At GESS, we believe in looking back to look forward. In that spirit, this year, we commemorated International Holocaust Remembrance Day; to remember the tragic occurrences of decades gone by, in the hopes that the future our young ones will shape and participate in will be one of love and acceptance for all!
This commemoration was done in partnership with the Sir Manasseh Meyer International School (SMMIS), the Jewish school in Singapore. And this collaboration offered our Grade 10, German Curriculum students the chance to exchange nuanced ideas and reflections with their counterparts from a different background.
Thinking back on the project, student Yasmine Hill said,
“I am so glad that I was part of this project. I enjoyed working in collaboration with the students of SMMIS and I was fascinated by all the unique butterflies we painted, each telling a different story. I hope that in the future more projects like this would be introduced in schools, as I think that it is important to learn and talk about it, so that these dark times would never be forgotten.”
This collaboration has been equal parts meaningful and educational and we really wanted to dig deep into how it all came to be. Here, we hear about it in our teacher Anna Behnke’s voice:
Please tell us about this collaboration and how it was initiated:
At the end of the last academic year, the Head of Press and Cultural affairs of the German Embassy, Mr. Heinrich Hubbe approached GESS to inform us that this year, Germany, in partnership with the Israeli Embassy, was chairing the Holocaust Remembrance Day in Singapore – the event was to focus on Holocaust education.
This paved way for regular Zoom meetings between GESS (Mr. Martin, Mr. Beinert, Mr. Hubbe, Ares Tan, Anna Behnke), the Embassy of Israel and the Principal of SMMIS, Mrs. Elaine Robinson. We brainstormed and discussed ideas on how to develop Holocaust education, possibly also in local Singaporean schools, by establishing collaborations between different schools. This resulted in the concept for a project to be launched around 27 January 2021.
During the course of the meetings, the following teachers: Simcha Abergel (Deputy Principal of SMMIS), Tamara Lasnitzki (Secondary Jewish Education teacher) and Anna Behnke from GESS got to know each other and started to collect ideas on how to collaborate. Eventually, the SMMIS teachers proposed the Butterfly Project.
What was the intention behind the project?
The intention of the project was to use art to not only learn about the Holocaust but to also reflect on the topic and express oneself. This was to be done collaboratively.
What were the different activities that took place as part of the project?
- Educators Workshops for teachers of GESS and SMMIS conducted by David Deutsch from Yad Vashem who is the academic coordinator and supervisor at Yad Vashem: World Holocaust Center, Jerusalem.
- Holocaust Project group meeting on teams from November 2020; meetings during lunch breaks
- Study of the poem “The Butterfly” by Pavel Friedmann
- Creation of butterflies in the art room after school
- Zoom meetings with SMMIS: Students getting to know each other in pairs, reading the poem together, reflecting on the poem together and presenting the butterflies
What are the next steps and are there any future cooperation plans between the schools?
We are going to visit each other to hand over the butterflies and put them on display. We are hoping to continue the cooperation and make the holocaust project a long-term project between SMMIS and GESS, possibly also involving local schools in future.
//
