Teaching about the Roma Genocide

 Inclusion of the topic in the school curriculum

Students encounter the topic of the Holocaust within the history curriculum at the secondary school level in grades 9 to 11. There are no fixed hours allocated to teaching about the Holocaust. Students have additional opportunities to learn about the Holocaust in the extra-curricular activities undertaken by individual teachers.

 Inclusion of the topic in the school textbooks

World history textbooks for the tenth grade contain detailed information about concentration camps. The tenth-grade curriculum on the history of Belarus includes a topic on “The German Occupational Regime on the Territory of Belarus”. As part of this subject, a number of issues related to the Holocaust are studied, including the Nazi blueprint for Germanizing the East (Generalplan Ost) and the politics of genocide. The textbooks used also contain information about the murder of Jews and Roma on the territory.

 Training of teachers and education professionals

State authorities reported that central and regional teacher training includes the subject of the Holocaust. Teacher training is also conducted by the Museum of History and Culture of the Belarusian Jews. Despite financial constraints, the Belarusian National Holocaust Foundation has also held a series of seminars for secondary school teachers.

 Particular activities undertaken at the level of education institutions

Belarusian authorities support countrywide competitions for schoolchildren and university students on the topic “Holocaust: Remembrance and Future”.

A group of secondary school students undertook an initiative to create a website on the Holocaust in the Novogrudok region with the assistance of the Museum of History and Regional Studies in Novogrudok. Groups of students are also involved in establishing their own school museums devoted to the subject of the Holocaust. Some students carry out extracurricular activities aimed at maintaining authentic Holocaust sites; they hold commemoration ceremonies and deliver lectures to other students at the same school. In addition to the above mentioned activities, students from Pinsk took part in the restoration of communal places of burial and also worked with the Jewish Community and local authorities in organising an art competition featuring authentic Holocaust sites. The Belarusian National Holocaust Foundation organises national competitions for teachers and students called Holocaust: the Past and Current Affairs.