Task Force For International Cooperation On Holocaust Education, Remembrance and Research

Holocaust Education, Remembrance, and Research in Estonia

From the very beginning of its existence, the International Task Force (ITF) has been a substantial forum for the presenting and exchanging of experiences and best practices concerning Holocaust education, research and remembrance. Estonia regards cooperation with this organisation as being of the utmost importance as it gives us a good opportunity to learn from the experiences that have already been acquired by other member states and to use Estonia's experience to give added value to the implementation of the organisation's common objectives.

International Holocaust Remembrance Day 2012:

Prime Minister Andrus Ansip delivered a speech on 27 January 2012 at the opening of the memorial to the Estonian Jews who died in the Holocaust.

On January 27, a memorial dedicated to Estonian Jews who were victims of Holocaust will be opened. The names of 947 Estonian Jews that were murdered during the Holocaust in Estonia have been identified and will be recorded in the "Gallery of Memory" that will be opened in the Center of Estonian Jewish Community on the Holocaust Memorial Day.  The authors of the memorial are Vanessa Jaretski and Aleksei Nugis. The project was financed by private donations and supported by Estonian Government. Prime Minister of Estonia, Mr Andrus Ansip will make a statement at the ceremony; the chairperson of Estonian Jewish Community, Mrs Alla Jakobson; Ambassador of the State of Israel, H.E. Mr Dan Ashabel; Ambassador of the Republic of Austria, H.E. Mrs Renate Kobler; survivor of Holocaust, Mr Isidor Levin and Chief Rabbi, Mr Shmuel Kot will also speak. Opening of the memorial will be followed by concert with Nevil Blumberg and "The Endless Journey". Photo exhibition of Peter Rigaud „Jude sein - being Jewish", in co-operation with the Vienna Jewish Museum and Austrian Embassy in Tallinn will also be opened in the Center of Estonian Jewish Community on that day.

For more information:

Vadim Rõvlin

Head of Estonian Jewish Community

phone + 372 6 99 80 25

mobile + 372 5 114 585

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As a side event, Estonian Atlantic Treaty Association in co-operation with Estonian Ministry of Education and Research held a one-day seminar mainly for teachers on the topic of Holocaust on January 24th 2012. ITF Chair Ambassador Karel de Beer addressed the seminar, adding an international dimension to the event. During the seminar human rights were tackled in a broader context, and historical, cultural and communication aspects of Holocaust remembrance were discussed. Estonian Chief Rabbi, Mr Shmuel Kot; historian and teacher, Mr David Vseviov; professor of international law at University of Tartu, Mr Lauri Mälksoo; communication expert, Mr Marica Lillemets were among the speakers. Around 80 teachers participated in the seminar.

Estonia and the ITF

Estonia's cooperation with the ITF was established in 2002, when Estonia applied to participate in ITF liaison projects. In the course of the teacher training seminars, organised in cooperation with the ITF and the Living History Forum, in August 2004 and 2005, Estonian history teachers received invaluable knowledge about how to comprehend and teach the history of Holocaust. In 2005, we established a formal liaison relationship with the ITF. The aim was to develop long-term cooperation with its Task Force. The most noteworthy and effective result of our cooperation, so far, has been the production of Holocaust teaching materials that are based on the guidelines established by the ITF.
Estonia's partner countries in the ITF liaison project were Sweden, Israel, Latvia, and the United Kingdom. Our partner organisations - the Living History Forum of Sweden, Latvia's Ministry of Education, Yad Vashem of Israel, the Imperial War Museum of the U.K., and the Latvian History Teachers' Associations have also supported us substantially in the course of our cooperative activities with the ITF.
Estonia became a full member of the ITF in December 2007, at the ITF Plenary Meeting in Prague. Estonia has appointed its representatives to the ITF's working groups. The Estonian delegations to the ITF have consisted of the representatives of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Ministry of Education and Research, the Ministry of Culture, the Estonian Foundation for the Investigation of Crimes Against Humanity, and the Council of the Jewish Community of Estonia.
Needless to say, an essential precondition for fruitful international cooperation is broad-spectrum cooperation at home.

Education

The Holocaust is part of the Estonian school curriculum, dealt with in connection with the events of World War Two. The subject is taught in grades five and nine, and, in detail, at the secondary school level, as part of the Estonian and modern history course.

