Exhibition of Facemasks
Ivana Molnar teaches at the Antun Gustav Matoš grammar school in Zabok, Croatia. She participated in a professional development seminar organized by the European Department of the International School for Holocaust Studies at Yad Vashem in 2010. Inspired by her studies at Yad Vashem, Molnar created a multi-disciplinary program for Holocaust education based on Yad Vashem’s pedagogical philosophy, including a focus on human rights and civic education. Her five-part program incorporated the following topics: Jewish life before the Holocaust; Nazi anti-Jewish legislation and policy; daily life in the ghettos; struggle for life in Nazi camps, and the Holocaust survivors’ return to life after liberation.
Exhibition of Facemasks
In the framework of her classes, Molnar’s students read The Diary of Anne Frank, the story of Irene Sendler (one of the Righteous among the Nations), and viewed additional video history testimonies including a Yad Vashem film featuring the story of Hanna Bar Yesha who survived Auschwitz-Birkenau. In addition, Molnar highlighted the fate of Croatian Jewish communities during the Shoah, and discussed what had occurred in Jasenovac. At the end of their Holocaust-related unit, Molnar’s students created an art exhibition of facemasks, representing a combination of what they had learned and their personal reflections about the Shoah.
