Young People: Before, During, and After the Holocaust
Dates: Monday and Tuesday, June 29 and 30
9:00am-3:30pm via Zoom
Topics Covered:
- Youth movements
- Jewish youth movements vs. Nazi youth movements
- The mis/use of propaganda
- Youth voices through memoirs
- New Girl Scout Holocaust Education Patch
What to expect from the seminar:
- FREE dynamic training program
- Afternoon pedagogy sessions
- Historical analysis with experts in the field
- Learning from fellow educators
- Peer teacher network
- Small group discussions
- 12 hours of continuing ed. credits
Maria Ferenc is a research fellow at the University of Wrocław, Poland, and a Claims Conference Saul Kagan Fellow in Advanced Shoah Studies. She is working on a book on the biography and memory of Mordechai Anielewicz. She has received various fellowships, including at the USHMM (2022). She coordinated the research project “The Encyclopedia of the Warsaw Ghetto” at the Jewish Historical Institute (2018–24) and coedited several volumes of documents from the Ringelblum Archive.
The Polish version of her book, “Everyone Asks What Will Become of Us”: Inhabitants of the Warsaw Ghetto and the News of the War and the Holocaust" (2021) won and was shortlisted for many prizes. The English edition is forthcoming with the Cornell University Press in 2026.
Bradley W. Hart is the Senior Historian at the Jenny Craig Institute for the Study of War and Democracy. Hart received his PhD in history from Churchill College, Cambridge, and is the author of two books, including Hitler’s American Friends: The Third Reich’s Supporters in the United States (2018), and more than 20 academic articles and book chapters. Before joining the Institute, Hart taught at California State University, Fresno, and worked as an international affairs fellow in Washington DC. He has made numerous television, radio, podcast, and documentary appearances. He is the host of the Museum’s podcast series Secret WWII: Spies & Special Ops and his current research focuses on intelligence, espionage, and information warfare in World War II.
Emily Loeb is the granddaughter of Holocaust survivors and has dedicated her life to fostering empathy, connection, and understanding through education and storytelling. She became involved with the Holocaust Center of Pittsburgh in 2018 as a Generations Speaker, sharing her family's history to help others confront antisemitism and build compassion across differences. She joined the Holocaust Center of Pittsburgh staff in 2023 and now serves as its Director, guiding public programs, education initiatives, and community engagement that encourage people to see one another's humanity. Through her work, Emily strives to ensure that remembrance leads to action and that every story shared helps create a more compassionate and caring world.
Colleen Tambuscio is the Pedagogical Consultant to the MTI and has served in this position for over twelve years. She is a long time special education and regular education teacher and a leading voice in Holocaust education, both in New Jersey and nationally. She is the founder and president of the Council of Holocaust Educators, a statewide professional development organization, and is an educational consultant to the NJ Commission on Holocaust Education. She established a Holocaust education curriculum at New Milford High School which now includes two elective classes: “The Holocaust, Genocide and Human Behavior” and “Contemporary Genocide: A Call to Action.”
Colleen was honored by Princeton University and by the New Milford Educational Foundation. In 1998, Colleen was named a Mandel Fellow to the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum and continues to serve as a U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum Regional Educator. Colleen earned an MA in Jewish-Christian Studies from Seton Hall University.
Angela West is a historian specializing in Holocaust/Genocide Studies, Far-Right Extremism, and Gender in the United States. She earned her Ph.D. from Drew University's Caspersen School of Graduate Studies, History & Culture Program in 2022. Her dissertation, “The Keepers and Caretakers of Hate: American White Women in Organized Racist and Antisemitic Movements, 1930-2020,” received the highest distinction. In this groundbreaking work, Dr. West examined decades of women's involvement in extremist organizations, arguing that they served as crucial ‘bridge leaders’ who bolstered the effectiveness and influence of extremist groups in the United States. She is currently working on a book about girls and women in the German American Bund.
Dr. West serves as the Coordinator for Programming and as a Professor at Drew University's Center for Holocaust/Genocide Study. She recently joined Seton Hall University's Jewish-Christian Studies Department as a Professor. She is also a consulting historian and museum curator for Temple Sinai’s Holocaust Remembrance Center in Summit, New Jersey, where she designs and implements Holocaust Studies curriculum for K-12 students and teachers. Her recent museum exhibit documents the stories of child survivors of the Holocaust living in New Jersey. She proudly serves as a board member of the Janusz Korczak Association of the USA. Dr. West is dedicated to advancing public understanding of the Holocaust, far-right extremism, and their implications for contemporary society.