Newsletter teachers and researchers n°8

Newsletter teachers and researchers n°8 published the 15th of november 2021. (FR)

NEWSLETTER n°08. CONVOI 77
FOR TEACHERS AND RESEARCHERS
October-November 2021

By Team Convoi 77 of Sciences Po Paris
equipeconvoi77.sciencespo@gmail.com

Back to normal

As a new academic year begins and as children are progressively starting to go back to school, the hopes are great for 2021 to mark the return to normality. There is still a long way to go: teachers and schools will have to adjust to the new constraints of social distancing and, in some cases, make do with remote teaching for another couple of months.

Despite these challenges however, the pandemic proved the extraordinary resilience of pupils and teachers around the world, giving rise to the use of new tools and methods and, ultimately, paving way for a more creative and cooperative way of sharing knowledge.

As for them, museums and memorials have also been following this trend, displaying original ways of commemorating the past and sharing with the public the lessons of history. Yad Vashem’s efforts for the ramp up of its database and the improvement of its digital features deserves for instance to be mentioned.

In a similar fashion, Convoi 77 has had to adapt its organization to the pandemic. Yet, the project can now pride itself on a rebranded internet website and improved collaborative resources. Above all, 2020-2021 has seen a flurry of new biographies being either undertaken or entirely completed. This encouraging trend reminds us of the importance of keeping up our efforts towards the completion of all biographies as a way to pay tribute to the deceased and their families.

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The events of back-to-school season

NEW RECRUITS : MEETING OF TEACHER FROM THE DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION OF LYON IN THE MEMORIAL OF MONTLUC PRISON

On the 20th of October, a meeting took place during which teachers from both general and technological education coming from the department of education of Lyon were invited . They were gathered in a place full of symbolism : the memorial of the Montluc Prison. This meeting was moderated by members of Convoi77 in charge of the links with the school teams. It resembled the meetings that had already taken place in the departments of education of Aix-Marseille (South of FRance) and Nancy-Metz (East of France). The aim was to exchange with teachers interested in the project of Convoi 77 and to keep contact with teachers who are already working for Convoi 77. It’s essential to expose them concretely what they have to do with their pupils. The goal is also to encourage new teachers – who didn’t know the project but did work in the territories where deportees of the last convoy to Auschwitz have lived – to join the Convoi77 experience.
This event was organized with the help of the educational supervisors of the region. That’s how Arnaud Lezzoche, who teaches history in Saint-Pierre secondary school in Bourg-en-Bresse, was informed about the meeting. His educational supervisor, Catherine Vercueil-Simion, invited him because she knew Arnaud ignored the existence of Convoi 77.

After having taken part in the meeting, Arnaud has proposed to work with his class on the biography of Joseph Lévy. He has declared that the meeting was a good starting point, in order to have information about how to consult archives during the survey he will conduct with his pupils. He finds it interesting to associate a practical aspect to the theory he transmits to his pupils during the lessons he gives. He also wants to prepare young people to the tools they’ll have to use in higher education establishments. That are the two main reasons he puts forward to explain his motivation to embark on the project.

Thank you so much to Arnaud LEZZOCHE to have accepted to answer our questions after the meeting

Some photos of Montluc Prison’s cells … Jeanne Haas to whom the following article is dedicated, has gone to Montluc Prison.

A NEW STEP FOR THE CLASS OF DELEMONT’S MIDDLE SCHOOL
On the 28th of October, inhabitants, pupils and elected representatives of Delémont have gathered in the new baptized street “Jeanne Haas-Ulmann” to achieve a new goal in their adventure with Convoi 77. Delémont is a city that counts a little bit more than 12 000 inhabitants and which is situated in Switzerland in Jura county.So, a street sign with the name of Jeanne Haas-Ulmann was unveiled. About 15 pupils (that were around 15 and 16 year old at the time of the project with Convoi 77 and that had Julien Tschopp and Marilyn Fazio as History and French teachers) have learned a lot about Jeanne during one of their semesters in the middle school of Delémont. Jeanne Ulmann – spouse Haas – was born in Delémont and then lived in Alsace and Rhone regions. She was finally deported and assassinated in Auschwitz concentration camp.

