Breman, KSU Lead Holocaust Education Tour

This school year, 15 teachers from across Metro Atlanta and Georgia have returned to their classrooms with deep wells of experiences and ideas to draw from while teaching a challenging subject: the Holocaust.

The Breman’s Weinberg Center for Holocaust Education, in conjunction with Kennesaw State University’s (KSU) Museum of History Holocaust Education, led the teachers on a trip to Germany earlier this summer to study the rise of Nazism where it happened. These teachers, who had completed an intensive Summer Institute for Teaching the Holocaust organized by The Breman and KSU, were selected for this advanced cohort because of their dedication to Holocaust education and combatting antisemitism and hatred in the classroom.

On this Teacher Ambassador Program, the group started in Munich, where the Nazi party began, and traced the rise of the Third Reich through Nurenberg, Dachau, and Berlin. The teachers said the journey was eye-opening, challenging and profoundly moving.

“Prior to attending the Summer Institute, I focused more on the atrocity of the Holocaust instead of the humanity of the Holocaust,” said Diana Harper, a Coweta County School District teacher, of her classroom approach. “A big part of the Summer Institute, and more importantly the Germany trip, is to humanize history. By focusing on the humanity of [the Holocaust], I think you have more of an opportunity to change people’s minds when it comes to the current climate of increasing antisemitism.”

Said Miranda Johnson of Morgan County Charter Schools, “It was a humbling experience because I think we often highlight horrors like the Holocaust as something that happens in ‘other places,’ that it could never happen here. Germany changed that for me, and it’s something I am grappling with now: how to impart that knowledge to my students. That if we are not careful, if we are not paying attention and standing up for what is right, then the things that happened in the Holocaust could happen anywhere, including where we live.”

Kirstin Baillie, a teacher at Atlanta’s Pace Academy, said the Summer Institute and Germany trip deepened her Holocaust expertise and gave her a new strategy she is carrying into the classroom. “Instead of a chronological study, I want to lead students in a thematic review of why it happened, not just how and when,” Baillie said.

Such notions have helped fuel the Teacher Ambassador Travel Program that has taken teachers on immersive experiences since 2024. “We can’t simply teach that six million Jews died,” said Rabbi Joe Prass, director of the Weinberg Center for Holocaust Education at The Breman. “Education is understanding how millions of ordinary people were convinced that this was required. Education is learning how to recognize the signs of history repeating itself.”

An additional 2026 teacher trip, to Prague and Germany, is planned from Nov. 19-25 for a different cohort of 15 Metro Atlanta and Georgia teachers. Prague is new to the itinerary, providing an opportunity for the teachers to gain a view of how the Jewish communities of Europe lived before the Holocaust. In addition to touring the Jewish Quarter, other Prague experiences include going on an Operation Anthropoid resistance tour. The intensive trip is again being orchestrated by The Breman’s Weinberg Center for Holocaust Education and Kennesaw State University’s Museum of History and Holocaust Education.

Harper, Johnson and Baillie said they had transformational experiences on the summer trip to Germany that left them with intense emotions that they believe they can share with students this school year and beyond.

The teachers had powerful reactions and heavy hearts after visiting the House of the Wannsee Conference in Berlin, where 15 high-ranking Nazi SS and government leaders met in 1942 to organize the systematic deportation and murder of European Jews under the “Final Solution.”

“I felt in my soul the complete dissonance between the beautiful location and the horror of the Final Solution,” Harper said. “It was jarring to me and definitely unexpected. I plan on discussing all of my thoughts and feelings (with students) about these locations and how they moved me.”

Baillie remains most haunted by the group’s visit to Dachau. “Walking through the crematorium was the most impactful experience,” she said, “seeing the simplistic, functional design created for extermination.”

Beyond tours of the infamous sites, the packed, week-long Germany itinerary emphasized brave citizens of various countries who rescued and resisted as well as how the Holocaust is remembered today through memorials and documentation centers. Additionally, the group visited the Jewish Museum Berlin to learn more about Jewish life and history as well as the Olympic Grounds in Munich to explore other examples of antisemitism throughout time.

Having learned so much about the Holocaust during their shared Germany exploration, the teachers say they have faith that their students will be receptive to the lessons that they seek to impart.

“Between the Summer Institute and the Germany trip, I most definitely feel prepared and equipped to teach this incredibly hard subject” Harper said.

The Jewish Federation of Greater Atlanta’s JInnovate Fund and the Molly Blank Fund supported the Germany tour.