In order to increase the general awareness and understanding of the Holocaust, the Ministry of Education and Research has organised international seminars in Estonia.The first seminar, dealing, specifically, with the Holocaust and tolerance, "How to teach about tolerance", took place in 2004. At the second seminar that was held in 2005, the teachers delivered their ideas on the structure and content of the new teaching materials. As a result, the teaching materials were prepared for the beginning of 2007. The material was composed in the framework of the cooperation project of the Estonian History Teachers Association and Living History Forum of Sweden and it was financed by the Estonian Government and ITF.
The packet includes 150 pages of, either, Estonian- or Russian-language printed material, as well as a CD-ROM and DVD containing relevant illustrative material.
It encompasses all the information that a teacher needs to deal with Holocaust issues in school history lessons, and for commemorating the Day of Remembrance.
In February 2008, a follow-up seminar on the teaching materials took place in Tartu. Teachers, authors of the materials and the representatives of Yad Vashem and Swedish Living History Forum participated.
Since 1998, our teachers have also been participating, regularly, in relevant training courses at Yad Vashem, and in the United States. In summer 2008, the biggest delegation so far - a delegation of 20 teachers and a historian from the Estonian Foundation for the Investigation of Crimes Against Humanity - participated in a training course at Yad Vashem.

Remembrance

In August 2002, the Government of Estonia declared the 27th of January to be the Day of Remembrance of the Victims of the Holocaust. On this day of national dedication, the official Remembrance Ceremony takes place at the site of the World War Two Nazi concentration camp at Klooga.

The speech to commemorate the victims of the Holocaust is traditionally presented by a member of the Government, with various high state officials, the diplomatic corps, and representatives of the Estonian Jewish community being present. The Day of Remembrance serves to declare Estonia's clear condemnation of all atrocities that took place, on the territory of Estonia, during World War Two and afterwards. And to also declare that we are committed to the maintaining and further developing of an educational system in which an understanding of the history of the Holocaust is an integral part of our young people's view of the world. The Ministry of Education and Research provides materials, as well as advice, to schools concerning the activities that might be undertaken on that day.
Memorials

In recent years, several memorials have been dedicated to the commemoration of the victims of the Holocaust. The first memorial to commemorate the Jews that were exterminated in Estonia in 1941-1944, was unveiled, in 1994, in Klooga, on the territory of a former Nazi concentration camp. The Estonian Ministry of Culture, with the participation of the Estonian Jewish Community, and the United States Commission for the Preservation of America's Heritage Abroad, has created a joint committee for the implementation of the project "Holocaust Markers in Estonia". In 2005, the first five memorial stones were dedicated. At the moment, work is in progress for establishing two new memorial sites, and for renovating two existing ones.

Research

After regaining our independence, Estonia has tried to thoroughly investigate and document all crimes against humanity, which have, at some point, been committed in Estonia. In 1998, the Estonian International Commission for the Investigation of Crimes Against Humanity was established in order to investigate all crimes of this nature that had been committed, on the territory of the Republic of Estonia, during the Nazi and Soviet occupations.
The Commission is not a court of justice, but, above all, a body established for the detection, description, and evaluation of the events that took place in Estonia 60 years ago. In its definition of crimes against humanity, the Commission decided to proceed from Article 7 of the Statute of the International Criminal Court of Rome. As President Meri has summed up the work of the Commission: "It is our goal, our endeavour, to prevent the repetition of such crimes in the future... the work of this Commission reflects our common conviction that we cannot build a free and democratic future without facing up to the past."
The Commission decided that its investigations would focus upon crimes against humanity committed during three distinct historical periods:

1. The occupation of Estonia by Soviet forces in 1940-1941.
2. The occupation of Estonia by the forces of Nazi Germany in 1941-1944.
3. The second Soviet occupation of Estonia beginning in 1944.

Simultaneously with the Commission the Estonian Foundation for the Investigation of Crimes Against Humanity was founded, which has organised research and prepared thematic reports to the Commission. The Estonian historians researched different crimes against humanity and war crimes. The Holocaust related topics constituted a substantial part in the Foundation's work during the period 1999-2006.
The report dealing with the first phase of the Soviet occupation of Estonia, in 1940-1941, and the Nazi occupation of 1941-1944, has been completed. In 2006 it was published in English, in book format. This approximately 1350-page volume "ESTONIA 1940-1945: Reports of the Estonian Commission for the Investigation of Crimes against Humanity", includes 8 Holocaust- related research papers that were carried out by the Foundation. Parts of the book are available through the Internet (www.historycommission.ee). The report about the second Soviet occupation was published in 2008.
In addition to the report, the historians of the Foundation have participated with Holocaust- related research papers at various international seminars and conferences. The Commission and the Foundation concluded its activities in 2008. Estonia will continue to conduct research into the crimes committed by the Nazi and Communist regimes in Estonia and to draw appropriate conclusions about what happened.