The two-day seminar (14-15 November 2020) of the Holocaust Memorial Center of the Jews from Macedonia and Centropa intended for teachers from the Wester Balkans was successfully organized. The topic for this year was “Studying Sensitive History - Education about the Holocaust and history of the Balkans from the 20th century." It was organized via the Zoom platform and had participation of 50 teachers from RN Macedonia, Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Slovenia and Croatia. Following the introduction remarks from Goran Sadikario (Holocaust Memorial Center of the Jews from Macedonia), Wedward Serotta and Fabien Rule (Centropa), and the Ambassador of Austria in RN Macedonia, Georg Vutsas, the teachers were divided into smaller conference groups on Zoom and had their first interactive workshop.

In addition to workshops, presentations of educational programs and tools were also delivered. Goran Sadikario spoke about the educational programs of the Holocaust Memorial Center for the Jews from Macedonia. Fabien Rule presented the Centropa's educational online program and multimedia tools for educators from the Balkans, in terms of how to study the history of the Western Balkans in the 20th century through Jewish family stories. The Centropa Coordinator for RN Macedonia, Daniela Shterjova, led the virtual tour through a digital exhibition www.lostsephardicworld.org What benefited the teachers the most were the presentations they prepared by themselves, which were about the use of digital tools for connecting teachers and students from the Western Balkans and compiling projects for international cooperation. One such interactive workshop was held by Branka Dimeska, a history teacher from Skopje and a member of the Centropa Technical Support Advisory Body, and Mirna Kovacic, a history teacher from Croatia. The participants learned how to compile a historical timeline for the Centropa movies using online educational tools. An online lecture on "The Multiethnic Cultural Heritage of the Western Balkans - Challenges and Opportunities" was delivered by Igor Kozhemjakin from the Jewish Community in Sarajevo, and Marijan Misic, a teacher of Serbian language and literature in Nish, delivered a presentation on how he applied the "Survival in Sarajevo” film in the teaching process. Teacher Sinisha had an informative presentation about the concentration camps in Belgrade.

The last presentation was delivered by the English language teacher Isabela Uzunoska-Crneska from Macedonia, who spoke about the "The history of Jews from my city" project. She and her students made a twenty-minute film in which the students interview the Ladino singer Sara Aroesti, originally from Bitola from the Aroesti Nahmias family. She tells the story of her cousin Rachel Nahmias, who survived the Holocaust thanks to an Albanian consul who hid her in the trunk of his car and transported her to Albania.

The seminar was evaluated as very useful and successful. The tools, stories and contacts that the participants exchanged will enable them to successfully deliver the Holocaust topic in their classes.

The Seminar was organized with support from Friedrich Ebert Stiftung and the Austrian Embassy in Skopje.