© Shoah French Memorial. A photo showing Jeanne Haas, born Ulmann

The mayor of Delémont and the minister od education of Jura county were supposed to deliver a speech during this ceremony. On the other side, the interventions of Julien Tschopp and his pupils were probably more personal during this stirring event. For a long time, Julien Tschopp had been disappointed because the hope to invite Jeanne’s descendants for the ceremony was very little. But recently, he was really happy to announce that he had found Nicole and established contact with her. Nicolas was one of Jeanne’s grandchild (daughter of Jeanne’s second daughter Andrea). Genealogists’ work partly contributed to Julien Tschopp’s discovery. Nicole still lives in her grandmother’s country. She was born in 1931 and she remembers to have seen Jeanne for the last time in 1938.
The project to baptize a street in Délemont with Jeanne’s name was launched by the pupils. They explained this idea to the city council that immediately adopted it. The Town Planning department in Delémont was in charge of the realization. They were new constructions in the city, that so led to the creation of new streets that had no identity yet. Many street names referred to famous male personalities. With Jeanne Haas-Ulmann’s street, it is the opportunity to honour an anonymous woman with a tragic faith. It’s also important to underline that a significant Jewish community was present in Delémont in the past. To illustrate that, we can cite the synagogue that still stands in the city. However, Delémont has now lost a part of its Jewish community. So this new street sign enables the city council to recall the Jewish heritage of Delémont. It’s not likely that Delémont’s inhabitants will discover Jeanne’s life. Indeed, they are already many to have heard about her, because of all the articles that have been published on the work of the class of Julien Tschopp. The real goal with this street sign is now that the pedestrians ask questions to themselves about Delemont’s past.

Delemont’s synagogue (a photo published on the Facebook page of the “Friends of Delémont’s synagogue).

Today, all the pupils that have written Jeanne’s biography have finished their mandatory academic curriculum. So they are spread all around the country, in different places, and have joined different degrees. But one thing will always stay a common point they all share together : the work they’ve done around Jeanne’s life. It’s perhaps too early to claim that this project changed their life and oriented their career towards a university course in history for example. Nonetheless, it’s sure that this ceremony in Jeanne Haas-Ulmann street is not a final point to their adventure. Indeed, the class has been rewarded in a competition of biographies. Unfortunately, the ceremony during which they were supposed to receive their award in the Elysee Palace didn’t take place because of the pandemic. No matter : the class doesn’t cease to have a busy agenda. They received the public Price in “Jura Price for Routh” on the 16th of October. Moreover, an exhibition centered on Jeanne’s life thanks to their research was organized by the Museum of Art and History in Jura. Last but not least, they still have in mind the project to organize a trip to go back to the places that had a key role in Jeanne’s life. And they also would like to publish a book that would contain all what they have collected about Jeanne.

As far as their teacher Julien Tschopp is concerned, he continues to collaborate with Convoi 77. He has embarked his new group of pupils on the writing of the biography of Eliane, the last daughter of Jeanne, who also perished in Auschwitz. Julien Tschopp will probably still receive the help of Marilyn Fazio in the final step, which consists in the writing of the biography.

(1) Photo of Delémont’s middle school(2) Photo of the Museum of Art and History in Jura

If you want to rediscover the work of the class on Jeanne Haas-Ulmann’s biography : https://convoi77.org/deporte_bio/jeanne-haas/

You can read below the text that will accompany the street sign dedicated to Jeanne Haas-Ulmann :

If you want to discover the website of the Museum of Art and History in Jura county (www.mjah.ch) and here is the booklet concerning the exhibition that will evoke Jeanne Haas-Ulmann (http://www.mjah.ch/uploads/papillon_des_voix_dans_la_tourmente.pdf)

Many thanks to Julien Tschopp, Marilyn Fazio and the city council of Delémont that answered to our questions and took time to exchange with us.

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New books to find in your librairies or book shops

At the heart of this new school year of the association Convoi 77 is the publication of two books reminding us that the history of the Shoah is not fixed and that it is still a necessary and crucial object of study. Similarly, these two books bear witness to an evolutionary history of the Holocaust and take into account the post-event history of the genocide in order to update the historiography of the Shoah.

La Shoah – au cœur de l’anéantissement

LALIEU, OLIVIER. Collectif. La Shoah – Au cœur de l’anéantissement. Postface de Serge Klarsfled. Paru le 2 septembre 2021, 304 pages, Tallandier. La Shoah – Éditions Tallandier

Written under the direction of Olivier Lalieu and published by Tallandier, La Shoah – au cœur de l’annissement brings together nearly 300 primary sources that contextualize and illustrate the mechanisms that fuelled the genocide spiral. The book, composed of “photographs, drawings, letters, reports, testimonies” can be part of a history of everyday life, an Alltagsgeschichte, studies and analyzes the mechanisms of power within social relations and the arrangement of daily life. The Shoah – at the heart of annihilation therefore appears as a historical and historiographical study essential and complementary to a global teaching of the Shoah, transmitting a history inducing a more complete memory of the genocide of the Jews by the Nazi regime.

