The day opens with a general introduction to the museum’s curatorial principles, followed by a closer look at how architecture, design, perspective, and object selection shape meaning, and a short introduction to conscious language use. In the afternoon, participants visit the permanent exhibition, before returning for a joint workshop, led together by Julia Sarbo and Annemiek Gringold, that reflects on language and on the selection of objects.

Day 2 — November 25

B. Visual / Museum Education.

At the Jewish Museum junior (the children’s museum), Petra Katzenstein leads a three-part workshop that explores how a children’s museum can respond to the legacy of the Shoah. The session opens with an introduction to the museum itself, framed as an answer to the Shoah and as a way of showing how living Jewish culture can be presented alongside history rather than in its shadow. From there, the workshop turns to the theme of resilience, which lies at the heart of the museum’s ongoing renewal: participants are invited to share their own feedback on a new “wall” currently being developed as part of that renewal. The workshop closes with an interactive reflection, in which participants consider how these ideas — living culture, resilience, and museum-based memory work — might be translated into their own institutions and educational practice.

C. Historical Approach and Democratic Values.

Participants are welcomed at the Anne Frank House for a guided museum visit, followed by a workshop led by Willem Wagenaar (Anne Frank House), titled “Learning from the Holocaust in 2026. Is the Moral Compass still working?” Post-war western society was built on lessons from the Holocaust: no room for antisemitism, with democracy and the rule of law as universal answers against violence, war and oppression. But over the past decade we have witnessed a growth of antisemitism in our societies, while support for democratic values is decreasing in politics and in popular support. What does this tell us about the lessons we should learn from the Holocaust, and what does that mean for the Holocaust education we provide to children in our society? Willem Wagenaar discusses possible answers to these questions.

The trainers

Annemiek Gringold, MA, is Chief Curator of the National Holocaust Museum and Hollandsche Schouwburg in Amsterdam and a member of the Management team of the Jewish Cultural Quarter. She has worked for the Jewish Cultural Quarter since 2001 in roles including researcher and project leader, and has published several titles on the history of the Holocaust in the Netherlands and its presentation in museums. She is a member of the Dutch delegation to the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance since 2003, an expert delegate on museums and memorial centres within IHRA, chairs the Dutch Jom Hasjoa Committee, and serves on the Supervisory Board of the former concentration camp Amersfoort. Between 1994–2000 she lived in Israel, working for Beit Lohamei Haghetaot and Yad Vashem. She is an alumna of Leiden University.

Julia Sarbo (Budapest, 1980) works for the Jewish Cultural Quarter, where she is responsible for educational programming. She obtained her Master’s degree in History education at the University of Groningen and has worked for the Anne Frank Foundation and the National Committee 4 and 5 May. Her work focuses on engaging young people with the history of the Holocaust and teaching them about perspectives for action, Jewish life before and after the war, and the value of democracy.

Petra Katzenstein (1963) works for the Jewish Cultural Quarter in Amsterdam in the fields of Development, Special Projects, and the Jewish Museum junior. She initiated and developed the first Children’s Museum exhibition in 2000 and is now leading its second renewal, as artistic leader of this third version, due to open in 2027. She introduced a new way of interacting with the public through the I ASK Method, developed together with psychologists, educational staff member Judith Whitlau, and Tact’s Irith Koster. She studied Dramatherapy and Psychodrama and Cultural Management, trained in three Jewish museums in the USA (New York, Chicago, and Los Angeles), and followed the Myriad USA fundraising programme.

Willem Wagenaar is trained as a criminologist. Since 2002 he has worked as a researcher at the Anne Frank House within the educational department. His research covers antisemitism, racism, extremism, democratic values, and the rule of law.

Registration

Registration is open via this form.
Places are limited and will be assigned on a first-come, first-served basis, so we encourage early registration.
This program is open exclusively to participants from AEJM member institutions.