Nouvelle histoire de la ShoahBANDE, Alexandre ; BISCARAT, Pierre-Jérôme ; LALIEU, Olivier. Nouvelle histoire de la Shoah. Paru le 1er septembre 2021, 412 pages, Passés composés. Passés / Composés (passes-composes.com)

New History of the Shoah is a fabulous work of updating the history and historiography of the Shoah, in order to understand and reassess the meaning and role of key places, events or notions in the process of annihilation initiated by the National Socialist dictatorship. In the form of synthetic chapters, this collective and collaborative book focuses as much on the event itself as on the legacy and memory of this event in today’s Europe. Linked to the genocide to its post-event history is an essential step in the teaching of the Holocaust and in the construction of the relationship of societies with and vis-à-vis the genocidal crime.

Advice

→ A website created by pupils of Fromentin middle school in La Rochelle (West of France) to reconstruct all the steps of their work on a deportee’s biography : https://convoi77-tasiemka.fr

→ The biography we’d like to bring to light this month : Charlotte Schumann, a faith traced by a class of Louis Vincent high school in Metz (East of France) (school year 2019-2020) : https://convoi77.org/deporte_bio/charlotte-schuhmann/

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Progress report on Convoi 77 resources and new tools developed

The association continues to develop !

This is now the fifth school year that we have started in partnership with classes across France and in many other countries! The association is now benefiting from a large ripple effect. The number of classes has almost tripled, from 56 for the 2017/2018 school year to 144 classes for this 2021/2022 school year. International partnerships have also greatly expanded. Indeed, to the classes of the six initial countries participating with France (Germany, Austria, Denmark, Egypt, Poland and Tunisia) have been added classes from many other countries such as Algeria, Greece, Hungary, Portugal or Ukraine. Of the 1306 deportees, 272 biographies have already been written and 285 others are in progress. The road is still long but the association can count on you and your classes to continue this great adventure together!

Launch of eTwinning

This year, the association is participating in an educational project of European scope: eTwinning.

What is it about?

It is an initiative of the European Commission encouraging collaboration between European schools through the use of information and communication technologies (ICT) by providing support, tools and services to participating schools.

This initiative fits perfectly into the educational and international dimension of the association. Through eTwinning, we have the opportunity to set up partnerships between French classes and other European classes. This bi-national dimension gives us the opportunity to write about the journey of a deportee, starting from his journey in his country of origin to his life in France.

For more details on the implementation of the project, you will have to wait until the next newsletter…

The new geolocation tool : a must for teachers !

Discover the new digital geolocation tool available since the beginning of 2021 and developed by Convoi 77 to easily find the 1306 deportees of this convoy on an interactive map! You will be able to see on this map not only where they came from by place of birth or last place of residence, but also their place of arrest on the individual cards as well as their biography if it has already been written. Thus, with the help of this tool, teachers can find the deportees located near their school by searching, for example, by department or by town. It is a very useful tool both to take stock of the work done, but also to help in the way to go on!

Find this tool and all that it contains directly here :

https://convoi77.org/geolocalisation-des-deportes/

Methodological aids and reminders

To help you and your classes in the project, Convoi 77 has created a methodological support platform: EDU. A methodological support is available on the first column and tutorials are available on the penultimate column of the platform!

http://edu.convoi77.org/

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Presentation of the Sciences Po team

We will be in charge of writing the newsletters during the 2021-2022 school year.

We are at your disposal to help your students in their work (access to tools, presentation of research methods, writing assistance …)
Student in Master 1 of research in History, Théo is very interested in the historical questions surrounding the Second World War and more particularly the memorial questions concerning this period. At the same time, he is working as an intern with a historian at the Documentation Center of the Shoah Memorial. He is happy to be associated with the Convoy 77 project.

Manon is a student in Master 1 of Public Policy, specializing in culture. She loves historical films and heritage. Various experiences, such as stays abroad in Germany and Austria, or taking courses on the global history of genocides and on the use of memories, motivated her to join the collaborative project Convoi 77 proposed by Sciences Po.
As a student in a Master 1 research program in History, Emma is interested in the study of genocidal processes and, more globally, the history of the 20th century, which she studied during her double degree in Germany. The desire to act within the framework of an association and the interest in the teaching and memory of the Shoah encouraged her to join the collective project in connection with the Convoi 77 association.
François-Xavier is a student in Master 1 of public policies and is particularly interested in educational policies. Joining Convoi 77 is also an opportunity for him to deepen his study of the history of the Shoah and of memorial processes, themes that have been addressed in the framework of various courses and projects in France and abroad.